I think I'll keep my older vehicle's for a while longer.

[KSav]

I feel better knowing that I am not the only one driving an older car (a 2006 Toyota RAV4 with about 137,00 miles). There is absolutely, positively no room in my budget for a car payment—not unless I drop my health insurance, and that's not happening.

I stay on top of the maintenance, but I still worry.

 

[robin416]

Just drove my 2009 Toyota AWD Matrix (180k mi) on a 400 mile round trip with no problems. This is our winter car. And for more local travel I use our 99 rusted out Toyota Camry (280k mi) which runs great but is ready to break in two from rust. And have two vehicles garaged up for the winter, a 99 Chev Suburban (my truck) and the 08 Corolla (95k mi) which is our preferred trip vehicle and back up car.

LOL You just reminded me about my Maverick. Or was it the Comet? Anyways, it was one of them. Spent it's entire life in MI until I moved South. Driving down the farm drive to go tend to my horses and I hear a thud. What the heck? I get out and look under the car. My gas tank was dragging on the ground. I tied it up with some bailing twine and went on my way.

It was still like that when the back bumper fell off some months later.

Crazy thing is, the body was in excellent condition. It was the frame that rotted out.

 

[squatting dog]

I am sure everyone knows that you can't simply replace a headlight anymore, and haven't been able to for quite some time.

I have to assume you're talking about cars equipped with LED headlights. Cars with halogen lights are a simple process. There are still plenty of cars — including many 2025 models — where you can replace the headlight bulb yourself with a simple snap-in (or twist-in/clip-in) halogen bulb, often in just a few minutes without removing the entire headlight assembly.

About 25% of new vehicles still come with halogen headlights standard (often upgradable to LED for extra cost).
If your car has halogen headlights and you've upgraded (or want to upgrade) to plug-in LED bulbs, replacement is simple and similar to changing a halogen bulb. (usually DIY in 10–30 minutes)