My odometer hit 240,000 last Tuesday and I can't decide if it's time to let the truck go
Rolled over 240,000 miles on my way home from the Aurora route last Tuesday, in a 2004 Ranger I bought with 61,000 on it back in 2011. One side of me says a truck that old with the original clutch is living on borrowed time, and the first $1,500 repair should be the sign to sell. The other side says it still starts every morning, passes emissions, and I've put maybe $2,200 total into repairs over 12 years, which beats a $450 car payment any day. So where's the real cutoff for you folks, a number on the dash or a repair bill amount?
Tracking your cost per mile might be the most useful thing here. At $2,200 over 179,000 miles you're at basically a penny a mile in repairs, which is unheard of. Even if you drop $1,500 tomorrow you're still way under what a new truck payment would run you over the same stretch. The dash number only matters when the repairs start coming in bunches, not when it's one bill after years of nothing.