How long a car lasts depends on

Does the car meet the owners current needs.

Does the owner still desire their current car.

Not been so badly damaged that it is unsafe or uneconomical to repair

Owners view on what they consider to be non wear & tear repsirs/replacements and whether they would replace it if the cost of wear and tear repairs/replacements exceed the cars value.

If diesel car is the owner going to be affected by things such as ULEZ or other restrictions.

My current car is just over 14 years old and could last to 500,000 miles at which time it would be 50 years old and I would be in my 80's but I will probably replace the car well before then ??

I have been wondering the same with regard to how long my cars may last. I have an immaculate 9-year-old Honda CRV iDtec Auto with a DPF filter I bought the car new and it has been faultless over 83000 miles. It is not worth very much now but despite lots of short runs mixed with the odd long run I have never even had the DPF warning light illuminated. I never drive it under 2 miles as I walk/cycle, I ensure the car is properly serviced and last year had all the fluids changed and it seems to work just fine. I am going to keep it until it dies. I have had the same approach with my 13-year-old Mustang GT V8 also owned from new and this has been faultless too possibly helped with the old school technology on it which means it is relatively easy to work on.

I have been looking to see if there is anything I would like to replace them with but nothing is pushing my buttons right now so I will just carry on saving money until my head is turned. I pretend I have a car loan payment to pay so have now saved enough to replace the car when the time comes.

I sold my Nissan Micro when it was ten years old, and a high mileage, repairs were getting expensive. I scrapped my Ford Ka at ten years of age, as the repairs needed to pass the MOT were excessive. It had done about 160,000 miles. I should have sold it after 8 years, as it did get costly to maintain. I sold my VW Up when it was 6 years old, with 130,000 miles, I wanted to get rid of it before it started costing serious money. I do high mileage and drive on salted roads, which do the cars in.

My neighbours Toyota is 15 years old and doing nicely, a bit of rust is appearing. Other neighbours have old cars too, they seem to soldier on. Then again my neighbours are all retired or as good as.

Depending on the local environment and the models tendency to rot a car can last as long as you’re prepared to fund repairs and maintenance.

I might keep my Polo for a long time, since I will retire in a year or two, and yearly mileage will drop. For the small cars I drive, I found it cheaper to buy a new one before repair bills escalated, due to high mileage. And the Up was much more efficient than the Ford Ka, so it was saving me £1000 a year in fuel which in effect covered the purchase cost. Plus newer cars are safer with better NCAP ratings. A modern 5 stars is much better than 5 stars ten years ago.

HJ once said economic life of a modern car is 7 years. Old cars with simple electrics will last a long time. Modern cars with complex electronics too much of liability outside warranty.

My experience of modern electronics is of great reliability Far better than mechanical.. Of course if you refer to cars made by people like Mercedes or BMW Or Range Rover, I agree with you..

Economic life is the expected period of time during which an asset remains useful to the average owner.

... there is an age of car at which an average owner may find the car more expensive to run than makes economic sense (to that owner).

As the market value of a car falls naturally during its life, there comes a point (probably averaging about 7 years) when the resale value regained by repairs is less than the cost of doing them. When a car's value bottoms out after about 10 years, that formula will say 'don't repair it, flog it' (ignoring the cost of finding another vehicle). Lucky bangernomics practitioners.

But there is an age of car at which an average owner may find the car more expensive to run than makes economic sense (to that owner).

I'm never sure what "economic sense" means in this context.

It often seems to be taken to mean until the cost of a repair exceeds the market value of the car.

That doesn't make "economic sense" to me.

It COULD make sense if you take THAT to mean that its cheaper to buy an identical replacement than to repair your existing vehicle, but for old cars that is seldom the case in practice, because of (a) limited availability and (b) devil-you-know.

If I had to replace my car I'd probably have to get something much newer, which is likely to be a lot more trouble.