The tech perspective is an interesting one when looking at cars. I think one reason this works for you/Marsha and many others is that most cars are just comfortable for you to drive. For Rebecca, there are only a handful of cars that she can be in for very long, and for her being the driver (which she prefers to do), the list is shorter.
So, we still have QX80s from 2016 and 2018 which definitely are not the most modern of electronics - particularly the 2016 one. However, the seat being flat, the suspension and steering being comfortable for her pain issues, made us buy the last model of the Armada (which is basically the same as the QX80) as a future proofing. This does have CarPlay and other bits. Since we are fortunate to move around between places, we had needs in having more cars.
Rebecca plans to keep each car at least 10-years as the new Armada/QX80 is not comfortable for her to drive. Hopefully Nissan/Infiniti will change it again before then. And even if CarPlay stopped working, she would be loathe to give up any of them. (And as mentioned, the 2016 and 2018 cars don’t even have it.)
(I still have my 2013 BMW. I had it built for me with exactly the packages I wanted. In 2018, I was able to find a way to replace the electronics so I ended up with CarPlay in it (although the radio functionality was lost in the process). That was a fine tradeoff as I could stream any radio stations anyway (and I rarely listen to radio). The car has low mileage and costs about $2000 per year in preventive and real maintenance. Still, that’s way lower than buying a new car and losing more in depreciation each year.)
The tech perspective is an interesting one when looking at cars. I think one reason this works for you/Marsha and many others is that most cars are just comfortable for you to drive. For Rebecca, there are only a handful of cars that she can be in for very long, and for her being the driver (which she prefers to do), the list is shorter.
So, we still have QX80s from 2016 and 2018 which definitely are not the most modern of electronics - particularly the 2016 one. However, the seat being flat, the suspension and steering being comfortable for her pain issues, made us buy the last model of the Armada (which is basically the same as the QX80) as a future proofing. This does have CarPlay and other bits. Since we are fortunate to move around between places, we had needs in having more cars.
Rebecca plans to keep each car at least 10-years as the new Armada/QX80 is not comfortable for her to drive. Hopefully Nissan/Infiniti will change it again before then. And even if CarPlay stopped working, she would be loathe to give up any of them. (And as mentioned, the 2016 and 2018 cars don’t even have it.)
(I still have my 2013 BMW. I had it built for me with exactly the packages I wanted. In 2018, I was able to find a way to replace the electronics so I ended up with CarPlay in it (although the radio functionality was lost in the process). That was a fine tradeoff as I could stream any radio stations anyway (and I rarely listen to radio). The car has low mileage and costs about $2000 per year in preventive and real maintenance. Still, that’s way lower than buying a new car and losing more in depreciation each year.)
Good analysis. The 10+ year ethos is definitely the right way to avoid the pitfalls of depreciation or of having to find/get used to a new car!