This thread is funny. Anyway, one of my tours has 187K on it and the previous owner and I have had not had any major problems. Just a water pump from what i hear. Still has original clutch/starter etc. My other tour has just over 90K and the only pronblems its ever given me were fuel pump related.
I am very anal on reg maintenance but am no mechanic. I keep up on the fluid changing intervals as well as the spark plugs/wires and fuel filters. I plan on keeping my cars for some time so for me it makes sense to invest in them.
Here are a couple commets/suggestions that I have for you. I dont know your financial state but for you the best idea I would think would be to lease your vehicles or atleast one of them. That way all repairs are covered, you get a new vehicle, payments are usually a lot lower than payments if you were to buy the vehicle and its reliable transportation for you family. Like you said you had money for the payments before but it goes to other things when its not there.Trust me if you make room for the payments and expect them to come regularily like they have you wont really notice the money going to them like you would when you are trying to put that money away for repairs.
Having a payment all the time is a lot more consistant than saving and trying to predict when your car is going to need expensive maintenance or repairs. You wouldnt likely have to deal with brakes,tires etc pretty much only oil changes and that seems to be what works for you.
Leases are good for the right vehicles, if you lease one that has a slower deprecieation rate say like a camrey or accord or oddessey the lease payments will be alot lower than if you lease a taurus or freestar as they are based on the value the car looses inthe time you have it to the time you turn it back in.
One thing to keep in mind is that cars are not an investment so to speak as they continuously deprecieate and hopeing to get something on trade in is usually unrealistic or a lot lower than you should get for it. You will almost always enf up putting more money into the car than the resale value is worth so try and not count on that money to be there when you initially buy the car.
My gf and I plan to get marrried in a couple of years. We have decided that we will lease one vehicle and that will be the one that is dedicated as a family vehicle and the other may or may not be leased depending on the situation.I like to tinker with the cars and do the maintenace myself so keeping an older car that i have kept up on makes sense to me.
Leasing is what my parents did so there was always a vehicle that was reliable and dependable for the kids and so my mother wouldnt be found stranded on the side of the highway with us.
If for some reason you cant lease or it doesnt make sense to, I would suggest putting away the same amount of moeny when you actually pay the vehicle off into a savings account. I would recommend having it automatically withdrawn for your account and put into the savings account so you dont notice the extra money. That way when sh!t goes down you have a back up or at least a healthy down payment for a newer vehcile.
Just some thoughts, hope they can help
