How long do you keep your vehicles for?

[grasmere59]

Not just the 406's but how long do you keep your vehicles for normally? I've had my BMW 530i for approx 8 years my Honda bike for 30+ years,my Kawasaki bike for 16 years and the 406 for 19 months so far,how long do you keep your vehicles for? This excludes Lozz who's ownership is normally weeks not years

[GingerMagic]

Hmmm, we have had our 306 for nearly 12 years. I want to update it with something newer but it has NEVER not started or broken down. It is getting tired but I would hate to sell it for peanuts and get a newer car which may not be as reliable...
I have had my 406 for a year, the 406 before for 3 years, Escort van before that for 3 years, Renault 19DT before that for 3 years, Triumph Acclaim before that for 3 years and Fiesta Supersport before that was about 3 years.

There may be a pattern here...

[grasmere59]

Bet you wish you still had the Fiesta Supersport,i used to have one years ago and it used the same amount of oil as it did petrol,there fetching stupid money now as are XR2'S.

[GingerMagic]

Yes, yes I do. Although I got away with so much enthusiastic driving in it that I was sure my luck would run out one day.. I part exchanged for a ' safe ' Triumph Acclaim but even that was proper quick - managed to out pace a Granada 2.8 Ghia in it..!!
Had I kept the Supersport, it would probably fetch around £3000 by now ..

[Ares]

well,i have my 406 7th year now counting,and 309,which was my dads car is mine and you can say its still here.
I just can give any car away.....i have a problem

[DaiRees]

Bought my 406 estate in the summer of 2002, so I've had it 11 years, 10 years of service before being superseded by the Volvo. I'm intending to get many years out of that too! Before the estate the longest I'd kept a car was 4 years. My Suzuki Samurai weekend toy stuck around for about 7 or 8 years too before I sold it last year.

[waue1978]

Well the Zafira's car 49 in just under 18 years of owning cars which equates to an average of 4.4 months for each car, although some were bought purely to sell on. To be honest , if I hadn't kept the 406 for over 2 years the average would have been even worse! Previous best before that was my RS pack Mondeo Ghia X & from what I've heard, it's still a show car now with over 130k on the clock!

Meanwhile my Mother still has my old 55 plate Mondeo Zetec that we gave her nearly 3 yrs ago after using it for 3 months ourselves.

[KozmoNaut]

My first car I kept for about 3 years, that was an old Corolla. Second car was a new Panda, I kept that for 4 years. My bike is an old Bandit 600, I've had that for 3 years now, and I'm planning on selling it soon.

The 406 I've had for just over a year now, I'm planning on keeping it for as long as possible.

So I guess my average is just around 2.75 years. Not counting the pushbike of course, I've had that for 7 years I think and technically it counts as a vehicle :-P

[trufflehunt]

Riley 1.5 6mths.
MGA 6 mths
Triumph TR4 5 mths
Saab 96 2 stroke 8 mths
Triumph Herald 8 mths
Triumph TR5 PI 4 yrs
Mini 6 mths
Jaguar XJ6 4.2 1 yr
Plymouth Satellite 2.5 yrs
Triump TR6 PI 6 mths.
Lancia Monte Carlo 6 mths
Vauxhall Astra 7 mths
Triumph Vitesse 8 mths
BMW 325i 1 yr.
Triumph Dolomite Sprint 7 mths
Porsche 911 SC 2 yrs
Citroen BX19 GT 1 yr
Rover 820i 1 yr.
Vauxhall Carlton 3000 GSI 9 mths
BMW 535i Sport 1 year.
Mercedes 300E 1.5 yrs
Citroen 2CV 8mths
Ford Fiesta 1100 8 mths
Citroen BX19RD 1 yr
Austin Maestro 8 mths
Mercedes 240D 6 mths
Rover 218SD 1.5 yrs
Fiat Panda 3 yrs
Peugeot 405 Turbo Diesel 1.5 yrs.
Peugeot 106 Mk1 Diesel 3.5 yrs

Current Car : Peugeot 406 HDI 110 Executive
10 mths

Longest owned : Triumph TR5PI 4 yrs

[lozz]

Not just the 406's but how long do you keep your vehicles for normally? I've had my BMW 530i for approx 8 years my Honda bike for 30+ years,my Kawasaki bike for 16 years and the 406 for 19 months so far,how long do you keep your vehicles for? This excludes Lozz who's ownership is normally weeks not years

P.m.s.l.

Don't judge a book by it's cover mate.
My longest car ownership as been 9 years its still in the garage full of cobwebs.
I was planning on keeping my 306 but that ended up going through a wall/cheap wishbone off eBay snapped at 70mph

I c.b.a with cars anymore now,

[scotty73]

Escort van 6 months.
Mini about the same.
Another Escort for a year.
Escort Eclipse 3 months until dad realised it's dodgy past.
1300 h plate supercharged Astra 2 years
K plate 1600 Cavalier 4 years.
T plate Citroen Xsara 1.9td pocket rocket 6 years.

2000 2.0hdi 140bhpish December 2011 to 15th July 2013 when it will be battered to a pulp with the heaviest thing i can find if it don't stop pissing me off.

[Welly]

Going back 20 years ~~~~~

Started driving in 1987:

VW Golf (1st car) = 1 year
Vaux Cavalier = 18 months
Fiesta XR2 = 2 years
Vaux Cav SRi = 18 months
Pug 106 1.4d (brand new, didn't like it) = 3 months
Pug 405 GR 1.9 (flying machine) = 12 months
Pug 309 GRi 1.6 (money pit) = 2 years
Ford Onion 1.6i ghia (faultless ) = 3 years
Various Escrote Vans for work = 4 years
Pug 605 STDT = 1 year
Honda Integra XSi = 2 years
Mazda MX6 (think: plate of jelly with big engine) = 9 months
Pug 406 HDi = 3 years
Volvo S40 = 41/2 years and counting.....

[Bailes1992]

1. Bernard the 406 - 1 year. (Had to get rid due to rustworm before the next MOT Absolutley imaculate apart from underneath)

2. Ford Focus 1.6 LX - 1 year. (After throwing thousands at it I couldn't get it to run right, drive right or be reliable so had to get shot).

3. 406 HDi90 Rapier - 3 Months. (Would have kept it longer but I got a very good deal on my Mondeo. Was remapped to 128bhp and would do 70mpg on a run, mechanically perfect but tatty. Totally the opposite to my first one!)

4. Ford Mondeo - Erm... Had it a year now and have no plans to get rid.

5. Peugeot 406 V6 GTX Auto - 1 month (Was told it had the cambelt changed... true but they didn't change the tensioner which failed and I had to scrap the car)

[STALLED]

Holden Commodore - On loan for 12 months in 2005.

406 - Bought it in 2006, still have it...

A billion rental cars for work...

2013 - Mazda3 - 4 months!

[Menophanes]

My longest period of ownership so far has been six years (1981-86) for a 1957 Rover 90, the first of four Rover P4s which I used as everyday transport. (If I were to try to do this at today's fuel prices, I would be confined to the house five days a week.) Sad to say, many of my cars have had lives which were short and rather more exciting than might have been expected for the type of vehicle concerned. These have included: 1961 Humber Hawk Series IV estate (gearbox worked loose from the clutch housing and broke the back of the transmission), 1959 Rover 105 (front suspension collapsed), 1981 Morris Ital 1.3 (Morris Minor Syndrome, i.e. front wheel embarking on an independent life together with half the king-pin), 1992 Ford Escort (my first diesel - cam-belt tensioners disintegrated) and, more recently, a series of cars which failed their MoTs so comprehensively that it was cheaper to take the £100-odd which almost any diesel car which is still self-propelled will fetch in scrap value and then buy something else. Few of these have lasted a year.

I hope that my last car, a 1997 406 1.9TD, has established a precedent for improvement; it came through one annual test, at a cost of £573, and I would have liked to keep it going, but a combination of clutch failure and a cam-belt living on borrowed time, plus deuce-knows-what in the way of MoT work, threatened me with bills approaching four figures. The present 2001 2.0HDi, which has given me a remarkably peaceful and kindly introduction to the potential slings and arrows of computer-controlled motoring (besides looking almost civilised, at least until I broke the window), undoubtedly deserves better, and I have some hopes of being able to treat it as it deserves.

Oliver Mundy.