If you have a car and you continue to fix it every time a problem occurs, why can’t you keep the car and drive it forever as-long as you have to money to fix it if something goes wrong?
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> If you have a car and you continue to fix it every time a problem occurs, why can’t you keep the car and drive it forever as-long as you have to money to fix it if something goes wrong?
You can.
Cars don’t magically vanish into the aether when the odometer ticks over to a specific number. If you ***WANT*** to keep repairing the car every time something goes wrong you can at least theoretically keep doing so indefinitely: If the engine wears out you can replace it (and if the engine you need isn’t available anymore you can convert it to one that’s in production). If the body is badly rusted you can remove/replace the panels. If the frame is rusted you can cut and weld in new frame elements.
At some point however this becomes *hideously expensive* – you can easily spend the price of a new car (or at least the annual payments on a loan) or more in major repairs to an old one over the course of a year.
At that point why continue to invest in repairing an old car which will inevitably have more mechanical and electrical failures in the future versus purchasing a new one where the components don’t have a decade of time and however many thousands of miles on them?
Most folks view their car from a utilitarian standpoint: You need it to get to/from work, haul groceries, get the kids to soccer practice, etc.
The amount of downtime constantly repairing an old car with lots of miles on it combined the the higher relative cost makes it more economical to replace the vehicle with one that doesn’t need as much maintenance/repair work.
In the “classic cars” community however it can often make sense to invest in the major repairs and retrofits required to keep a car running, either for economic reasons exhibiting the vehicle for prizes, or for sentimental reasons.
Some people do keep a car long after the cost of just one repair is more than the car is worth but most people do not like that proposition. The idea of unlimited cash to fix something worth less and less is a major flaw in your reasoning.
There are a few Chevy trucks from the 70’s that are still driving around with over a million miles on them. It really depends on how you take care of your vehicle and how much you are willing to spend over time to keep it running good. Preventative maintenance on a good schedule, replacing parts as needed, and overall keeping up on the less common wear and tear things can really go a long way to keeping a vehicle for a really long time.
You can. But it gets increasingly expensive. To the point that you have to fix so much shit so many times that it’s cheaper to buy a new one.
I just got rid of a 20 year old car. Reason was, it needed a new starter and was due for a timing belt / water pump -about $1400-1600 to fix. Is it worth sinking that much money into an old car where a thousand other things can break, or taking that $1500 and putting it into a new car?
You can! The issue becomes that, after a certain point, it becomes more expensive to repair than it would be to buy another car, so most people don’t do that.
The only scenario I can think of where a car is “gone” is if it’s rusted away to the point where you would effectively be buying a duplicate of it to “repair” it. Even then you can still make patch repairs but eventually mainstream (ie no interest to a collector) cars becomes worth less than the expense of the repair. No one is going to spend $2000 to put a new engine in a 1993 Camry with 700k miles…just go buy another car for less money than the repair.
You can, it just becomes less economically feasible as it ages due to increased costs to repair, more difficulty to locate parts, lack of modern safety and convenience features.
You can. Up until a few years ago I was driving a 1996 Nissan Sentra with over 300,000 miles on it. Up until then I only had a few repairs I had to do other than brakes, tires, and batteries. 1 starter, 2 alternators, water pump, main seal, front axels, and radiator. Eventually though the amount of money you are spending is more than the car is worth and it would be cheaper to buy a slightly used car. When the AC broke that’s when I decided it was done.
“As long as you have the money to fix it”
That’s really the only/main problem. If you have the money to rebuild/replace as needed, then you can keep driving the same vehicle for your entire life.
Many engines are capable of going 200k+ miles. Rebuild it, go another 200k. Then replace it with a new one, if one is available and go another 200k.
The main thing that can really kill a car is rust. It’s difficult/risky to repair a frame that has been rusted out. And very difficult to repair unibody construction that is seen in many modern vehicles.
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