Today I drive fewer than 5000 miles a year, so I hope to keep my RAV4 for at least 15 years, maybe longer, and I'm putting what would have been my car payments (I payed off my 2013 RAV4 last year) into an account that will be going towards my next car or other future needs. I doubt that my next car will be new, but it WILL be another Toyota.
Mark
Over the years I too became a Honda/Toyota convert. Had 2 very good Honda’s a Civic and a CR-V. I should have never sold the CR-V. Nowadays I have an older 01 4Runner with a new engine because the original overheated at 147k. A real shame because those engines are known to go 400k if maintained right. I should be good to go for the next 20 years now. Probably longer than I’ll be alive. I also keep a 99 Mustang GT just for fun but it has the 4.6L V8 that is known for longevity too. I’ll probably replace the transmission long before the engine if I even keep it that long.
What concerns me about a lot of new cars is the service interval is all wrong. They have some cars without a dipstick for the trans or engine oil which is nuts. They claim the trans fluid is good for the life of the vehicle. No chance of that. Always change trans fluid at 60k max. I like to do it at 30k and I do a complete fluid change by pumping in new fluid while pumping the old into a container. When I see good clean red fluid I know it’s changed. Maybe it’s overkill but I like to use full synthetic engine oil and still don’t let it go more than 5k miles. Engines and transmissions are expensive when compared to doing extra fluid and oil changes.