While it is definitely a freedom of choice decision to buy a new truck every few years, I will never understand the mindset of many who borrow to buy new vehicles and as soon as the term, be it five years or whatever, is up and the vehicle is paid off, go out and do the same thing again.
I have met a few people who see the purchase of new vehicles frequently as a big waste of money UNLESS they are in business and can deduct the cost and recover the taxes.
These few other types like myself, prefer to buy new (most are in business like me) but once I get a new vehicle, I hold onto it for years, even decades. (my truck is a Dodge is a 2008 Ram 2500 bought new)
I can comprehend the high a new vehicle imparts but the other side of the coin is that interest and purchase costs are the real price one has to pay.
My truck is now almost 12 years old and I have maintained it along the way. I have some dings here and there as it is used as a work truck and some fender well rust areas that are well known as defect in many Dodge trucks. However they can be fixed, the dings removed, and a new paint job applied to the vehicle. This is FAR cheaper than buying a new one and to be honest, I find it a high returning my older truck to a new condition mechanically along the way and appearance wise in a grand slam move.
I become attached to vehicles and this one works when I work and plays when I play. It has taken me and the truck slide in camper unit all across the USA...east and west coasts, Midwest, north and south in every direction to the borders. I took a Pacific coast highway trip a few years ago crossing into the USA at Blaine Washington and down through Oregon and California. That trip was over 12,000 miles.
If it could only talk....
I have 306, 000 kilometers with no major issues, just the usual replacement of serpentines, one alternator, oil changes, grease jobs(replaced front end two years ago with aftermarket parts that had grease fittings and will not have to be replaced again) and battery. Original stainless exhaust, water pump, starter, fuel pump are fine at this point.
While the truck is maintained all along the way, it is a real good feeling to give it the grand slam body part replacements, and new professional but original color paint job. That is coming shortly. After that is done, I am looking at another decade of use and if major components die, I will upgrade to better ones. Engine replacement, if and when it comes will be the stock 5.7 rebuilt at a professional speed shop but ported/polished, balanced, rebored and reinstalled. The six speed standard still functions tightly and solidly with lots of clutch left.
I will then have a better than new truck, with high performance mods that incidentally will increase the longevity and I will be on a high for a long time. It will not have the bells and whistles of the newer models but hell, I am used to it, know its limitations and quirks, know close to when components will fail and tie me sentimentally to things I have done both as a professional and as a holidayer all over north America but mainly in the good ole USA which is the greatest nation in the whole damned world. As a peon of Canuckistan, the nation led by a grade five ASSistant drama teacher, we are like most nations subject to the envirowhacko lunacy that has resulted in the huge expense increase in vehicle ownership, based on many so called "pollution controls."
We even have in regular use vehicles that need only plugs, points and a condenser for a full tune up I can pay for with a mere handful of coins at ten percent of the cost of one for a newer vehicle.
As I mentioned several weeks ago here, we have seven vehicles in active service, with the oldest being a 1976 one ton GMC that has only one remaining part that is stock...the frame. My 2008 Dodge is the newest in the fleet and my other main vehicle is a 1979 Chevy van inherited from my father and with 83,000 KILOMETERS on it original miles, no rust, but due for the grand slam.
Do you all realize that the grand slam for my Dodge, engine rebuild with performance mods when it needs it, new paint, etc can be done with less than ten percent of the cost of buying a new comparable 2500?
Now to me, what could be better than an old truck that looks as new as a late model from the dealer and with a modified engine putting it in the same HP or higher category? To those who want something unique, this is the ONLY way you will get it.
But go to it, if it is your thing to buy new trucks, no big deal for me but my thing is what I have always done and I expect to do it to my end.