My present Wandermobile is an '02 F350 Crew Cab longbed diesel, purchased in May '04 with 96,500 miles (original owner did oil field rig service work and put those miles on her in only 22 months). She's got 257,000 on the clock today. I plan to keep her indefinitely as nowadays she is only a property maintenance "rolling toolbox" and a weekend/vacation Wandermobile.
In 1973 I got a 1967 IH Scout with a 266 cubic inch V-8 during my tenure at Appalachian State University. My parents and little sisters used it on weekends when visiting our nearby vacation home on ski weekends. I still have it, though it has not been run since 1989. As we say in the IH business, she "ran when parked".
We had a 1990 half-ton 4WD Suburban from 1995 to 2009. It had the distinction of having served as a daily driver for my wife, both sons, and myself (guess who got it last). With 195,000 miles on the clock and on her 3rd transmission, and running on 7 cylinders, the US Gummint decided it was worth $4,500 so we traded it in under the Cash for Clunkers program. I had a plan to have it towed to a discrete spot up the hill from the dealership so I could coast in to a parking spot on trade-in day, as the Clunkers program required that the vehicle arrive at the dealership "unassisted". Fortunately, it was a good day and the old battlewagon made it in under her own power. We really loved that old truck. She hauled the 4 of us from the Blue Ridge to the Outer Banks, camping gear and surfboards piled on top, and she towed our old Hydra Sports CC to and from the coast for a long time (which was the reason for blowing up the 700 series automatic twice).
Near and dear to my heart is my late father's 1994 Lincoln Town Car. He purchased her as a slightly used executive leaser with 19,000 miles in late 1995 and drove her sparingly in his retirement until his passing in 1999. Mom kept her in the garage, rarely driven, until 2003. She then became a daily driver for my wife for several years, for me, and served as a backup car for us and our sons, notably the Navy Seabee who squired the ladies around town in between training and deployment while he was vehicle-less. She's in the driveway on a battery-tender awaiting her next assignment, with 185,000 miles on the clock.
My current DD is a 2001 Mazda B-3000 V-6 5-speed, a Ranger in Mazda cladding. She's an Expo-Rated extended cab 2WD with 185,000 miles. I picked her up for $3,500 in early 2013 in order to stop driving the F350 and the Lincoln. I'll likely keep her indefinitely.
Like the motor oil commercial says: "I like new things, especially when they get old".
Foy
