Liviu Marcus
We are all human beings with different tastes, circumstances, and requirements, so we all vary in terms of the relationships we have with our cars – and the frequency with which we change our cars is likely to be a key indicator of that.
Take a moment to look over your own car history. Are you the kind of person who tends to keep hold of a car until it’s literally ‘falling to bits’, or is it more typical for you to switch vehicles every year or two?
Interestingly, according to statistics reported on by Autocar a few years ago, it seems that the general trend in recent times has been towards more frequent car changes, with some manufacturers reporting average vehicle returns of 24 months. That’s a shorter period of time than many of us keep our mobile phones for!
Although somebody else’s switching to a new car does matter, your requirements in this regard are something different. Therefore, without much ado, here are only three reasons you could possibly want to upgrade your car, or at least consider it.
The running costs of your existing vehicle are becoming too high.
Usually, older cars have the same trend; as the years go by, the vehicle gets worse and less reliable, and the parts wear out some require replacement and some are hard to find. Thus, the maintenance and repair fees of a car may increase gradually.
This is one of those situations when you begin to really contemplate if a newer car would be a more efficient way of maintaining your daily, weekly, and monthly car costs. So the longer the time the more right you are.
Today, most drivers are actively considering electric vehicles (EVs) as the replacement for their current petrol or diesel cars in 2022. And this interesting research by Car magazine shows that EVs can save you several hundred or even thousands of pounds per year if you make the correct choice.
But a lot will also be determined by what you intend to use your vehicle for. Hence, you will have to calculate for yourself such factors as insurance and tax to identify the car upgrade that would suit your needs at the moment.
A newer car could also be a safer one.
Safety is not among the most “exciting” reasons to upgrade a car – in the context of being enthusiastic about buying a new car, that is rather likely, if you are planning to purchase a car with better performance, or a cooler media system inside.
However, safety will be an aspect you will have to consider as a driver. As Which.co.uk explained, one has to keep in mind that there are not only features that will give protection after the crash has actually occurred, such as airbags or a strong bodyshell, that need to be looked for.
The above examples are just among the passive safety features which are the opposite of the active safety features that are intended to intervene to prevent the occurrence of an accident in the first place. The latter features present in the newest cars in the market are electronic stability control (ESC), autonomous emergency braking (AEB), and lane-keeping technologies.
A newer vehicle is sure to have at least some of the mentioned active and passive safety features compared to an older one. This is why safety could be a valid reason to get a new car – though, of course, you would need to scrutinize the specification sheet of whatever model you are interested in.
The broad range of car finance options available.
Of course, there are quite a number of ‘practical’ reasons to upgrade your car, but there’s another reason why you might be drawn to changing your car these days: simply because you can. You might have seen a certain vehicle that you fancy, and while you might theoretically be able to ‘get by’ for another year or two with your existing car, you might not wish to wait that long.
On that note, one thing that might be at least partly ‘driving’ the trend we mentioned above of more frequent car changes, is the sheer availability of car finance.
