We are due for upgrading our cars within the next few years and I have been debating how to strategize it. We have a 2009 MDX fully paid off that is perfect for longer journeys, but not quite enough if we want to do a multi-day trip with the doggo. Its run 110k miles which is not too bad for almost 15 years old at this point. We also have a fully paid off 2012 C300 that has barely run 60k miles, but then its German made so it will work great until it just drops dead and nobody can predict it.
Ideally I wanted to keep the C300 so the kid could use it as her driving car, and maybe even her car in college. But by that time that car is going to be almost 18 years old which gives me the jitters about its longevity. I guess I could use the car as a training car for the kid and then trade in for something else, but I like the thought of paid off car for college even if its almost 2 decades old lol. I dont want to deal with another payment around that time.
Or we could just upgrade our MDX now to something slightly bigger like Pilot or Telluride, and then buy another used car for ourselves as the kid goes to college with 18 year old car. But it comes with the risk that the 18 year old car may drop dead anytime so I might have to buy yet another car at that point, or at least contribute to buying (if my kid is that resourceful lol). Or, I could trade in our C300 now for another reliable Japanese sedan that kid may take to college. But then again, by that time the MDX is going to be around 21 years old and may have reached its end of life so we may have to buy two cars then.
Or I could just wait and let both these cars run to the ground.
What would you do?