Being self employed, hanging on to your car as long as possible is the way to go. Have a 2002 Ford focus 298,000 on it.(going to shop for struts Monday) We use two vehicles the other is a van to move machines, average about 20-25K per year, Mileage tax write off is the way to go(my opinion) Have a couple of car mechanics that always fix/keep vehicle going for fraction of normal shops. When I worked for a dealer(Sharp/Minolta) in 85-88, drove own car, got paid per mile though.