Consumer Reports says "keep that car"

Normally, I'm of the opinion that Consumer Reports are a bunch of complete idiots, especially when it comes to anything automotive. They test cars under the same criteria one uses to select a blender, and completely refuse to acknowledge that driving can actually be fun. However, this time they do have a good point. Keeping a vehicle as long as possible is cheaper than buying a new one every few years. Strange but true. I finally figured out how much money we were losing by being on the 3-year lease cycle with Norah's Dakotas ('95, '98 and '01). It was nice to always have warranty coverage, and getting a new truck is always fun, but it's just not worth the cost. My '95 is coming up on 13 years old, but only 140,000 miles. I guess I drive less than their estimates of 15 years and 225,000 miles. I'm still debating between replacing my truck in a couple of years, or hanging on to it out of curiosity to see how long I can keep it running. It does have its fair share of annoying problems, recently something went wonky with the electrical system that I haven't gotten around to fixing yet. I just drive without the radio. Or interior lights. But it gets me where I need to go, which is the most important thing.

Naturally, Consumer Reports' list of recommended models is their standard Honda/Toyota love-fest. Yes, I know, statistics prove that Honda and Toyota really do have fewer unscheduled problems than other makes. The problem is that everyone knows this, which drives up demand (and prices) for those two makes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know all about "OMG teh awesome resale value!!!" If you're planning on keeping a car for 15 years, then the resale value doesn't matter all that much, it's more the purchase price and cost of operation.

Besides, my opinion is that the reason Honda and Toyota look so awesome on the surveys of unscheduled problems is that their maintenance schedules tell people to replace everything early whether it needs it or not. Remember that cost of operation includes scheduled maintenance too. Replacing things unnecessarily is a huge waste of money, but at least it gives their customers warm fuzzy feelings about not being stranded somewhere in the middle of the night by an unscheduled problem. Warm fuzzies translate to higher demand, higher prices and (most importantly) more profit. Smart.