I had an older Toyota that was totalled a few years back. It was almost 10 years old but the engine was great and the miles were low. That 4k a big help in getting the next car even when it's almost impossible to find another perfect 10 year old car with a great engine, low mileage for 4k (I ended up getting an 8 year old car with great engine, low mileage for $7.5k).

But if you're down to $2k then maybe it's time to just stop paying it.

the collision insurance when the car is past 5 years old. I dropped mine when my car was about 6 years old.

I generally keep my vehicles around 10 years. My oldest vehicle right now is 12 years old and I keep collision on it. The reason is because the older a vehicle gets the less it's worth, so collision insurance also drops.

I usually buy cars about 3 years old with 35k - 50k miles. Depending on how good the car is, I will carry collision for 3 or 4 years. After that, its not worth it to me. But I usually have enough banked to put a down payment on another car if I need to. I only had to use my collision once, when my wife hit a deer a few months after we got the car. I was glad I had it because the repairs were over 4 grand.

reminded me that I need to think about this myself. My car is 10.

I've got an extremely inexpensive car now, so I carry the absolute minimum coverage.