Hacker News Reader

Comment by dorfsmay | Hacker News Reader

We have 4 kids and only one vehicle, so a potential breakdown is a huge inconvenience. Also my wife is the one doing over 90% of the driving. So here what has been our strategy:

Buy a brand that is fully guaranteed for 5 years. We sell them at 4 to 5 years old. This completely kills the repair budget.

Buy vehicles 6 months to 1 year old. That one brand we buy (like most but not all brands) doesn't depreciate linearly, and depreciate the most the first year. So this reduce the depreciation budget significantly.

The only difference in the consumable budget, compared to a 10 year old car is that we pay a lot for insurance (full vs 3rd party only).

The plus of our strategy is that an accident does not change our budgets, which it would in OP's case, as they might have to increase repair (assuming 3rd p ins) or force them to buy their next vehicle early, throwing out some of their calculations.

View on HN

Purely cost wise, an old reliable car is much cheaper than anything you mentioned here.

Let's be upfront and frank about it. You will pay more for the added convenience. You really should put a number on it to get an idea.

I bought my car 6 years ago for $9000. It was an 8 year old car, but with low miles. In the last 6 years, I've paid $2100 in repairs and maintenance (includes changing oil, tires, etc). So a total of $11,100 in 6 years. My car is worth $2900 now. So a loss of $8200 in 6 years. That's $1367 per year.

How much will your car depreciate in 6 years?

If I compare it with a top of the line Subaru Forester, that depreciated at least $8K in the first two years.

Your situation may be good - I'm not sure. But unless you really run the numbers, you'll never know. People always do hand waving rationalizations in their hand. Don't. Get a spreadsheet and run the numbers.

Not saying paying a lot for peace of mind is a bad idea. That's for you to decide.

I ran the numbers, and I think depreciation was ~ 2000 CAD / year.

Yes piece of mind is worth that, and I can attach a number to that to, we've had a car that was maintained regularly and broke down, cost of tow + taxi to go to the rental place, rental (we need a minivan => expensive) was close to 1 K CAD. Kia warranty comes with 24 h emergency. We will have an older car once the kids are out (or possibly live somewhere we don't need a car), but today I'm happy to pay this.

One thing that never seems to be modeled is variance or risk of repair.

F.ex. adding something like this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11879869

Buying a super complicated engine with high reliability is a different risk than buying a simpler engine that has lower reliability, but that can be repaired much more cheaply.

>Yes piece of mind is worth that, and I can attach a number to that to, we've had a car that was maintained regularly and broke down, cost of tow + taxi to go to the rental place, rental (we need a minivan => expensive) was close to 1 K CAD.

As you admit, it's for piece of mind. Because I can't imagine something like that happening to you every year if you owned a used car.

What's the one brand you buy?

It sounds like Kia (but they have 7 years warranty though) or Alfa Romeo.

Yes, Kia.

I heard 7 years in Europe. Is it true in the US too?

I wonder why 5 years only in Canada!

Ah, I thought it is the global policy of 7 years. Maybe it is 5 years in North America though.

Look at the car, not the brand. My 2003 Honda Pilot costs about $500/year in repair on average. My wife's 2005 Odyessy is about 3x that, despite being mostly the same car.

Why? The sliding door roller system is garbage and breaks semi-annually. (@$900/per incident) Biggest issue the Pilot is a poor quality key cylinder system that was a recall in several 1999-2004 models, but not the Pilot.

You can fix the sliding door rollers with about $5 in parts from the local hardware store. I did mine and it's lasted for years.

My car seems to eat the little motors too. Also taking off the door sucks!

Interesting, wasting money on a Toyota Sienna's sliding doors and windows which kept breaking down the minute it was out of warranty, and its write-off in what seemed a minor accident is what drove us to the above strategy.

I'm in Canada, Kia.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com