0:03 How long should your vehicle last? I get
0:07 asked this question quite a bit. Um, and
0:10 it is one heck of a loaded question.
0:13 I've got a vehicle with 300 plus,000 mi
0:16 outside that uh has a snow plow on it
0:18 that is an anomaly. Some people have
0:20 broken their vehicles to the point of
0:23 not wanting to fix them at 80,000 mi.
0:25 But generally, if you take the whole
0:28 pool, the most common 10 to 15 years,
0:30 150,000 to 200,000 mi. Now, there's
0:32 factors on how long your vehicle is
0:35 going to last. Obviously, um why would
0:37 one person's vehicle last 80,000 mi,
0:40 somebody else's last is lasts
0:43 300,000 mi. Uh here's some factors to
0:45 think of. The first factor you should
0:46 think of is what you use the vehicle
0:49 for. Uh let's say you have a midsize
0:52 pickup truck. You you use yours to tow a
0:55 construction trailer to work every day.
0:57 You're stopping and going. You're kind
1:01 of in a a dirty lot all the time. Uh
1:04 it's it's getting used uh for for work
1:07 every day versus let's say I have one
1:09 and I just wake up every morning and I
1:12 drive 30 miles to work and I park it and
1:14 I drive home 30 miles from work and I
1:16 park it in my garage and that's all the
1:19 use is. I think mine's going to last
1:20 longer than the construction guy that's
1:23 using his all day long. So, what you use
1:26 it for uh is going to be a huge factor.
1:28 The second one, and the one that I feel
1:31 like is the most important, is how you
1:34 maintain it. Uh there's some people that
1:36 uh don't believe in maintenance. They
1:38 just drive buy a vehicle, they drive it
1:40 until something breaks, and then we tow
1:43 it in here and we fix whatever broke. Uh
1:46 that's great. We need those clients, but
1:48 uh my best clients don't do it that way.
1:50 Uh and then there's people that uh pay
1:52 attention to maintenance schedules and
1:54 stuff like that and they prevent things.
1:58 U when it comes to maintenance, if uh I
2:00 ask my clients, how long do you plan?
2:01 What are you going to do with this
2:02 vehicle? How long are you going to keep
2:05 it? If you're a client that just leases
2:07 a car for say three to five years and
2:09 you turn them over, we're not going to
2:10 be doing a lot of preventative
2:12 maintenance because you're not going to
2:14 get the benefits of that. But if you're
2:17 a customer like me that drives their
2:19 vehicles to 200, maybe even 300 if I
2:22 really like it, uh I'm going to do all
2:24 the all the scheduled maintenance in
2:26 that first 100,000 miles because it
2:27 really makes a difference on how good
2:30 that vehicle drives and how reliable it
2:33 is in the second 100,000 miles. So,
2:35 keeping up on good, clean fluids in a
2:37 vehicle, most the best thing you can
2:40 possibly do to avoid uh having to get a
2:41 different vehicle and having major
2:43 failures and just keeping an eye on
2:46 things. Just having my mechanics uh look
2:48 at my vehicles every time they come in
2:49 for an oil service. And if there's
2:52 anything showing up that isn't quite
2:55 right, I have them take care of that
2:57 before it becomes an issue. before I'm
2:59 in the middle of a road trip and having
3:02 my my truck getting hot or whatever it
3:04 might be. The third factor, honestly, is
3:08 who's driving it. Uh some people uh I
3:10 don't know, some people are bad luck,
3:12 some people are just a little bit harder
3:17 on vehicles. Uh uh brakes. Uh we have we
3:20 we have about the same three lines of
3:22 brakes that we like to use in our shop
3:24 for our vehicles and our clients
3:28 vehicles. Some people can go
3:30 100 to 200,000 miles once we've replaced
3:33 their brakes, never have an issue. Some
3:35 people can chew through those babies in
3:37 about 30,000 mi. You know, the the guy
3:39 that's up on the mountain every day in
3:42 the winter, he's skiing, so he's going
3:44 up and down the ski runs every day and
3:46 then he's taking his mountain bike up
3:48 and down there most days in the summer.
3:50 Obviously, he's going to wear out things
3:52 uh a little bit more than say my wife
3:55 that just uh gets in her car and drives
3:57 10 miles per hour to the Pilates gym in
3:59 the morning, right? So, who's driving it
4:01 uh and what they're where they're
4:03 driving it to makes a big difference.
4:04 And flat out, some people are just
4:08 harder on stuff. You know, when I was uh
4:11 16, 17, 18,
4:14 uh I I broke cars cuz I drove pretty
4:16 aggressively. Now, I'm the guy that
4:19 you're honking at cuz he's going uh 5
4:21 miles per hour under the speed limit in
4:23 the center lane on the freeway. So, I
4:26 don't break things as often. But who's
4:28 driving it and kind of what their what their
4:30 their
4:32 uh what their kind of their driving
4:34 actions are like, that does actually
4:37 make a factor on uh on how long their
4:39 vehicle lasts. So, uh, generally
4:41 speaking, when you're buying a car for
4:44 your your new driver, you're usually
4:46 not, uh, planning to have that vehicle
4:49 20 years later, whereas, you know,
4:51 nowadays, when I buy a newer vehicle,
4:53 I'm planning on driving that thing 10 to
4:54 20 years. So, in the end, really, the
4:57 final answer to the question, uh, we can
5:00 generally keep a customer's vehicle safe
5:02 and reliable for them as long as they
5:04 want to drive it. Um, it just kind of
5:07 becomes this point of diminished value,
5:09 right? So, if they're if a customer's
5:12 got a car that's 15 years old and now
5:15 all of a sudden it needs $10,000 repair,
5:17 uh if they love the car, we got
5:19 customers that do it, you know, we'll
5:22 we'll put $10,000 worth of work into a
5:24 car that they could maybe sell for
5:26 $7,000 and they choose to do that
5:28 because they like it and they don't want
5:29 to get a different one and it makes
5:32 sense to them. Uh but then there's other
5:34 people that are already on the fence of
5:35 wanting a new vehicle. So then when it
5:37 needs something big, they choose to get
5:39 another vehicle. So that's another thing
5:42 to keep in mind. You don't have to get a
5:45 new vehicle if you're you can you can
5:48 almost fix everything for as long as you
5:51 want to on most vehicles short of, you
5:53 know, corrosion issues and and stuff
5:55 like that. But we can keep what if you
5:57 really like your vehicle, we can keep it
5:59 going as long as you want to own it.
6:02 It's just a matter of uh if the costs
