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@itsreedgraff·November 4, 2026·1.3K views

When should you trade in your vehicle?

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How long should you actually drive your car before trading it in? At the dealership we see people follow three main schools of thought. Three years, seven years, or 12 years.

Trading every three years only makes sense if you're leasing because you're only paying for the depreciation. You're always under factory warranty, >> >> driving the safest tech, and usually getting subsidized deals from the manufacturers because they think that leasing gives higher brand loyalty. Some of the downsides of leasing include mileage caps, wear and tear fees, and always being locked in a basically never-ending payment.

Unless you buy out the lease at the end, but that put you past three years. Now, on the opposite end is holding the car for 12 years, driving it until the wheels fall off. And it's something a lot of people consider when they buy a new car.

Once the loan is paid off, you have zero monthly payment and you spread the initial depreciation of the vehicle over a full decade. However, around year eight, major repairs, transmissions, suspension, timing components, electronic components starts taking up pretty fast. And you risk places that you might trade your vehicle back into looking at your car instead of as a pre-owned vehicle and as an auction vehicle, making the car's value jump from about $10,000 to only about $500.

So, the sweet spot for a lot of people is right around the middle. Around five to seven years, your loan is paid off, the steepest depreciation is behind you, and you still have a lot of trade-in equity before repair jobs start jeopardizing your car's value. So, when should you actually buy out your lease?

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Recording audio when at a dealership be like.

And this have been on the lot for more than 200 days, so we're willing to make a deal and get these off the lot.

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