h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Like a car, for example. Of course, it's simple to just change it every two years, but what if you want to minimise your outgoings? Do you drive it into the ground, sell it in good time, or try to get maximum use from it before it develops problems?

It's a complex equation with a car. There's a high proportion of subjectivity when we assess the relative value of an existing car against the myriad options for replacement.

For example, we may not be planning to replace our car when a perfect one comes available. Conversely, we may run our existing car for longer than we'd planned if we don't find an ideal replacement.

With most things it's simply a case of when fixing it or having it fixed is no longer cost effective (if it ever was, which with a lot of modern stuff isn't the case). We still have a CRT TV in the front room... it'd be nice to have a big flatscreen thing but the CRT still works fine so we're gonna keep it until it dies!

I have nostalgia issues surrounding my car. It makes little economic sense to keep it. But it is wonderful to drive.

Our current car is supposed to last until Nod leaves home (she's 14 and it's five). But, assuming it does last that long, our criteria for replacing the car has always been, has it reached the stage where it is going to cost so much to keep it going that we'd be better off with a new one (not necessarily a brand new one).

Otherwise we tend to replace stuff when it stops working. We also have a CRT TV. We would like a nice new one but:

this one works, and

DH, who knows about these things, can't decide what new one he wants

In fact he so can't decide, that he said we should have a new cooker when we did the kitchen, instead of saving the money for a new TV. His logic was that one day the TV will blow up and we will *have* to replace it, but that would never happen with the cooker, so if we kept the old cooker we were stuck with it.

I didn't argue.

Mol

With something like a washing machine, where the new ones are really no better than the old ones, I replace it after I've fixed it about four times.

With a computer, the new ones are so much better than the old ones that there's really no point in fixing a four-year-old computer. If my present computer, which is nearly five years old, breaks down, I'll probably replace it.

With a car, if I bought it new, I'd expect to get 10 years out of, with regular maintenance. We're often told that old cars are worse for the environment because they make nasty emissions, so we all should buy new cars for the sake of the planet. This is cobblers. The damage done to the planet by making new cars so that everyone can have one every 2 years is far more than the little amount of emissions from an old car.

I'm nearly 29 years married, and we're on our 2nd washing machine, 3rd cooker, 3rd television, 4th dishwasher, 6th car. I've probably replaced the computer only twice in that time, but I used to a do a constant upgrade program, so it was always reasonably up to date.

Ooh, that's a good way of looking at it. 20 years together and we're on:

cooker number 4 (but cooker numbers 1 and 2 were built-in)
TV number 4 (only the first one was brand new)
car number 4 (main car number 4, that is - we did for two brief periods run two cars)
computer number, erm, 3, I think.
bed number 3
washing machine number 3
dishwasher number 1 (yay! - although we only bought it 11 years ago)

Some things we have replaced because as the family grew they simply weren't big enough - the fridge, freezer and toaster all come to mind.

Mol

I'd agree about replacing cars regularly being misguided from a green perspective. By far the most polluting part of a car's lifecycle is in its production - smelting, casting, fabrication etc are all massively wasteful processes.

To be really "green", we should all run large-engined 4x4s. These can easily run for 25-30 years and more with mileages of over 500,000 not being uncommon on diesel engines.

The 3 litre Toyota Landcruiser is a far more environmentally sound and economic car than the Toyota Prius.

>>our criteria for replacing the car has always been, has it reached the stage where it is going to cost so much to keep it going that we'd be better off with a new one

Although better still would be to replace the car just before those costly repairs become pressing, because you'd realise maximum value for it. I thought of doing that a few months ago...just before I had to to get some fairly costly repairs. These repairs were not quite large enough to demand that I replace the car, but I knew that I risked throwing good money after bad, because after repairing the car I'd still be stuck with an old car, and old cars break down. Which it now has done.

The thing is, in the past (say 20 years ago), a 10 year old car was an economic prospect, cheap to buy and run, whilst these days, a 10 year old car is far more complicated, and might, for example, have a catastrophic computer failure, costing £1,000 or so, so you really are gambling by paying to keep an old car on the road.

There is an option to insure against expensive repairs, but there's a large excess, so a series of smaller repairs will still end up costing you.

So it seems to me that we'd be best off replacing cars whilst they are still in good order, before they've incurred too many repairs, to avoid too much expense. Of course, because we don't have time machines, we can't replace them just before a mysterious failure occurs, so it behoves us to do it whilst the car is still annoyingly in good running order...

I'mn still using the cooker that we bought second hand just before I moved in with my then boyfriend 17/18 years ago.

Boyfriends, I've been through 5 since then, cars, er, eek, 14 that I can remember, that's not all of them as for the last 8 years I've usually had 2.

Itdepends what is important to you, cooking, not a priority, cars, more of a hobby than a tool.

I will replace a car when I'm bored, when something interesting pops up, or if the car I bought isn't as much fun as I thought it would be. I sold one Fiesta because it didn't have a rear screen demist and only one wing mirror, so I couldn't see behind me. I sold another Fiesta after I started an M25 commute and was horrified how I looked just like everyone else on the road. It was stolen a fewmonths later and I was really quite pleased.

Laptops and computers I replace when they start going wrong. I don't do anything that exciting that I need to keep up to date with new Stuff. My sofa I have to replace every year because of the dogs, I worry about smells and hygiene, but I don't buy new, I get second hand.

When I was in my youth I replaced a car when the MOT ran out as it was cheaper than MOTing them. As I didn't have a lot of money to spend on the next one, that was about once every few months.

20 years, and we're on:

Bed 2
Car 8 (but this includes company lease cars)
Washing Machine 3
Tumble Dryer 3
Dishwasher 0 (never had one)
TV 2 (must replace it - most programming seems to disappear off the sides these days)
VCR 3
Computer 2
Dyson 2

I useually only ever replace stuff when it explodes, dies, or gives me a serious injury (useually electricuting me).

In my life, I have had,

three kettles.
3 toasters,
1 washing machine.
1 tumble dryer.
0 TV.
1 VCR
3 PCs (OK, Istill have all three, but 2 of them contains precious little of the origional)
about 12 laptops. (and 2 netbooks).
1 bed (2 matresses so far though).
2 sofas.
2 sets of dining table chairs, 1 dining table (a tad excessive replacing the origional set of chairs, but basically, due to their design, they never actually functioned successfully as chairs).
2 fridges.
1 freezer.

and this would have been over... err about 12 or 14 years... Over this same period I have had, 4 pairs of boots (which I still have), Including one pair from 1992 which are still fine, and *counts*maybe six or seven pairs of shoes (still have two of them) Too much stuff is bought, and replaced unecessarily

What other commonly-owned things require the same sort of level of maintenance as cars, in terms of cash? I thought of houses, but they require a lot less money to"keep them going". Boats aren't that common.

Wives.

Cars don't need sexism, though. Turns out wives don't either.

Oh wow. Total sense of humour failure

Yes, dear, that's right.

Back on topic... it has occured to me that sometimes I replace things just because I want a better/different model. For example I bought a Very Pointy guitar many years ago that these days just isn't *me* any more. So I'm selling it to fund buying a new one.

Printers, maybe. Not to the same scale, but certainly in terms of the proportion of the total cost of ownership applied to consumables.