[Mike]

Originally Posted by 1QWIKBIRD

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'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