<p>My 2003 Dodge Caravan has 149,000 miles on it. It runs great, though I am getting a re-built compressor put in tomorrow (I need air condidtioning) for $650. It is too big for me and I don’t drive the miles that I used to now that my kids are all away and settled. I am hoping it lasts for another 2-3 years, since the college bills are keeping me from affording another car.
My kids cars are all older but have fewer miles. One good thing about owning a mini-van - the kids absolutely refuse to drive it! LOL.</p>
<p>My 1994 Geo has 195,000. It needs work which it will not get. I will be looking for a replacement around September.
The hardest thing to decide with a high mileage old car is do I make the repair or not.</p>
<p>DS drives 93 Volvo SW that was over 250,000 when he left for college. I bought my Honda with 140,000 and it now has 160,000. Recently I made noises about replacing Honda and passing it down to DS. He was repulsed. He LOOOOOOVES that tanklike Volvo.</p>
<p>DH’s truck has something like 180,000. </p>
<p>But clearly we are not even in the running for froog-i-ness.</p>
<p>One of the nice aspects of having an older car is that you can drive into college towns and not have to worry about your car getting stolen or damaged. I don’t see many of the old 80s boxy Volvos anymore. Even in places like Newton and Brookline where they were everywhere way back when. The salt on the roads probably got to them.</p>
<p>I just laugh when I read about your “frugal” families and how some of your several family cars are old. Our one car is ten or so years old. My husband drives it. I use my bikes for transportation.</p>
<p>cf…does that mean that you’re a “green froog”? :)</p>
<p>LOL, my very frugal husband had no problem getting each kid their own car so he wouldn’t have to bother carting them around everywhere.</p>
<p>As someone mentioned, how many miles you drive is such a multifacted issue. Dallas has always been a great place to find a job…but public transportation is poor. Does the environmentally responsible person live in a city with great public transportation only to have a low paying or no job? Do you move into the city so you are close to work…but then you have to send your kids to private schools (another drive) because the urban schools are terrible?</p>
<p>10 year Lexus SUV owner here…130,000 miles and counting…love this car… kids are embarrassed that we never get a new one. Too bad for them…and we won’t be buying them their own. If this one’s free for an occasional evening they can share it.</p>
<p>Our kids got to take over grandma’s 1994 Taurus, and we all keep hoping it will get stolen. The thing just won’t die, but it has all sorts of mechanical quirks - like the door not shutting completely. A few weeks ago D rushed into the house to tell us that she couldn’t get the car to turn off. The ignition cylinder just spun around. We finally got it shut down (thanks to the internet). Then we had to get it to restart to take it to the shop. Now we just need to keep it functioning until August, when the nest is officially empty.</p>
<p>I commute 5 miles each way to work but have put 149,000 miles on my car in 7 years.
How? Driving my kids around or going to visit them - in high school they were in sports and band. after school activities - I would put more miles on after work than to and from my job. back and forth to college. one decides to go 600 miles away. several trips to New England each year. Florida twice. Alabama once. Have not been west yet, though.
My mini-van has been up and down the Eastern Seaboard several times. usually loaded with kids and their “stuff”.</p>
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<p>I looked at some of these websites and it seems like “being frugal” could become a full-time job. Growing up with obsessively frugal parents who missed out on so many enjoyable things in life (that really weren’t expensive), pushed me out of the frugal camp on principle. I don’t believe in mindless spending, but I’m not going to obsess over money constantly and worry about every penny (which is what my parents did). Seriously, even when my folks got to the stage where they were comfortable, they became even more stingy. I do think they became stingier of heart as well.</p>
<p>Striking a good balance that works for the individual seems like a good thing to me. We always live well below our income so that we don’t worry about when we decide we want to splurge or treat ourselves to something we really want. It works for us and seems like a happy balance in our lives. Our kids seem similar.</p>