How Old is Too Old for a Used Car?

The Car Chick (00:00)
Hey, everyone and welcome back to The Straight Shift. This time of year a lot of people are looking forward to getting that tax refund if they’re lucky enough to be getting one. But frequently people will use that money to buy an inexpensive used car or maybe to put a down payment down on a car. This is a good time of year to start looking at buying cars for your teenagers going into summer so they can run around and do what they want and you don’t have to cart them around.

So this is a common time that I get reached out to by my clients to say, hey, I got to get my kid a car and I want to get something older. I don’t mind something older, but how old is too old? And I thought that was a great question. Although it did remind me of the time that I went to the trampoline park for my nephew’s 16th birthday party. And it was a lot of fun, but I kind of paid the price for it.

I used to be a figure skater and an athlete and my brain still remembers how to do all the jumps and spins and I thought it would be fun to do double axels into a trampoline pit or a foam pit and just play on all the things they had there with my sister-in-law. Yeah, that didn’t turn out so well the next day when I realized I had pulled the heck out of my psoas muscle and ended up in physical therapy. So how old is too old?

40 plus is too old to play at a trampoline park with a bunch of 16 year olds. But when it comes to used cars, how old is too old? Well, that can really depend on a lot of factors, and that’s what we’re going to talk about today on The Straight Shift.

Just like with humans, cars age differently. The year and the mileage doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story. And that’s why I say how old is too old isn’t the easiest thing to measure. It depends on a lot of different factors.

It’s also a matter of opinion. How old is too old will depend on each person’s unique situation and what they are willing to tolerate. Older cars, you can save money on them. They will have lower insurance costs typically, but on the flip side, older cars may not have all the bells and whistles, especially the more modern safety features that you may want. So you’ve got to consider those trade-offs.

Another thing you need to look at is just the make and model of the car. Not all cars are created equal from the time they come off the factory. The original quality and reliability of that specific make and model is going to matter as to how well it ages. This is why you see old Toyotas, old Hondas, even with high miles, they’re still bringing really good money.

They hold their value well because people know that they were reliable to begin with. Therefore, they should make more reliable used cars than say, I don’t know, a Chevy Cruze, maybe a PT Cruiser. There are a lot of cars out there that were junk coming off the line when they were new. If they were junk new, they probably are not going to hold up very well over time and be a good used car. But you can get an older Toyota or an older Honda

And if it’s been well cared for, it could serve you very, well. So really consider the make and model that you’re looking at and do your homework to see were they good cars to begin with. And if they weren’t, chances are age isn’t going to matter so much as just that it was a piece of junk to begin with. So it’s not going to have as long of a lifespan. Another thing that you need to consider is what did the life of that

car look like before you started looking at it? What was it like up until now? If that vehicle was a workhorse, maybe they were towing a lot of stuff with it, towing heavy things, loading it down, it had to drive off road, it just was kind of put through the wringer and really had to work hard early in life. Or maybe it had a little more fun than the average car like my cars do. They have been

on the racetrack and that puts a lot more stresses on the car even on the frame the body of the car they wear out over time. It’s one of the things we’re looking at with the race car right now for the team that I used to race for. One of the reasons I haven’t been racing is because the chassis of the race car is just finally wearing out it’s got about 20 races on it which is a lot for a race car and the metal just gives out all the bolts the welds

they just start to give out. So if the used car you’re looking at has maybe been used for autocrossing or has been on the racetrack a little bit, be aware that it’s going to have aged a little bit more than a car that was just used as a commuter vehicle. It’s kind of like athletes, someone who has been an elite athlete when they were younger, growing up, or maybe they played basketball or football in college or professionally.

That puts a lot of wear and tear on the body, especially knees and hips. They’re probably going to need more replacement parts than the average person. They might need a knee replacement at age 35 or 40, whereas someone else might make it to age 60 or 65 before they need that. So just think about what kind of life the car had before you started looking at it. It may have some premature aging associated with it.

Another thing that will prematurely age a car is rust. So if the used car you’re considering lived up north or out west, anywhere that had winter on a regular basis where they salted the roads, that is what kills cars. That rust process starts and it’s like a cancer. You might be able to slow it down, but there is no cure. It will eventually start to rust out.

And as that happens, you have to replace those parts. You will see the suspension components rust out and break prematurely, your wheel bearings, the exhaust system. The rust can even start to eat through the frame and the body of the car through the axles. And when you start seeing it eat through those bigger, more important core parts of the car’s infrastructure, there’s really not a lot you can do about it. That car…

has reached its senior citizen years and it’s probably not going to last that much longer without some seriously expensive repairs that are just not going to be worth it. So in order to find out where the car has lived, check the Carfax. See where it has been titled or where it has been serviced. Those will give you an idea of what states it has lived in, spent time in. And are those states

places that experience winter on a regular basis. That’s why southern cars tend to hold their value and sell more on the secondary market than cars from say Michigan or New York or Colorado because they’re not what I call pre-rusted. Rust will prematurely age a car by many, many years. I’ve got 20, 30 year old cars sitting in my driveway

that don’t have a bit of rust on them because they have never seen real snow or salted roads. Whereas I have seen cars that are just seven, eight years old be absolutely falling apart, especially if they haven’t been able to be garaged, they haven’t washed all the salt off the cars on a regular basis. It can kill a car easily in less than 10 years. So be sure to check that if you’re considering an older used car. One of the most important

important things is how well the car has been maintained. Just like with our own bodies, some people take better care of themselves than others. They stay in shape, they do yoga, they eat right. Those are the maintenance items that we have as humans on our bodies. With cars, it’s changing the fluids, it’s replacing parts when they need replacing. If that car has been well maintained, well cared for,

if it’s been washed on a regular basis, if it’s lived in a garage instead of sitting out in the sun or under trees where cosmetically it can been hit by acid rain, by bird droppings, there’s so many different things that can cause damage to a vehicle over time. But if it has been well maintained, well cared for, it’s going to last a lot longer. Just like those people who are 90 years old and still doing yoga and are active

they are going to live a lot longer than the folks that are sitting on their couch doing nothing but eating potato chips. So we got to take care of our cars just like we really need to take care of our bodies and that will make them last longer. That’s one of the reasons that my old cars in my family, I don’t worry about so much is because they have been so well maintained. Yes, things are going to start wearing out. They’re going to start breaking. That’s just part of the natural cycle.

but they’re gonna live a lot longer than cars that have not been well maintained. I have seen a Honda blow up at 30,000 miles because the owner never changed the oil. First 30,000 miles, never changed the oil and boom, the engine was gone. So that’s why maintenance is so important and why I preach it so much.

So you have to ask yourself when you’re considering buying an older used car, are you willing to continue to put that maintenance and repairs into it? Because it’s still going to need more and more things as it gets older. I really learned just how much the body breaks down as we get older as I’ve been taking care of my mom who’s gonna be 80 this year.

and she has health concerns and I just, can’t believe how many doctor’s appointments we got to go to. All of these things. And it’s been a good warning for me for what’s going to happen as I get older. And so, okay, we’re going to start really taking care of ourselves now. Same thing with your car. As it gets older, things like the suspension components, the seals and gaskets, any part that is made of rubber or made of plastic, those are going to eventually dry out, wear out, chemically break down.

Fluids in the car obviously need to be changed. That’s more of a regular maintenance item because fluids break down relatively quickly. But your alternator will eventually go. The starter might go. Your ignition coils might go. You’re going to need lower control arm bushings. All these things just start to wear out. They’re just easier to replace on cars than they are on people, but they are going to happen. So if you have an older or plan to buy an older car,

you are just going to have to plan for those things. And they’re more expensive than just your basic oil changes and tire rotations that you have if you have a newer car. So you have to be willing to plan for that. And you have to be willing to accept the unpredictability of when the car might need maintenance. Sometimes things just go. You’ve been maintaining it well. Your mechanic’s been keeping an eye on things. They’ve been keeping an eye checking how much we call it

play, how much wiggle is there in certain components, especially the suspension components. They’re keeping an eye on that for you, then you can anticipate. You can look at, my brakes are starting to wear out. How quickly am I going through pads? Those are normal wear and tear items. But you may not know exactly if your alternator is going to go or one day the car doesn’t want to start because the ignition coil just went out. These things can happen and they can leave you stranded. So you’re just accepting a lot more of that

type of risk if you go for an older used car. And that’s where it’s up to you. Can you put up with that? We have older cars in our family, but we have several of them. So when one of them goes down, we’ve got backups like, okay, I can’t drive that car today. I guess I’ll go drive this car. So we have that luxury, although we have found that we’re kind of getting to the point where it’s become a problem because my husband’s mother’s

toy car that she loves dearly, that engine finally went and so we are in the process, we’ve pulled it out, we’re actually waiting for that to be rebuilt for us and then we’ll put it back in her car. But that car is gonna be down for a few months. That 92 Toyota that I always brag about being such a reliable car, a couple weeks ago, my husband was driving to work and all of a sudden,

that engine just did a spontaneous high-speed disassembly. We have no idea why. It’s been so well maintained. It’s been so reliable. The only thing that we can think of is that we recently replaced the spark plugs. And if the spark plugs were of bad quality, which it’s getting harder and harder to get good quality parts, especially for older cars, it may have had some hot spots. It may have burned a valve.

We don’t know without doing an autopsy on the engine, which we don’t have time to do. So unfortunately, that car is also out of commission and that’s normally been our go-to backup car. So fortunately we’ve got my mom’s car. His parents have a couple other vehicles. He’s got a motorcycle. So we still have some choices in our bigger family. But when you do have older cars, it’s not a bad idea to have a backup vehicle or a backup plan for getting where you need to go

if that car does decide to die on you or not start on you. And when you have to do maintenance on these older cars, it can be more difficult to get parts. So a lot of people, there’s this kind of rumor or belief going around that car companies are required to produce parts for cars for 10 years. I’m not really sure where that came from because it’s 100 % not true in the United States.

Other countries there are some laws about that, but in the US there are no federal laws or regulations that require auto manufacturers to make replacement parts available for any specific amount of time. The only law that’s there is it says that as long as they are offering a warranty on that car, whether the new car warranty or a certified pre-owned warranty from the factory, not if you buy a third party extended warranty,

But if the manufacturer is offering a warranty on that vehicle, then they have to continue to make replacement parts during that warranty period. But that could be as little as three years if that’s the new car factory warranty and then they just decide not to make the car anymore. So when you’re looking at older cars, be sure you look and see what is the availability? Am I going to be able to get parts for this thing? If you’re looking for something like a Honda or Toyota,

Ford or GM. Those manufacturers tend to be really good about continuing to make parts available for a long period of time. They’re popular brands, people tend to keep them, and so it makes sense economically for them to continue to provide parts for those cars, decades later. didn’t have too much trouble getting at least basic parts for that 92 Toyota.

Even though it hasn’t been made since 1998, that specific model, the bigger part of the problem that we ran into was the engine in that car wasn’t exactly stock. It was a Starlet engine, which was a Japanese Toyota model that was also made in the 90s that never was brought to the U.S. So we always had to ship parts over from Japan or find other parts that were compatible from other U.S. models. So, but that was self-inflicted.

We decided to put an aftermarket engine in that car, a different engine in that car. So it’s our own fault. But if you’re looking at an older used car, be sure that you know whether or not it has any engine swaps, any aftermarket, any modifications that are going to make it more difficult to get parts or more difficult to maintain it because you and your mechanic have no idea what these people did and how they put it together.

Honestly, we’re never going to be able to sell any of our cars just because of the number of modifications and weird modifications that we have, but that’s fine. That’s part of our car ownership strategy. You as a car buyer just need to be aware if you’re buying an older used car. If it’s a car that was more rare or if you’re looking to buy a classic car or an exotic car, like an older exotic car, really look to see if parts are available.

We ran into that all the time on a TV show that I did called Rust Rescue for many years where we were teaching people how to rescue an old rusted out classic vehicle, you know, one of those barn finds and restore it themselves on a tight budget. And one of the biggest things that we always look for was, okay, are we going to be able to get parts for this thing? And that’s why, again, your Fords and your Chevys, even going back to the classics,

you don’t generally have a problem finding parts for those. Even though the manufacturer may not be making them anymore, aftermarket companies, if the car is still really popular and the business case makes sense, they will manufacture aftermarket parts, replacement parts for those vehicles. So even if you’re not getting an OE, which stands for original equipment part, you may be able to get quality aftermarket parts. And honestly, these days,

So many of the auto manufacturers are outsourcing the making of their own OE parts that you’re still sometimes getting kind of an aftermarket part anyway. They’re just labeling it as OE and they have some responsibility for it. When we had Mustangs or Camaros, those types of classic cars that we were restoring, it was so easy to get parts. But the

49 Plymouth Special Deluxe. That was not easy to find parts for because it wasn’t very special and it wasn’t particularly deluxe, so we had to manufacture a lot of parts for it during that restoration process, but we kind of knew that going into it. So again, that’s one of the most important things. If a car’s it’s too hard to get parts for it, then it may be too old for you to consider. they make parts for it but

there’s not a lot of demand for it, those parts may be really expensive. You can find them, but be prepared to pay a premium price for them because they’re not getting the economies of scale of selling them.

So as I said, the answer to the question, how old is too old, depends on a lot of different factors. But the biggest one is how much are you willing to put up with? Are you willing to put up with the unpredictability, the, well, I’ve been maintaining it well, but it’s old. And so any day now it could just conk out on me, like our poor Toyota finally did. Does it make a difference in your lifestyle if you can get to work?

on time every single day and if you don’t have a backup vehicle, then you might want to see if you can afford a newer car. When thinking about cars for your teenagers, you know, I like putting teenagers in older cars for several reasons. One, chances are they’re probably going to wreck it anyway, at least a little bit. It’s just due to their inexperience. It’s not necessarily how responsible they are. It’s just due to the inexperience and all the other idiot drivers out there.

It’s cheaper on your insurance typically for that. And I don’t like for cars for teens to have a lot of the driver safety aids because I don’t want them to get reliant on those and think, I don’t have to pay attention because, the car will stop for me, which a lot of adults think too. But they need to learn that the most important safety feature in any car is the nut behind the wheel. It’s them. They are solely responsible for the control

of that vehicle and how safely they are driving. So don’t get them something with all those fancy driver aid bells and whistles because they may become dependent on it like most of the rest of the people out there have. And also I just have a personal philosophy of you know having an old clunker for your first car as a teenager is just sort of part of the American teenage experience. And maybe I am showing my age as a little bit of a dinosaur there but

You know, if you have something really nice right off the bat when you’re 16, do you really have the motivation to work for something nice? I just think part of being a teenager and having that clunker is part of the fun. I certainly have some phenomenal stories and I know I’ve shared a lot of those with you guys over the years, but it’s just part of the teenage experience having an old clunker and, you know, learning how it works and having to maybe do some of the maintenance on your own.

I realize we live in a very, different world now. And so a lot of parents are very concerned about they don’t want to risk their kid breaking down on the side of the road. Yes, kids have cell phones for the most part these days, but it’s still higher risk with the additional traffic and just, you know, crazy people out there. So this is where again, it comes down to your decision. How old is too old depends on what risks you are willing to take.

as driver, as an owner, and as a family. I hope this was helpful in learning some of the more technical things that go into how old is too old on a used car. And if you are looking to buy a used car, I go over a lot of this stuff in a lot more detail and how to look for it and what tools to use to do this research in my online course, “The No BS Guide to Buying a Car –

Your Inside Track to Getting the Best Deal”. There are specific lessons in there on buying inexpensive used cars and older cars and exactly what to look for, what to look out for, and how to make sure that you don’t buy a lemon, no matter what the age of the car. Well, thank you so very much for listening to this episode today, and we will be back in two weeks. Until that time, drive safely, everyone. I’m out of here.