[zx10guy]

I'm also surprised by what I've seen where people have dumped cars they've only had for a few months purchased new; citing some issue that they couldn't live with. Makes me wonder if the decision to buy the car was even thought out at all. While one can chalk this up to a snap impulse/emotion of the moment, I'm seeing situations like this is not all that rare.

I have shown that I do keep my vehicles for a long time. Had a 94 Cavalier Z24 which I drove 12 years till I scraped the car because it had blown a head gasket at around 160k miles. That's when I picked up a 2006 Focus ZX3. Drove that for 8 years and 176k miles till that was totaled out by my insurance company when I hit a deer with it. I would have kept driving that car had it not been for the deer strike. I also had a 94 Camaro Z28. Bought it used in 99 with 60k miles. I sold it when I decided to buy my 135i after having it for 14 years and 101k miles. The car was starting to show its age. A/C compressor seized up, fabric for the head liner was detaching from the foam, power door locks were acting up, driver side window needed a new power window motor, rear main seal was starting to leak. All repairable issues but I just didn't want to dump any more money into it and wanted something different.

While I'm thinking cars a bit of a different animal, I'm finding out holding on to motorcycles can be a bit of a challenge. I currently have two bikes a 2004 ZX-10R and a 2009 848. I had to replace the rear hugger on the ZX. Found out getting a new OEM hugger was not an option as no one had one in stock and Kawasaki stopped making the part. I turned to Fleabay and found an aftermarket carbon fiber replacement. But I've been noticing even aftermarket options are becoming more limited for this bike.

The only thing I guess I can be faulted on with my vehicle purchases is buying new. The Z28 was the only car I bought used. Could I have done better financially if I bought all my vehicles used? Yes. But I figure any depreciation hit gets diluted to an acceptable level being that I do hold on to my vehicles for a very long time.