
Cars People Keep for 15 Years or More - ourmandave
http://www.thedrive.com/news/25985/here-are-the-top-15-cars-people-keep-for-15-years-or-more-2
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esotericn
As a Japanese car owner I'm a fan, but a list of 'cars people keep forever'
has a huge amount of selection bias, no?

The sort of person who buys a new Merc probably doesn't _want_ to keep the car
for 15 years. The interior is going to be shabby regardless of what you do,
and the car will be out of date / an old style.

Japanese cars (at least in standard trim) are the stereotypical low TCO keep
it until it stops working car; you've already accepted that you want
utilitarian transport by buying one.

~~~
rmason
In Michigan at least a Merc was always short hand for Mercury. Now I realize
they no longer make them but this is the first time I've ever heard a Mercedes
referred to as a Merc. They will forever be a Mercury to me - and there were
some sweet Mercury's as well ;<).

I owned a brown LN7 with a moonroof and got more requests for rides from
pretty girls than any car I've ever owned.

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/52345709@N02/10682156066](https://www.flickr.com/photos/52345709@N02/10682156066)

~~~
esotericn
Well, from across the pond, this is the first I've ever heard of Mercury at
all.

You learn something every day!

(and the link you posted is a beauty.)

~~~
RickJWagner
My friend, you've missed out on a lot of early American rock 'n' roll history.

Mercuries were the hot-rods of the early 50s. There are quite a few early
songs that feature Mercurys.

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crispyporkbites
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dotancohen
This is almost comedy:

> To avoid personalized advertising based on your mobile app activity, you can
> install the DAA’s AppChoices app here.

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scarejunba
It's for the obvious reason, right? So that they can opt-out your IDFA or
AAID.

It's not like most people would be able to get that information.

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forinti
I had a Honda for 12 years until 2015 then bought another one with the hope of
only selling it when it becomes reasonable to acquire an electric car or do
away with owning a car at all (I live in South America).

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yakshaving_jgt
Is this commentary on the cars themselves? Or is this more a reflection of the
types of people who buy those cars?

Would the type of person who buys a more exciting car keep whatever car they
have for a shorter period?

~~~
chapium
A bit of both?

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brownbat
Original study has far more details: [https://www.iseecars.com/cars-
kept-15-years-2019-study](https://www.iseecars.com/cars-
kept-15-years-2019-study)

For example --

* Some commenters wonder where the German cars are. Well, turns out they dominate the luxury section.

* Some comments suggest people don't really want to keep luxury cars fifteen years. Sort of validated -- that segment is broken out and has a lower average, but just a few percentage points. Sports cars? Almost no one keeps a sports car. Unless you count the Miata.

* 17.2% of people in the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose area keep a car more than 15 years. That's higher than any other studied metro area.

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mds
This list from the same site, titled “The 10 Longest-Kept Cars When Bought
New” has almost no overlap.

[http://www.thedrive.com/news/22665/the-10-longest-kept-
cars-...](http://www.thedrive.com/news/22665/the-10-longest-kept-cars-when-
bought-new)

~~~
bsder
Yeah, something is wrong with their methodology.

I absolutely do _NOT_ believe that a Prius makes that list.

The first 5-door liftback Prius (what everybody recognizes as a Prius) is
_barely_ 15 years old. And, during that time, there were some really amazing
incentives from dealers to turn in your old Prius and buy a new one. And big
chunks of the early Prii will have batteries that gave out. And a Prius tends
to have really expensive repairs after a collision. etc.

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WalterBright
My daily driver (Ford) is 30 years old, my toy car (Dodge) is 47 years old.
I've owned the Ford for 28 years, the Dodge for 30 some.

I like older cars. I suppose I got it from my dad, who'd buy them new and keep
them for 30-40 years.

~~~
chapium
Take a look ynder the hood and you start to see the full picture. Older cars
were heavy and inefficient. Newer cars have far more complexity and a lot more
plastics. On the plus side they have some great traction features and are far
safer to get in an accident with (in general).

~~~
WalterBright
My Ford has 4WD, and is satisfactory in the snow. The safety in a collision is
an issue, likely the only one for me.

The Ford is cheap to operate, and very cheap to repair compared with newer
models.

~~~
dzhiurgis
ESC > 4WD

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RickJWagner
Toyota's obsession with quality is paying off.

I love cars, current ride is an 11 year old Toyota product. (Lexus IS F. Heart
of a muscle car!)

I kept my last ride almost 15 years, I hope to keep this one a good long time,
too.

~~~
mobilefriendly
I love my '05 Toyota 4Runner, bought new. No serious issues and gets pretty
heavy daily use. My mechanic says it should be good for another 8 years at
least. Basically I hope to drive it until self-driving tech is widely
available.

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samfisher83
I am surprised there are no lexus cars. Those things last forever.

~~~
segmondy
Lexus is pretty much Toyota.

~~~
samfisher83
The lexus brand has a higher quality standard. Toyota is already good, but
they do additional checks for lexus. For example they CAT scan the motor for
any imperfections.

[https://blog.lexus.co.uk/7-engineering-and-production-
techni...](https://blog.lexus.co.uk/7-engineering-and-production-techniques-
that-make-a-lexus-a-lexus/)

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BJBBB
Perhaps this data does not indicate the obvious for some stuff. We have two
2001 Tacoma trucks, one is 4WD, and one is 2WD. My truck is ugly as sin, but
is reliable and easy to repair. The new Tacoma is essentially a full-size
truck, too much plastic, much more complex, too much is not accessible for
maintenance, and per my three neighbors, much less reliable. This is why we
have not bought new machines.

~~~
ourmandave
I have an '01 Tundra that just keeps going. No kind words for the appearance
and people use me as a moving service, but I love the damn thing.

~~~
throwaway427
Current Tundras, though being very different than your gen, are still seen as
maybe the best forever truck. Those engines are pretty much bug free but also
they get terrible gas mileage.

I'm hoping my V8 F150 goes for 20 years, though I doubt I'll keep it that
long. I like the safety bells and whistles in modern cars and my 2016 is just
old enough not to include adaptive cruise or a 360 camera or a blind spot
camera.

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gargravarr
My UK-model Toyota Celica Supra was owned by its original owner for 20 years.
During that time, the car was pampered and treasured - I have a large folder
of extensive service records dating to the late-80s. My father bought it in
2006 and gave it to me in 2013. I've sworn never to get rid of it, no matter
what. Not only is it an incredible car to drive, and visually striking
(classic 80s wedge shape), but no current car has my attention. Plus, even if
current cars are more efficient, more powerful, etc, the amount of resources
and energy used in the manufacture of a newer car quickly offsets those
benefits when I could simply keep a well-engineered vehicle running for
longer. Finding parts is understandably difficult, but I see no reason to chop
and change cars every few years. If I could, I would have owned the car from
new, but it's 4 years older than me!

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QuantumGood
Interesting, but not sure how useful. Inevitable that this kind of information
becomes out of date as far as what car is worth keeping that you now own.

~~~
tsomctl
Implicit in this is company culture, how their engineering teams work. Toyota
and Honda have been well known to make reliable cars for years. I think part
of the reason for their reliability is their relatively under powered engines.
Although, I'm surprised there isn't a GM vehicle on there. GM tends to make
pretty reliable engines and trannys, although everything else on them tends to
fall apart all at the same time.

~~~
quicklyfrozen
We have a 15 year old Honda Odyssey, and if required periodic repairs for
anything, not just powertrain, we'd probably replace it -- it just won't be
worth the time and bother, even for relatively minor repairs. But it just
soldiers on.

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jamesjguthrie
BMW should certainly be on that list considering European owners. Countless
numbers of E46 and E39 models remain on the road here.

~~~
alphabettsy
It says percentage of original owners. Luxury owners tend to lease more and
upgrade more. I don’t know anyone that isn’t at least the 2nd owner of an E46
or E39.

~~~
jamesjguthrie
Ah, ok. My mistake.

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vanekjar
I would like to see the same statistics for Europe. It would be very
different.

I am afraid the result is biased. Most of the people in US keep Japanese cars
because most people actually buy Japanese cars at the first place and some of
them keep them.

I guess in Europe we could see very different brands.

~~~
kwhitefoot
Here in Norway, and even more in Sweden, I think Volvo would feature pretty
heavily in the list.

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intrasight
I have a 14 year old Volvo wagon and a 13 year old Camry. I regularly drive
both. Love not having car payments. Live in the snow/salt belt. In my youth it
just wouldn't have been possible. The cars would have rusted to pieces by now.
Paint sure has improved.

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CoolGuySteve
I'm surprised the Acura Integra/RSX/ILX isn't on the list. I certainly see a
lot of older Acuras driving around in the northeast.

Maybe a badging issue due to all the name changes?

Or maybe the kind of person that will drive a 15 year old car doesn't like
compact cars?

~~~
metaphor
The ILX hasn't been on the market for 15+ years.

Integra (2001 was last US production year) and RSX are both inline-4 with
relatively agressive compression ratios. Anecdotally, an owner who purchased
new as a daily driver with no intent on abusing the vehicle is liable to start
encountering appreciable maintenance costs at 120,000+ miles. More often than
not, these vehicles find a 2nd (or 3rd+) life on the used market. 10% ethanol
gas didn't make reliability any better either.

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sys_64738
My Toyota is only 20 years old. Still goes great so will keep for another
five.

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somberi
A related read:

[https://www.barrons.com/articles/luxury-cars-
used-5154751920...](https://www.barrons.com/articles/luxury-cars-
used-51547519209)

------
StevePerkins
Of course such a list will be near-exclusively Japanese, but I'm a bit
surprised that it's near-exclusively Toyota and Honda. Nissan and Mazda
vehicles/customers aren't comparable?

~~~
alphabettsy
Nissan vehicles have never been known for their reliability in comparison with
Honda/Toyota and Mazda had a long partnership with Ford that included using
their powertrains among other things that certainly didn’t help with
reliability. The Mazda B series and Navajo were basically indistinguishable
from the Ford Ranger and Explorer of the period.

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robomartin
I wonder how things might be in Europe. We’ve owned BMW’s in the US for years.
However, we get rid of them just before the warranty runs out. Cost of parts
and maintenance is just too high.

~~~
Glawen
There are some old bmw on the road, but there are more old mercedes. Mercedes
is way more reliable than BMW.

Then it depends on where you live. In my region east of France, you can see a
lot of Peugeot 205 which last forever. If you live on other parts of France,
you will see more old Renault. If you are in Italy you have old Fiat :)

The japanese cars were never a thing in Europe, I don't know the reason. Maybe
due high price, cheap interiors and bad diesel engines? What is sure is that
they are damn expensive on the used market.

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phjesusthatguy3
I've got a 2012 Kia Soul that I'm going to keep until I can't get it to the
dealership anymore because they're paying me for each mile I drive it. (MPG
rebate)

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jccalhoun
I've got an 09 Honda Fit that I bought new and I have no intention on selling
within the next 5 years. But I'm probably an outlier since it only has 55000
miles on it.

~~~
foobiekr
2010 fit sport here, seems totally fine at eight years old. we have zero
intention to replace it.

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burtonator
I knew the Tacoma would be on that list.. VERY reliable and rugged car. Toyota
should be proud!

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DrScump
Still driving my 1993 Toyota pickup as a second vehicle.

CA still makes me smog-test it every other year.

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aboutruby
"... in the US"

