My strategy is to buy a 3 or 4 year old car and look after until it becomes beyond economical repair but as said this has to be DIY or you will never get the numbers to match. My previous car before an XC90 was a MK2 Ford Galaxy. It went past 201,000 miles over 18 years(!) and in that time only need regular servicing, a clutch and a replacement turbo. Over its last 5 years it actually made me money as the servicing costs were small and a decent replacement would loose minimum £1000/annum. Yes, I was driving an old car but it had air bags, crumple zones, ABS etc so I was in no hurry to replace it. If the rust had not got to it I would have tried to keep it longer but TBH the interior was suffering too.
Eventually we did replace it with a 3 year old MK1 XC90 which is now 11 years old with 150,000 on the clock so hoping it can last a good while yet with reasonable maintenance costs. The build quality is superb so hoping it will last a long time. We need to run 2 cars so recently bought a 3 year old XC60 and the plan is to run them both for as long as I can.
My wife says that if she did not have me to service the cars she would lease which I am sure is sensible option for a lot of people but obviously is expensive. You also must keep the car in top condition if you plan not to purchase at the end of the contract which can be expensive if like me you pick up dings and scrapes along the way. Two weeks ago someone hit the wing on my XC90 so I could not open the drivers door. I was able to push the dent out over a Saturday. Is not perfect but will do as I am not wanting to put £100s into the wing to then have it scratched or dented again. The paint is perfect which tells you something about the quality. I also discovered the wing simply bolts on so if it happens again will get a replacement from a recycle yard.
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Sep 21st, 2024, 12:27
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