heimlaga
Established Member
The difference being that when your old car was stolen you could afford to buy an almost new hybrid.That's if the batteries haven't caught fire beforehand. There's a few YouTube videos floating around of them catching fire quite spectacularly
This was my plan also. My previous car (also a Toyota) was 2 months away from its 21st birthday. I bought it 3 years ago as my first car and it was mechanically sound still, 80,000 miles on the clock and still going strong. I replaced a few parts (mostly fixtures like a sunroof and misty headlights) but the car itself still ran perfectly.
But then, one day in September I was asked to park it in the street while work was being done on the front of our house and my beloved car was stolen. Handbrake cable cut and winched away on a recovery truck (this was at 11am I should add and was even filmed by a neighbor on his mobile phone). The car the police told me, that I thought would go on for quite a few more years, was stolen for scrap and would probably be in bits now. The greenest thing to do I was advised was to keep the car going for as long as possible, even though it did consume more fuel, but when my car was stolen I was advised to get a self charging hybrid.
I should of added that my Toyota hybrid is 6 years old but with only 20k on the clock, but my mechanic who used to work at Toyota, assured me that it had at least 100k if not more in it. I don't drive huge miles and so I'm hoping this car will last me a lot longer than my previous one (I don't intend to park it on the street anymore)
For me that would mean taking loans on a level which could only go one way. Bankrupsy and property auction.
I do not bash you for that. You probably did a sensibe thing in your situation.
We others who are less well off can only buy another old car. I just wonder what an electric car will be like when it is 37 years with 350000 km on the clock as my old car was when I was forced to take it out of insurance and use due to shortage of spare parts. I also wonder what a "new" 15-20 years old electric car will be like when one buys it.