To most of us, cars have sentimental value: like an old friend you’ve lovingly taken care of for years, spending your hard-earned money to maintain. Giving up your car is never easy, so how do you know when it’s time to let go? Consider the following questions, and if any answer is “yes”, it’s probably time. But it’s not that simple. Buying a new car, and even an older new-to-you car, comes with a host of expenses—loan payments, higher insurance premiums, and taxes—with no guarantee that the newer car won’t come with its own set of problems. A newer car will also need basic maintenance—like brakes, tires, and oil changes—so continuing to repair the car you’ve lovingly taken care of for years may be the better option. Rust, for example, can affect essential components like brake lines, fuel lines, the gas tank, and of course, the frame. Extensive rust is hard (if not impossible) to keep on top of, making your car unsafe to drive, resulting in an easy decision to move on. Another consideration is that a newer car likely comes with safety upgrades unavailable in older models. For example: Despite the popular belief that old cars are “better” because they’re built like tanks, recent models are intentionally built to crumple on impact—which is a good thing. These crumple zones protect passengers by absorbing the energy of an impact. Additional safety technology implemented to make newer cars safer includes automatic forward braking, blind-spot monitoring, electronic stability control, and tire pressure sensors. In this case, retiring your car sooner rather than later buys you time to shop for a good car at a good price, instead of being forced to buy one immediately because you need to get around.
