How long do you keep them for? Do you love a specific brand? Do you like tiny cars or big cars? I currently drive an 11-year old Toyota Highlander. It was the first car I ever bought myself. I loved the 2001-2007 Highlanders and was horrified with the 2008 body style. We were looking at a Honda Pilot originally, but I felt like there were a ton of blind spots and was not comfortable driving it. I decided to test drive the Highlander and loved it. I decided I liked it on the inside and that was where I was going to be most of the time, so I could deal with it being ugly on the outside. Its grown on me since. It's been reliable as heck (2 repairs in 11 years, but the most recent was a month ago) and has taken us on various road trips over the past 113,000 miles. That said, she's gotten a little slow in her old age and the gas mileage seems to get worse every year. I planned on driving it into the ground (200,000+ miles), but I don't put a lot of miles on my car compared to a lot of people. My husband has a Volvo S60 and its decidedly much more fun to drive. But I love not having a car payment, either. Last month my stability control suddenly went out and my dash lit up like a Christmas tree. I took it in and the air-fuel sensor had gone bad, and was a $1000+ repair. Not thrilled. It got me thinking that I need to be prepared to replace it if something goes really bad. Then, this week, my mother-in-law got in an accident while driving it and informed us that she does not carry collision insurance. We tried to file a claim with the other driver's insurance, and the other driver, realizing there was no witnesses or evidence, claimed she was not at fault (by the way, Safeco insurance is the shadiest company I've ever dealt with). Safeco said to go file with your own company. I decided to not repair it or do it out of our own pocket instead of filing with insurance because our rates have gone through the roof the last few years, and I'd rather not pay even more for something that is mostly a paint problem (no major structural damage). So the damage isn't that terrible, but I really hate driving a dinged-up car. I take really good care of my stuff, and it really bothers me when other people don't respect that (a whole nother thread about people breaking your stuff when you lend it to them). The biggest problem is there's a good scratch from the other person's side mirror where it gouged into the door. So I looked at new and new-ish cars today since my car is 11 years old and has lousy gas mileage. I have my eye on the Volvo V60 Cross Country, the BMW X1, or the Mazda CX-5. The BMW is obscenely overpriced when I start adding options, plus they do stupid stuff like I can't have this color leather with this color car (its PAINT). The Volvo is cute and we already have one. We rented a CX-5 once and really liked it, and it would be significantly cheaper. Ultimately, I need to go test drive these because that's always been the deciding factor, regardless of what I think is cute. My husband once convinced Volvo to give us a XC60 as a loaner when his car was in the shop instead of an S60 and I ended up hating it (felt cheap, way under powered). That said, not buying anything until my mother-in-law goes home in September when the kids start school. Or even fixing the damage if we keep the car, for that matter. I already knew she was a terrible driver, not letting her wreck another one! Also we have 2 soccer tournaments the next 2 weekends and I'm not sure I'm ready to give up the 3rd row seat, even though I really do want something smaller.
