Is this just the culture down here?

I typically keep a vehicle for 10 - 12 years.

 

I know an older couple that get/trade in their vehicles when they hit around 60K. Dunno why, most of them are decent vehicles and are barely broke in by the time they trade it in.

 

You're going to have to do more mileage per year than that to get the 1,000,000mi mark.

 

It is financially irresponsible to get a new vehicle every 2-3 years. Unless you're making globs of money at a time or have unlimited cashflow. Both my father and father in law did not retire early (both engineers and very successful and well off) by buying a new truck every 3 years. My dad kept all his vehicles for at least 10 years. Buying a new vehicle every 2-3 years is ridiculous. Every month you go without having a car payment is a month you're saving $3-500 in your bank account. Leasing is stupid, and with how many miles you can add to these trucks it's better to keep it for 400,000mi or until the wheels fall off.

Let's say you buy your truck new and your monthly payments are $400/mo. If you payed it off in 4 years ($19,200 for the sake of this example) and kept it for 10 years. That's $28,800 you've saved by not having a car payment for the last 6 years. You can/could buy your next vehicle cash. Anything that you would need to take care of or maintain the truck would be chump change in comparison to a car payment. So let's say you pay your truck off and blow the engine and it needs repairing or replacing for $5000. Your $400/mo you've put back into your pocket is now a small loan from yourself to keep your truck running, and a hell of a lot less than a new car payment.

I have a few friends who have inherited their father's Toyota's and still keep them running. One is a 1992 Land Cruiser with 300,000mi on it (still worth like $8,000) and the other is a '98 4Runner with 300,000mi. He's since put $12,000 worth of long travel suspension on it and is preparing it for the baja 1000. These trucks run for forever, there is no sense in buying a new one every 2-3 years.

That being said, people can do what they want. As for me, I paid my truck off in a year, I'm keeping it until it won't go any farther and I'll enjoy my fat stack of cash by not buying a new one every time a new model comes out.

"these millions of gold coins won't gleam when they're spent" - Ezra Koenig