Mileage_and_Time_For_Auto_Maintenance
00:00:00.000 | Hello everybody, it's Sam and Cindy from the Financial Samurai podcast and this episode I want to talk about a small epiphany that I
00:00:07.480 | realized and that is the difference between
00:00:10.840 | time and
00:00:12.960 | Car mileage because I have a Land Rover Range Rover sport and whenever I say I have a Range Rover sport
00:00:19.560 | inevitably commenters or people be like, oh it must have a lot of maintenance issues and you know, why are you owning that car because
00:00:26.980 | Clearly, it's gonna break down at some point
00:00:29.720 | Well, I have owned a Land Rover SUV for about 20 years now before the Range Rover sport
00:00:36.400 | I owned a Land Rover Discovery 2 for how many years 10 years?
00:00:41.080 | It was a while and so for my Range Rover sport, it's a 2015 model I bought it end of
00:00:48.980 | 2016 so we're talking about almost seven years of ownership and during this almost seven year time period
00:00:57.280 | I've had the fan break
00:00:59.760 | So I had to fix that that cost about 700 bucks
00:01:01.920 | That was three and a half years in and now my coolant is leaking and the coolant leaking
00:01:08.640 | Maybe it's like a water pump issue or something. I'm assuming that's gonna cost a thousand dollars to fix
00:01:14.520 | So that's not too bad because that was a three and a half year gap
00:01:19.580 | per issue
00:01:20.800 | Other than that is just change the tires change the brakes add the gas and the car has been very dependable for almost seven years
00:01:27.760 | But what I realized is that because I only drive
00:01:31.480 | 5,500 miles a year
00:01:34.160 | I only have about 43,000 miles on the car and a commenter mentioned something really logical and he said well Sam
00:01:42.200 | Do you think it's because of your low mileage that you don't have as many problems and I thought to myself well
00:01:47.180 | Yeah, that's probably obviously true
00:01:49.520 | But it's been you know, seven years with this car and 13 years at the previous car and you know
00:01:55.160 | I expect problems to occur
00:01:57.160 | Every two three four years is not so bad in my opinion because every year or every two years you need to do a service change
00:02:04.560 | Anyway, so on my dashboard, it says I have to do a service in 700 miles
00:02:10.200 | So it's basically been a little over a year and the coolant leaked gonna fix the water pump. Okay fine
00:02:15.840 | I'm gonna fix it and I'm gonna change the oil
00:02:18.920 | Not a big deal because I had to go into the dealership or the auto mechanic anyway to get the car serviced
00:02:25.600 | However, here's something that sounds obvious now that I talk about it. It wasn't too obvious to me
00:02:31.360 | But if I had driven 14,000 miles a year
00:02:34.600 | My fan would have broken after a year and a half and then my coolant would have started leaking
00:02:40.760 | After about three years and if this was the scenario, I'd be thinking myself
00:02:46.040 | Hey, man Land Rover Ranger really is unreliable. Why are there these problems that occur so
00:02:53.560 | Quickly one after another so what's my point?
00:02:57.000 | I guess my point is I had a blind spot that I didn't really think about
00:03:01.520 | Until a reader commented on the miles and the second thing perhaps is if you want to buy a luxury car or a nicer car
00:03:09.760 | It's best that you're not a regular driver if you want to save money
00:03:14.040 | And if you do drive a lot a more expensive car, you should have a better warranty than the average car
00:03:21.160 | So hopefully it's not just three years 50,000 miles. Maybe it's four or five years
00:03:25.560 | 70 80 100 thousand miles, but I don't know if that's available. And the other thing is
00:03:30.720 | Maybe you do want an extended warranty. Generally warranties are sold because they are highly profitable for
00:03:37.760 | the auto company
00:03:39.760 | However, if you're buying an expensive car
00:03:42.460 | These maintenance bills do add up. Here's something also interesting that I think is worth noting
00:03:49.760 | I remember when I had a car issue in my 20s or early 30s. I would feel a little bit more stressed out
00:03:56.380 | I was thinking myself man. How much is this gonna cost? How long is this gonna take?
00:04:00.720 | Well, I still think how long is this gonna take but I no longer think oh man
00:04:06.220 | How much is this gonna cost two thousand three thousand dollars because I'm older and wealthier now
00:04:11.840 | So if it costs I don't know two thousand dollars to fix the coolant leak and chase some parts
00:04:17.800 | So be it because not only can I afford it
00:04:20.760 | But it's also important vitally important for safety because I am the driver of my family. So I feel it's a duty
00:04:28.480 | It's a must to spend that money and not mess around
00:04:31.680 | So if you're younger and you're wondering hmm, why are these people these older people with family driving such nicer cars?
00:04:39.720 | Well one
00:04:40.960 | One of the reasons why is because of safety they want a larger vehicle that can hold their children and feel more secure just in
00:04:46.920 | Case someone else bashes them and then to frankly the affordability of cars as you age
00:04:52.600 | It gets easier and it seems obvious
00:04:56.280 | but it wasn't so obvious to me when I talked about the 1/10 rule for car buying trying to
00:05:00.940 | limit people to 1/10 of their income in terms of the purchase price of a car because I saw the car as
00:05:07.840 | Such an extravagant waste of money where that money could be spent
00:05:13.280 | Investing in the stock market a real estate market and so forth at almost 46 years old with two young children
00:05:20.080 | I think it's vital to have a safe car and
00:05:23.560 | There is a high correlation with a safe car and an expensive car
00:05:27.520 | So the focus on saving as much money as possible on a car as you get older
00:05:32.360 | Really diminishes I feel
00:05:35.080 | Completely different than I did in my 20s and 30s in terms of buying a nice car
00:05:41.560 | And I think naturally so will you so the next time you see a middle-aged guy driving a Porsche 911 or?
00:05:48.280 | I don't know a Ranger or whatever. I don't think it's a midlife crisis
00:05:52.600 | I just think it's kind of like well
00:05:54.080 | You can afford it now your net worths higher and you need a safe car to shut around your family
00:05:58.800 | So Sydney, what are your thoughts about driving a nice car?
00:06:02.480 | now that we have two kids because you've known me since I was driving a
00:06:06.920 | 2000 a thousand five hundred dollar car in college. Yeah, and so what are your thoughts? Well, I've been really happy
00:06:16.520 | For the longest time I guess since kind of since the Land Rover started because the turnover of your autos
00:06:23.840 | Went way down right right and prior to that you were changing cars
00:06:28.280 | Almost every year year and a half. Yeah, I think I ate cars in 12 years and and
00:06:33.440 | You know, I wasn't doing that much driving anyway, but I just remember it was this constant like what what am I gonna get next?
00:06:39.960 | I'm gonna get next it's just this
00:06:41.960 | constant thing and now
00:06:44.320 | It's kind of like moving, you know, we're not moving or hopefully we won't be moving very much. We feel settled
00:06:49.560 | So it's like the same thing with the car
00:06:51.440 | You know, we've found a car that works well for our family that you are happy with
00:06:56.480 | Yeah that we feel is safe and reliable and we have other things to keep us busy and interested in right now
00:07:03.960 | That's a good point. I remember in my 20s
00:07:06.400 | I was infatuated with cars because I always want a nice car, but my parents never drove a nice car in the 1980s
00:07:12.320 | We had a 1976 Datsun with no paint and no hubcaps in high school
00:07:17.160 | We had a eight-year-old Toyota Camry and then finally I was able to get a car in college, which was
00:07:23.100 | Toyota FX 16 with just wrong shifting gears and that cost
00:07:29.060 | $1,600 and I was really like a junky car, but you know
00:07:33.040 | You know, I was just thrilled that you had a car period that we could get off campus right explore Jamestown
00:07:42.240 | Road trips and stuff. It was fun. We didn't need anything fancy. Yeah, and it's so funny as a guy
00:07:47.000 | I remember thinking oh, I need kind of like a respectable looking car to impress the ladies didn't matter to me
00:07:53.880 | I was just thrilled that we could drive somewhere. Yeah escape campus. That is true, right?
00:07:59.020 | So and then like in your 20s, let's say you got a nice job. So I got a good job in New York City
00:08:04.280 | so I bought a car in Manhattan, which was in retrospect so stupid and then I
00:08:08.440 | bought
00:08:10.040 | An m3 and actually many g500 all these cars in San Francisco in my 20s
00:08:16.360 | Oh a BMW 5 series
00:08:19.000 | yeah, but the BMW 5 series was sweet as black and then it had like the
00:08:24.560 | Protruding screen flat screen and a huge subwoofer. Do you remember that?
00:08:29.620 | Yeah, so I had the thrill of going on Craigslist
00:08:36.380 | bargaining hard getting a new car driving for a year year and a half and then trying to sell it for the same or
00:08:41.820 | A little bit of a profit. Yeah, you did very well with that, right?
00:08:44.860 | But this is the funny thing as you get older you're like I'm over that stuff
00:08:48.700 | Less time what a pain in the butt to negotiate
00:08:53.340 | DMV the pink slip meet people pay taxes
00:08:57.980 | And it's just so interesting the evolution of car ownership over time
00:09:03.100 | Because as you as you can afford to buy a more expensive car
00:09:06.740 | You kind of don't really care as much anymore like this
00:09:11.480 | Range Rover Sport is 2015. I want it. I want to own it until it's at least 10 years old provided that it's reliable
00:09:18.740 | And there's not a lot of problems because I know the car right? I know the maintenance history
00:09:23.780 | There's no, you know
00:09:26.100 | mysterious bugs that are hopefully gonna appear that we don't know about and that's kind of the same thing with
00:09:32.780 | Maybe upgrading to a house which we'll talk about in a new episode which I had written about
00:09:37.140 | There are some things that you might not expect whenever you trade something, you know
00:09:42.120 | For something you don't and I also think this car is very comfortable
00:09:45.920 | It drives well, like you it feels like a sturdy car when we've had that whole
00:09:51.160 | mess last year where we
00:09:54.020 | The valley damaged the car and then we had a flat tire and yada yada yada
00:09:59.180 | We had that rental car for two months and that it was a very different feeling car and I wasn't driving it
00:10:05.680 | But even as a passenger, yeah, just it was a very different feeling experience and it didn't feel as sturdy or stable
00:10:12.620 | It felt very like a boat top-heavy or something, right?
00:10:15.840 | It made me think about we watched a lot of the f1 reality show drive to survive
00:10:21.800 | I have to survive on Netflix when Daniel Ricardo like the last time he switched teams
00:10:26.860 | He just couldn't get in a groove with the new car. I forgot which racing team it was Aston Martin, maybe yeah
00:10:33.140 | But yeah, I was just like Renault. He went to Renault for a couple years the car and him
00:10:37.580 | They just didn't click well and it affected his performance where I feel like this car matches well with your driving
00:10:44.400 | I guess you just get familiar. Yeah any car just the way it drives way it feels
00:10:48.720 | So in that sense, I do believe the ideal length of time to own a car is about 10 years
00:10:55.940 | or maybe when the car is 10 years old and then start thinking about another car because think about it in
00:11:01.160 | 10 years every single year these car engineers and designers are thinking about things to make the car better because
00:11:08.380 | In a capitalistic society you have to offer more and more for the money
00:11:14.180 | Otherwise, you're gonna lose market share to other auto
00:11:17.380 | Manufacturers and so that's the other thing when people always make fun of me for driving a Land Rover Range Rover
00:11:23.860 | I'm saying look if it is that unreliable these cars
00:11:27.740 | I wouldn't buy it because I value my time a lot and the company would go bankrupt or really tank in
00:11:34.540 | Value because other people wouldn't buy it. But the reality is the cars still sell very very well
00:11:40.820 | Alrighty, that's all I wanted to really share because it was just my realization
00:11:45.180 | Ah, the miles could accelerate the number of problems a car has in a shorter time frame
00:11:52.220 | Thereby changing your perception of various cars, but because we drive relatively low mileage
00:11:58.820 | 5,000 to 5,500 a year
00:12:01.660 | These problems seem to be spread out in a more acceptable amount of time where I'm like, well every three years
00:12:09.100 | Whatever nothing lasts forever. All right, everyone if you enjoyed this episode, we'd love a positive five-star review
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