We were on a long drive through upstate New York when I noticed a smell in the Jeep. A sweet smell. Something I hadn't noticed before.

When we got back to our campsite, I popped the hood and checked every fluid level.

That's when we found the coolant leak.

It's a 2011 Wrangler. We've put at least $10,000 into it. Repair after repair after repair. And now the radiator needed to be replaced, for another $900.

So I did the math every vehicle owner eventually does.

$10,000. Another $900. When does this stop?

Conventional Wisdom

When an old vehicle keeps breaking, the conventional wisdom is simple. Stop throwing good money after bad. Cut your losses. Buy something new and be done with it.

Honestly, that's where my head went. I started picturing a new Jeep. No leaks. No guessing. Something we could trust on a long drive.

I priced one out. About $40,000. I even started looking at what we'd get for a trade-in.

Part-time Partner

This Jeep doesn't live on the road with us most of the year. The last time we towed it behind a motorhome was four years ago, and it broke down on us in Death Valley.

About two-thirds of the year, it sits at our home base in Tennessee with nobody driving it.

So picture a new $40,000 Jeep, parked in Tennessee, losing value every month. For us, that's not an upgrade. That's the most expensive way we could own a vehicle.

And we don't know what we want next. After this trip, the Jeep will probably go back to being our home base car. Or maybe we'll need something completely different. If I bought new today, I'd be buying for a life we aren't living yet.

So we paid the $900.

Not because the Jeep deserves it, and not because of the $10,000 we'd already spent. That money was gone either way. The $900 buys us time to figure out what we actually need, instead of spending $40,000 on a guess.

Used vs New

Last week at the Hershey RV show, a man came through our 414LJMJ.

He was shopping for his first RV. New truck. New RV. The whole package.

We sat down inside, and I asked him the same two questions I ask anyone shopping for an RV:

1. Where do you picture yourself camping?
2. How often do you think you'll change campsites?

He didn't have an answer for either one.

He'd never RVed before. He'd never even been out in an RV with someone else. He didn't know how long he'd stay in one place, or whether he wanted state parks, national parks, or private campgrounds.

That's not a knock on him. That's what being new looks like. But it meant any new rig he bought would be a guess.

So maybe I'm just a horrible salesperson, because by the end I'd talked him into buying a used truck and a used RV instead. Yes, I was sitting in a brand-new fifth wheel with our name on it, telling him not to buy new.

That's not because new is bad. We love our 414. It's because he doesn't know what he doesn't know yet, and a used rig lets him find out without paying new-rig prices for the lesson.

6th time's the charm

We didn't buy a new RV until our sixth one.

Every one of those rigs taught us something the one before it couldn't. By the time we bought new, we knew exactly what we needed, because we'd spent years living with what we didn't.

The 414 exists because of all the RVs before it.

If you're dreaming

A lot of you are where the man at the RV show was. You're planning. Saving. Waiting on retirement, a house to sell, or kids to graduate.

It's tempting to buy the dream rig now so it's ready when you are. But if that RV is going to sit in your driveway or a storage lot for two or three years before you live in it, it's losing value the whole time. You're paying full price for a trip you haven't taken yet.

The same goes for the truck. A lot of people buy the tow vehicle first, then shop for an RV it can pull. That's backwards. Until you know what you're towing, you don't know what truck you need.

Here's what 11 years and 11 RVs has taught me:

1. The repair usually isn't the expensive mistake. The rushed replacement is. Sometimes a repair isn't buying more miles. It's buying time to decide.
2. Buy for the life you're living, not the one you're planning. We've always known more a year later than we did at the time.
3. Your first RV probably won't be your dream RV. Its job is to teach you how you actually travel.

The Jeep's job

The Jeep will probably finish this route and head home.

After that, it'll go back to running errands around our home base in Tennessee. That's a good job too.

We may still spend $40,000 on another vehicle someday. The $900 didn't cancel that decision. It just kept us from making it before we knew enough.