How many people on this board have bought a car brand new, paid it off (3, 4, 5 year loan) and kept 3 to 5 years beyond that, and if so what was the mileage when you did sell it? I've only ever bought 1 vehicle brand new, 1996 F150, paid it off in 3 years, kept it for 8, put 185,000 miles on the truck. I'm guessing that's not normal and not what car manufacturers want.

Its all probably a mute point. I would like to know the percentage of people that buy a vehicle new, pay it off, then keep it for 2, 3, 5 or 10 years beyond that? I'm guessing the percentage is very small compared to the number of leases, and/or people that never actually pay off the vehicle, but trade it in on something else before its paid off.

There are myriad of practical reasons for not keeping a car through to the end of a loan, but I also believe consumers are just that, consume-rs. We are conditioned to convince ourselves we need the latest and greatest, or at least something new and different.

This board (and probably every niche car board on the internet) represents a very small slice of a demographic that might actually take care of a car a keep it over a longer than normal time frame. But most people (I would think) don't keep a car much beyond 3-5 years, look around in the neighborhood or the parking lot at work and I would bet there is more turnover than you think.

I drive by N.A.D.E. in Bordentown everyday on my way to work and the place is a sea of used cars, that rotates its inventory every week or two. We occasionally do survey work there for site upgrades and its amazing the number of cars that move through that place and the rate at which they turnover. Someone is buying and selling all those cars?

i have a feeling thats just our area... seems like a lot more of the older cars are in rural areas no?

I did take a look at Kia's and Hyundai's because of their warranty offerings but decided to go with the Focus because its what my girlfriend really liked. BMW, Mercedes as well as Bently and Rolls dont have any horrendous history with product quality like GM has had over the years. GM however tried to pull a Kia/Hyundai and offer a huge warranty which even if its not due to financial problems with honoring the warranty, still comes off as looking as such because of their recent history quality and financial wise.

I'm one month shy of doing that with my trailblazer.... Bought new in 06, paid off in 5 years and still have it. 85k currently

Both my parents buy cars and pay them off within a couple years, my mom had an 01 Acura up to a few months ago when she finally ditched it for a new car. Dad drives a paid off older Honda Pilot, probably never get rid of the thing. I don't warranty affected their choices, as they pay a shop to do maintenance work without complaint after the warranty period ends. They are probably the only people that hold onto vehicles on their block :lol:

Even with having a warranty, plenty is denied or claimed to be "normal" for an easy out. My bro's subaru is using around a quart of oil between changes. You can go in for a consumption test where they change the oil and then you bring it back after 1200 miles. If it used more than a quart, they replace the rings. If not, its normal. Great warranty there :rolleyes:

GM does as well as any other mainstream brand in all of the quality and reliability surveys. Toyota leads the world is safety recalls and VW spent years as the lowest ranked brand in initial satisfaction. Somehow GM gets the bad rep? Doesn't make much sense to me.

I know people that work on BMW's and MB's for a living. MB's are reliable but when something breaks, often even seemingly little things, the wait for parts can be a while.

BMW's all I hear are horror stories. All of the computers and complications and error counting and connected systems make them a mess.

German engineering... aka over engineering

Good to you. Hopefully you see another 5 years and 85k trouble-free miles. I can't wait for my truck to be paid off. I went 15 years without a truck payment and now that I have one, can't wait for it to be gone. I don't mind my mortgage payment, but car/truck payments blow.....

First off, the 100k warranty was fishy from jump street as if you drive the normal 15k per year, you will hit 60k around 5 years, which would come first before you got to 100k.

Second, every brand has their issues. Buy, lease, borrow, whatever, and handle whatever comes your way. Do you research on the car and buy what you want.

It's a trailblazer, trouble free is relative. But I'm willing to repair about 95% of whatever could happen mechanically. Lol

Normal is 15k a year?

Well crap, I do like twice that :kneeslap:

I travel for a living, so what the **** are you doing?

I watched my odometer this morning for fun. It added 1 mile. Just 1. :D

You need more vespa/parka in your life.

My GF got a 14 focus in April last year... its at 30k miles already. 1 transmission rebuild also to boot!

Anyway, on topic, I wonder how many warranty claims were between 60k-100k and were actually approved? Like motor/trans failure NOT due to maintenance.

I seem to remember Kasey (fidget) having an issue before 100k miles with his Cruze that was covered by warranty. He was told something about not all of the engine and drivetrain is covered the full 100k, some of it was only 60k.

As far as mileage, i do over 15k a year just commuting, figure that is easily 20+ by the time I take any random trips.

I have to say that the Focus is one of the worst cars in it's class. I've had the luxury of driving a bunch of compact cars over the last year thanks to work.
Started with a '12 Cruze, '14 Focus, and '14 Sentra.
The Focus was the most cramped, worst fuel economy, most road noise, and some really ****** ergonomics. Cruze was the lowest rent as it was the base model, but even that felt better than the Focus.
I do like the Sentra a lot, honestly. Lots of interior space, well equipped, pretty quiet on the road, and best fuel economy. Only thing I don't like about the Sentra is the 2.5 gallon gas tank that thing has. Christ, I'm filling it up every 2.5 days.

The transmission in the Focus is pretty bad. Four of of the six Focii the other members of the regional staff have had the transmission repaired or replaced at least once.

She drove Focus, Cruze, Altima (we were told sentra was a worse altima, so they put us in the altima), and a Corolla.

The Cruze was meh to her as she just didn't like how it was and she is a Ford girl at heart.

The Altima was nice, but the most expensive, and had a CVT which I told her to steer away from since I have had a lot of run ins with those failing.

Corolla was awesome, because it came loaded, but they now have a CVT. I was able to forgive the CVT because the car was well built, but my GF decided on the Focus because it was the cheapest.

The Focus transmission started acting like garbage around 5k miles. It would shudder, wouldn't downshift, and was erratic. It was horrible. After the rebuild, it is MUCH MUCH better.

I like the styling of the focus, but it does feel a little small even compared to my G5