As long as repairs are kept in check, no reason not to keep older cars. As we downsized with kids moving out, they got the Old car for a well below Kelly Blue Book price. And I made them pay it. 1 is now near 30 yrs old, grandson now has it. The other youngest son drove his till it got to costly to repair, but Plymouth vans were not all that great.
Eldest now has my Old Corolla, and making payments on it. His son has the first old 1. He has to pay car ins and keep the stick shift working. Guess what they are all pre Chips. They will run if a EMP hit. Your new gadget car won’t.
We have a low mileage Equinox and a new Malibu with the bells and whistles, as seniors we needed some assistance with vision, hearing, and better mileage. But we paid it off in 6 months. Got all kinds of incentives and rebates. Even got 1 minus that hated Sun Roof.
“Guess what they are all pre Chips. They will run if a EMP hit. Your new gadget car won’t.”
A buddy of mine bought a beautiful wooden inboard/outboard runabout (boat) for his lake house. Had a small Chevy V8 in it that mysteriously died after the run down from the marina after winterization. I thought about it for 5 minutes and asked, “points & condenser?” He smacked his forehead and we replaces those after a brief phone search. Started right up. Gotta remember that shade tree mechanic stuff from when I was a kid!