Consumer Reports says: keep your car for 225,000 miles

The average car buyer trades his car in every five years. If, instead, you didn't trade your car in but kept it for 15 years, or 225,000 miles, Consumer Reports says you'd save $30,800. How'd they get that figure? If you bought a Honda EX and kept it for a decade-and-a-half rather than replacing it, you'd save $20,500 in new car expenses, depreciation, taxes, and insurance. The other $10,300 comes from the interest you earned on the twenty grand -- because of course you'd invest it responsibly, which is the entire reason you aren't trading your car in, right?

The magazine then gives a list of Good Bets and Bad Bets to make it past 200K miles, even with good maintenance. Every single car on the Good Bets list is either a Honda or Toyota. The bad bets are almost all European, with two Nissans for company. Fascinating that no domestic made either list, when we see cars every day that look like they've wrapped the odometer and done another two hundred thousand. Let the commentary begin.

Thanks for the tip, Justin!

[Source: CNN Money]