It’s funny . . but not really funny . . pretty normal for us I suppose. The Highlander is our newest vehicle and it’s 14-1/2 years old. The Honda is now 20 years old and the old pickup is 25 years old. When we lived in Texas, I was pushing for a new vehicle. Those trips back and forth to and from Missouri kinda concerned me in a vehicle that old, though Vince assured me that the Highlander was probably better than any new vehicle. I have had readers through the years who tell me the newer vehicles are safer and though they may have more safety features, I’m not so sure they’re that much safer. There are so many auto accidents around here and Joplin News First always has them on Facebook. There are way more newer than older vehicles I see in those crashes and to be quite honest, it doesn’t look like it makes a heck of a lot of difference. Of course, a little lightweight vehicle is going to likely sustain way more damage than a Ford 3/4 ton pickup but safety features are not going to persuade us to buy a new car.
Anyway, here, the fartherest I ever drive is a bit less than an hour to get Addie. That means I’m never farther away than half an hour from either Chad or Vince so if I had to call one of them, they would be there in half a hour.
Here, we pay personal property taxes on vehicles each year, based on their value. It wasn’t like that in Texas (nor did we pay state income tax and the property taxes are just as high here as they were there so that’s one thing I miss about Texas). Property taxes on a newer vehicle here can be upwards of $1,000 per year, and probably way more for those who buy more expensive vehicles.
Anyway, I saw this article this morning were a guy put 1 million miles on a Volvo. I know exactly what Vince will say if he reads that . . “See! I told you we could do it!” Considering that the 20 year old vehicle doesn’t even have 150,000 miles on it and the Highlander doesn’t either, it looks like we may never get new vehicles, but with the short driving distances we do, I don’t mind at all and am quite happy we didn’t buy a new car when we were in Texas.
Every 10 to 14 days, we hook up the battery minder to the Highlander to keep the battery charged since we so rarely drive it. I drove it to pick Addie up yesterday so we wrote the date on the white board in the garage and on December 6, we’ll plug it in again.
Diana Stewart says
My Tahoe that you have seen has over 260000 miles on it
It is a 2004. It will have to die on its own. Have no plans on getting a new one!!!!
Joyce says
That’s one good thing about an older vehicle in Missouri! I enjoy watching my personal property tax drop each year as my car ages…LOL When I was a teenager we had my Grandmother’s car as our second car, and it was so old, I think the personal property tax on it was something like $30.00 a year. My Dad liked that for sure. I was not as enamored since that was the car I got to drive and it was a beast…
judy.blog@gmail.com says
It will be interesting to see how low the taxes are on Vince’s old truck and the Honda. They won’t be a lot of the Highlander either since it’s old too. The taxes on Chad’s 2001 pickup are $6 per year.