As mmarshall said its a mix of things. I find that with Luxury cars its important to look at what you paid and what is worth, and then consider what it WILL be worth when you consider selling.

In most cases, I have always sold cars to avoid going to the next even more involved (and costly) stage of modding them (sold honda to avoid turbo, sold 1GS to avoid turbo, sold 2GS to avoid the 1million new mods being shown on CL every day, etc etc). I just always ask myself if the "xxxx" amount of money would be enjoyed more in a new car, vs. the same car with the new toy. Now this point can be argued for 20million years so lets just leave it at, "to each his own, and make your own choice"

As a true car nut, I dont think its possible to just STOP modding period, so that means some new part is always on the horizon. (well at least for me it is), unless another car is on the new horizon.

So far I have made out decently on all the sales (never lost tons of money, always had mods to sell, etc)

 

Question of the century. The mod bug....is anyone immune to it?

 

My parents are.

 

I never sell a car with less than 200,000 miles on it, unless it's about to ring up a huge repair bill.

The cost of a new car is (usually) quite high compared to the ongoing maintenance. We're talking Toyota-level reliable cars here, not Jaguars or Range Rovers.

Even if the car is worth practically nothing when sold, the number of years that the total cost of ownership have been stretched out usually saves money over replacing the same car at a higher value but shorter interval.

My wife's '98 Caravan finally failed at 186,000 miles. BTW, it failed only because she continued to drive it after the oil pump broke ("The oil light was on but it still had oil in it."). The Lexus dealer gave us $1500 for the inert hulk towards the purchase of our ES350. Nine years of service and only oil, filters, brakes, belts, and three CV shafts replaced in all that time. It was well worth the money.

I hope to trade in my ES350 for whatever hydrogen fuel cell model Lexus is offering in 2020.

 

You and I see eye-to-eye.

I would never sell a car just because it is over 5 years old or because I needed a change. It is money down the toilet the way I see it.

I have to have a solid reason to sell a car - repairs are worth more than the car itself, totalled etc . Maybe I am a pack rat - who knows.

I do wish I could afford to have a new car every 5 years or so though. That would be nice, but it ain't gonna happen as long as I have the mortgage noose around my neck!

 

How'd you decide to trade it in instead of repairing the oil pump?

 

I'm thinking every 5 years or 120,000 miles.

I do lots of driving a year so before it racks up too many miles I wanna get rid of it! The way I view it.. some HS kid will buy my Lex when I'm ready to let go!

However, I drove my last car for 8 years, it had 170,000 miles on it. I still miss that car.