Your Parents auto==with a full tank
One that runs good and without car payments, maintain it yourself, and older car or truck.
Great advice for someone who’s young and single…
But as you get older…and more responsibilities…it’s harder and harder to maintain an older car…I work 50+ hours/week…have 1 kid at home full time…and 1 in college that’s here during the summer…the oldest is now on her own…Wife also works. Maintaining a house…work…and family life makes it almost impossible to keep up with a beater. I do all my own maintenance…but if I had to work on a car every weekend just to keep it running…then I’d soon be getting rid of it…my time is far more valuable.
Agree with Mike. Although I trained as a mechanic, and still do some routine things, like changing oil and replacing a battery, I’m leaving the tougher stuff to the professionals.
However, I believe every young person should start out with a cheap used car to learn how to regularly take care of it. How many repairs you will end up doing yourself depends on you practical skills and shop/work space available. The series “Shade Tree Mechanic” on the Country & Western Network ( TNN,Nashville)was really great, since it took you from basics to the more complicated projects without having to own a $50,000 shop.
My Mom always says the cheapest car to own is “one that’s paid for”. Even if it’s old and you still enjoy driving it, you should do what it takes to maintain it even if it means replacing the drive train, or interior. If someone owned a VW bug, I’d guess that they’re the cheapest to own, drive, and maintain.
In general, that’s true. As long as you can get parts at a reasonable price. For every car there comes a time, however, where the replacement of a major item costs more than what the car is worth. Then you decide whether to buy another similar used car in good condition (if you could find one), a new one, or replace the item needing repair.
Full size US pickup trucks are a good example of a vehicle that you could keep fixing indefinitely,since parts are available. Where I live I often see late 60s Chevy pickups parked in front of an automotive or hardware store. The bodies have held up in a dry climate and the owners just keep fixing them up!
For the past 8 years or so, I have been buying and driving Classic Saab 900s (1979-93). The most I have paid is $400, the least is $20. A quick count says I have purchased six 900s in that time. Total price to purchase these cars is about $1200. As one is retired due to rust or expensive mechanical issues, another one comes along. As one is retired, it becomes the parts donor for the next 900 (I live in a rural area, so having a dead car or two on the property is not a big issue). I do nearly all of my own work. Excluding renewable items like oil, filters and wiper blades, my out of pocket cost for parts in that time is about $200. Yes, two-hundred dollars, American. And I have replaced some potentially expensive items like fuel pumps, brake calipers and drive axles.
I have purchased new snow tires on a couple of occasions because I believe that good tires on all four corners will get you through bad weather better than FWD or AWD alone. The current set of snow tires have been on three different 900s, and are finally worn enough to need replacement next year. But the latest 900, a 1987 900S, came with two decent used snows, so will only have to buy two for next season.
Because of the age of these cars (generally 20 years old or more), insurance is inexpensive, but it is still the largest single annual expense besides gasoline.
Agree with Mike. Although I trained as a mechanic, and still do some routine things, like changing oil and replacing a battery, I’m leaving the tougher stuff to the professionals.
Agree 100%.
However, I believe every young person should start out with a cheap used car to learn how to regularly take care of it.
Yup…Very important. And I’ve tried to influence my kids to do the same. My middle son does most of his own work…Even rebuilt an engine and transmission.
If you are still reading this docknic, you are right. It was a Corona I owned with a slant four motor. Wish I still owned it. I had to get rid of it because the first wife never could figure out the manual choke.
Thanks oldwrench; In 1968 there was initially only one Toyota,the Corona, soon joined by the Crown, which a friend of mine bought. It had a straight 6 with OHC and ran like a dream. The Corolla came out in 1970 or so. Same size as British imports but 10 times as reliable. Toyota was determined that to succeed in North America, a car had to be able to go at 70 mph for hours on end without overheating, vibrating and burning oil. It also had to have a decent heater and defroster, something lost on the British for 30 years or so.
The Corona lived on in Asia. I had a 1992 model in Malaysia for a while. It was midway between a Camry and a Corolla, and very smooth in operation.
Consumer Reports was very complementary, since the Corona had more inside room than the Beetle, its only real real competitor. At that time a friend bought a Renault Gordini (a souped up Dauphine), a truly bio-degradable and unreliable car. Mercifully, it died in a snow storm accident, allowing him to buy something better. Other contenders on the market were the Austin America and Morris twin, the Austin Mini (my wife won one), the Fiat models, the British Fords, and others.
Usually the cheapest will be the one you already own, no matter what make or model it is.
There are a great many good candidates. A friend paid $2,000 for a 1996 Isuzu Trooper 2 years ago and had me do a complete timing belt,water pump, etc service and brakes front and rear. She has now driven it over 42,000 miles with no problems. With only liability insurance and minimum tax the vehicle has already given her full value and continues to run good and averages just over 17 mpg. The smaller Toyotas and Nissans come to mind for me first, though. And if serviced well the automatics seem a better buy than manuals.
Find an old Toyota Corolla circa mid 1980’s. I have an 87 FX-16 getting 34 mpg now. The car is a tank.
Not only that, but those published figures I’ve found to be horribly unreliable themselves. I’ve never once had a car that even approached their estimates for maintenance and repair costs, or really even half as much as they estimate.
Now, if you’re going to throw your money away on a new car every 5 years, depreciation (not the purchase price) is your biggest enemy by far, and they give you very good ideas of that.
But those of us that drive beaters? Well, purchase price = our ultimate total depreciation, or very close to it. We don’t care so much if the curve is linear or not - because the car should be near worthless when we get rid of it…
Why under 750? My 1250 gets 41 MPG. The small engine sportbikes are super high compression and need super. My 1250 is like a tiny car engine, and uses regular gas.
[b] The cheapest is the one you own and don't owe payments on. Maintenance and repairs will always be cheaper, on average, than buying new cars. [/b]Quote from realbinky: “Why under 750? My 1250 gets 41 MPG. The small engine sportbikes are super high compression and need super. My 1250 is like a tiny car engine, and uses regular gas.” Unquote
41 mpg with a motorcycle is not much. I have two cars that can do as well or better. One of them, a Cobalt XFE, highway rated at 37 can be driven at 60 mph to break 40 mpg.
If you want good gas mileage, an 883 Harley Sportster will break 50 mpg easily on 87 octane. Mine is overgeared and can do 60 mpg at 60 mph. 41 mpg is nothing that can be boasted about if that was your intent.
Buy what nobody else wants and repair it yourself and you will likely do better than the person who, for a higher price, buys a car that might not break.
I also have a theory to offer related to saving money: People who spend time and energy figuring out how to be cheap may be better off spending time and energy to improve their personal abilities in order to make enough money so that they don’t need to be cheap.
Third is probably a motorcycle amsller than 750cc.
I don’t think so. Both of my motorcycles have slightly less then 750cc engines (745 and 747), and just the cost of tires makes riding more expensive than driving my Civic (with its 1,700cc engine).
Car tires cost about $400/set, and they last at least 40,000 miles (about $0.01/mile). Motorcycle tires cost at least $250/set (if you are lucky), and at that price, they might last as much as 7,000 miles (making them cost 3-4 times as much per mile). I don’t care if you get 50 MPG, the savings in gas won’t offset the price of keeping good tires on your motorcycle. More expensive motorcycle tires will last longer, but they will still average at least $0.035/mile.
You might save gas by riding a motorcycle, but you won’t save money.
My vote would be for a Honda Civic. They cost slightly more than other cars in the same class, but that increased price is balanced out by a very low cost of operation. The new Civic probably doesn’t qualify though. It has changed too much. The tires are more expensive and the fuel economy is lower.
People might say they ride a motorcycle to save gas, or even to save money, but there is really only one good reason to ride a motorcycle, and that is that you enjoy the rush. If someone is riding a motorcycle for any other reason, he or she should be in a car. A hybrid will give you better fuel economy than most motorcycles, and an econobox will be cheaper to own and operate on a per-mile basis.
Sometimes the most expensive thing a person can do is be super cheap