There are 2 sets of people I know on hard times, somebody will give them a car, they might do some minor maintenance, but when the car goes into huge repair bills, somebody else gives them a running beater.
Me we have gone lease, for wife, low mileage driver, and saving money per month over cost of owning a car 11 years I got rid of due to expensive impending repairs. We owned it for 11 years, with taxes, interest and price and repairs and maintenance we are saving $18 a month, and at 3 years till next lease we never have to worry about brakes, tires, coolant or trans flush, only oil changes. And all is covered under warranty no surprise expenses.
For me Iâll probably buy a used suv when I need it, vehicles for towing boats are a whole nother story.
Yeah I donât know what I meant either. It was 95 degrees in the garage and trying to weld so I think I fried my brain a little. Iâm not working out there anymore until it cools off.
@VOLVO_V70 We do actually have a spam flag. On the bottom row of a post, you see the ellipsis (âŠ) which when you click on it shows hidden buttons. Click the flag icon, and it brings up a box where you can bring it to the attention of the poster (âI want to discuss privatelyâ) and then the buttons classifying whether you want to tell me or Victoria about spam/inappropriate/offensive/whatever.
Definitely #2! My faithful 2003 Subaru Outback as just over 415,000 miles on it, and if I were to do the next round of maintenance/repairs (timing belt, brakes, etc.) Iâm sure it would go for a few more years. The only challenge is that both my older cars needed a âchunkâ ($2,500-$3,500) of work each, and I had my eye on the 2005-2009 generation of Outbacks. So, instead of making those repairs, got a Forester for family member and Outback for me. My dear 2003 is still good, but would need the repairs I decided not to do. If I donât find a home for it, itâll be carted off for a donation, with my mechanicâs notes in case they have someone who gets a well-cared-for car can keep going. It ran me, not counting purchase cost, $.04 to $.08 cents/mile to run.
Keith, might I add: tires (multiple sets)-insurance-routine maintenance - registration fees- and should include the full price of vehicle with finance charges if applicable.
Weâve bought used cars almost exclusively over the years (decades!), but whether the car is a five-year-old or is a teenager, I always look for evidence of maintenance and bad driving habits; the car doesnât have to be pristine, although an interior thatâs still in good shape feels better when youâre riding.
Our current car is a '00 Camry XLE. We donât usually go for a fully-loaded model, but the leather and full option package were irresistible. We bought it, with relatively few rounds on the odo, in 2006 after the last Camry was Tboned (at city traffic speeds, so no injuries). At 248,000 Km (under 150,000 miles), The car has lots of life left. It gets a run on the highway from time to time, but in the last few years, when we have a long trip to take, we rent. Planning in advance gets better rates than last-minute bookings, and we use discounts or travel points whenever we can.
The Camry will last us forever, unless it meets a mishap like its predecessor. (The only rust evidence is, somewhat oddly, across the top of the windshield, an difficult place to properly repair, I believe.) Some of the features of new cars are nice to experience, but the buy-in isnât attractive.
As you say, it depends on the ownerâs needs, especially the level of reliability needed. I think you skipped the option that makes sense for the most people, which is buying a car around three years old. That should give a number of years of pretty reliable service at a reasonable price.
Another option you didnât mention is using a service like Zipcar instead of buying a car. For a couple living in a city, this could make sense instead of owning a second car.
Another point to discuss is taking car loans. I think too many people consider it acceptable to finance cars all their lives. If someone is financing a car, they should be buying a car cheap enough to allow putting money away for the next car at the same time, ideally paying cash for the next car, or at least the one after that.
Actually I did, sort of. My 02 Saturn was one of those âSilver Blue Specialsâ they sold for $9995 including destination and air. Out the door was $10,686, no financing, paid cash (check actually). It got 37.85 mpg average. Tires averages 100k miles.
I did get lucky that it have very few maintenance failures, none in the first 100k. I did my own maintenance and the failures it did have were fairly inexpensive, some only involved cleaning something.
I kept a spreadsheet on everything for most of its life, but lost it near the end to a computer crash. I put 275k miles on it. It had actually got down to a TOC (total owner cost) of $0.14 per mile, but then the price of gas rose from $1.50 to over $3.00/gal and the cost per mile rose to over $0.15/mile. About that time I lost the spreadsheet but I donât think gas ever went down enough again to lower that figure.
After throwing a few ball park figures on the usual repairs and maintenance on several of my recent vehicles into the calculator it appeared that 17-20c/mile was looking like it would be difficult to beat but obviously not impossible. I donât own anything that can gets >18 mpg though. But years ago when I owned several E-150s that operated on delivery routes the cost per mile for fuel was about 5c and the total cost was 14c so upkeep was nearly double the fuel cost. With the current price of unleaded that ratio seems about right today.
Sometimes it may make sense to buy an unpopular new car when it becomes a used car. However, one needs to take into consideration why the car is unpopular. Back in the 1960s, a Renault Dauphine could be had cheap, as could a Yugo in the late 1980s, but there was a reason-these cars werenât reliable. I remember back in 1963 when I was in graduate school I found a 1959 Dodge Coronet with low mileage at a Chevrolet dealer for $775. It was going cheap because it was a manual shift 6 where most Dodges were a V-8. In 1969 I looked at a full size 1966 Ford in great shape with only 10,000 miles and priced at $995 at the Oldsmobile dealer. Its problem was that it was a 240 cubic inch 6 instead of the popular Ford V 8. I drove the car and it didnât have a lot of pep, but it would have been great transportation. I donât know much about todayâs car market, but a well maintained Pontiac Aztec might fit the category of an unpopular car that could be had at the right price. Thanks to Ralph Nader, I bought a 1961 Corvair in 1967 for $450. I got good service from this car.
Agree. We made that recommendation to a Rice University student from India who was looking for cheap transportation for a few years. I recommended a low mileage Chevy Cobalt driven by seniors. He actually found just that and did not pay much for it. When he finished school he sold the car and we got a thank you email from him from India.
Years ago my kid brother needed a car for 3 years before he went overseas. We found a small six, low mileage Mercury Comet 4 door with power nothing. It was a hideous brown color and a car nobody would give a second look. He paid $600 for it Three years later he sold it for $400 or so. Only had to replace the muffler while he had it.
I donât think you could get under $0.20/mile today on a new car purchase. I bought my Saturn for under $10k list, but today I donât know if you could find a car under $17k, except for that MIrage sale a few months ago. You would also have to get about 40 mpg.
I expect that a new car today, kept for 250k miles or more and gets 35 mpg minimum would still cost about $0.30/mile.
Maybe a low mile, used econo car a couple years old could break the $0.20 barrier, if you can get it for under $10k to begin with.
