As a young person, I was in the “own an old beater” category for many years. That said, I knew how to maintain and repair most of what could go wrong. That stick shift 1995 Accord had over 300,000 miles when a school bus finally totaled it while parked.
But for most people, maybe not the right answer. There’s a middle ground. There are some very affordable vehicles out there with good warranties. Buy one and for a few hundred a month, you get five years free of worry.
Of course, who does that? What I see are mostly SUVs and other “image” vehicles that cost more to buy and more to run. Frugality just hasn’t been an American trait in recent years, though it seems to be changing in some groups.
I don’t think you need to know a lot about cars to get good value out of them. I had an old ford ranger and all I did was get new tires when they tread wore off, get new brake pads when they started squeaking, and get the oil changed when the little sticker said to. I put 350k miles on that truck.
And if you are already living check to check, buying an old beater they you don’t know the condition of is more risky and harder to come up with the cash as things go wrong like the engine and the transmission.
It’s completely different than buying a slightly used car and keeping it forever where you know the wear and tear patterns on it and you know how you treat it.
But for most people, maybe not the right answer. There’s a middle ground. There are some very affordable vehicles out there with good warranties. Buy one and for a few hundred a month, you get five years free of worry.
Of course, who does that? What I see are mostly SUVs and other “image” vehicles that cost more to buy and more to run. Frugality just hasn’t been an American trait in recent years, though it seems to be changing in some groups.