How Long Should You Keep a Car?

I drove my last car for 11 years and 167,000 miles before trading it in. My brother-in-law trades every three years like clockwork. We’ve had this debate over more family dinners than I can count. The honest answer is that there isn’t one right answer — but there is a framework that makes the decision clearer than most people realize.

The Maintenance Cost Question

As cars age, they need more care. The first 75,000 miles or so are usually routine stuff — tires, brakes, fluids, maybe a battery. After that, bigger-ticket items start appearing. Timing belt replacements, suspension work, transmission service. At some point you’re making a judgment call: is this worth fixing, or is the repair cost approaching what the car is worth?

I’ve used a rough rule: if a single repair would cost more than three months of would-be car payments on a replacement vehicle, it’s time to have a serious conversation about trading. That’s not a hard cutoff, but it helps cut through the emotional side of the decision.

Insurance Costs

Older cars generally cost less to insure because they’re worth less to replace. Once a car is paid off and its market value drops low enough, you can often drop comprehensive and collision coverage and keep only liability. That move alone can cut your insurance bill significantly — I went from about $180/month to $95/month when I made that change on an eight-year-old paid-off car. The risk is that if you total the car, you absorb the loss. But if the car’s worth $4,000, the math usually favors self-insuring that risk.

Depreciation — The Case for Keeping

The steepest depreciation happens in the first three years. A new car loses roughly 20% of its value when you drive it off the lot, and around 50% by year five. After that, the decline slows substantially. If you’re driving a well-maintained 8-year-old car, you’ve already ridden out the worst of the depreciation curve. Keeping it means spreading that original cost over more miles — which is financially efficient.

Technology and Safety

This is where the calculus has shifted in the last decade. Modern safety features — forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping assist, blind-spot monitoring — are genuinely meaningful. A 2015 car doesn’t have what a 2024 car has, and those features aren’t just conveniences. If you’re keeping an older vehicle, it’s worth honestly assessing whether its safety tech is adequate for the driving you’re doing.

Environmental Considerations

Older vehicles generally produce more emissions than newer ones. That’s real and worth factoring in if it matters to you. The electric vehicle transition also reshapes this calculation — if you’re replacing an older gas vehicle with an EV, the environmental case is stronger than it was when you were choosing between a 2010 and a 2024 gas car.

Resale Value and Timing

Timing matters. The used car market has gone through unusual swings in recent years — pandemic supply shortages pushed used car values to unexpected highs. Selling during a high-demand period can yield meaningfully better money. Keeping good service records and maintaining the vehicle helps too; documented maintenance history can command a few hundred dollars more from a private buyer than an undocumented vehicle of the same type.

Your Financial Situation

One of the most underweighted factors is simply what a car payment would do to your monthly budget. A $550 car payment on a new vehicle is a significant monthly commitment. If you have a paid-off car that’s running well, that $550 could be going into a retirement account or an emergency fund. The total cost of ownership — including financing costs, higher insurance, and registration fees on a newer vehicle — often exceeds what people calculate when they’re excited about a new car.

Emotional Factors

It’s worth naming the emotional component here, because it’s real. People develop genuine attachment to cars. There’s nothing wrong with that. What matters is being honest about when affection is leading you to pour money into a vehicle that no longer makes sense financially. The sunk cost fallacy — continuing to spend because of what you’ve already invested — is a real trap in car ownership.

Changing Needs

A car that made perfect sense five years ago might not fit your life now. If you moved from the suburbs to a city and now barely drive, the calculus changes. If you went from a single person to a family of four, a two-door coupe might need to go. Re-evaluating periodically — not just at renewal time but when major life circumstances shift — helps you avoid keeping a car past its practical usefulness for your actual life.

Climate and Regional Factors

Road salt in northern winters accelerates rust. Stop-and-go urban driving adds wear differently than highway commutes. Desert heat degrades rubber components faster. Your geographic context shapes how long a particular vehicle realistically holds up — something worth factoring in when comparing how long neighbors keep their cars versus what makes sense for yours.

Leases and Subscription Alternatives

Leasing makes sense for some people — particularly those who want to drive newer vehicles consistently, don’t drive high mileage, and value predictable monthly costs. The trade-off is that you’re always paying and never owning. For people who keep cars 8–10 years and pay them off, the lifetime cost of ownership is typically lower than a perpetual lease cycle. But it depends on your priorities.

The Used Car Market

High demand in the used car market can shift the math on selling. If your car is in a desirable category and the market is strong, selling now might net you significantly more than waiting two years. That’s a variable worth checking at any given moment rather than assuming the timing doesn’t matter.

A Simple Framework

When I’m thinking about this question, I come back to a few anchor points: Is the car safe? Is the cost of upcoming maintenance reasonable relative to its value? Does it still meet my practical needs? Am I still paying less per year in total costs than I would with a replacement payment? If those answers are yes, keep it. When they stop being yes, it’s time.