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My next new car?
patrickl:
I drove an old junker when I was a kid and sure you can run a junker cheap if you have friends who help put in junk parts when something breaks. It was always unreliable though and it would break down annoyingly often and at the most inconvenient times.
If you become an adult, for most people that's no longer an option. So if you want/need a reliable car, it needs to be properly maintained with refurbished or new parts. That's going to cost money. Not sure what the age limit was (and I would assume it depends on the brand and model), but it's somewhere between 6 or 8 years. After that to keep it reliable, the old car costs more than a new car due to the high costs for replacing parts.
The Dutch automobile club brings out a report every year showing how much each model car costs to run. They do this based on actual price info from consumers (mileage, maintenance costs, depreciation etc)
The cheapest reliable drive is by buying a 3 year old car and driving it for 3 to 5 years. A 3 year old car will have had most of it's depreciation done and it's still reasonably low on maintenance costs. Overall I wasn't that impressed by the price difference to buying new and running it for 5 to 6 years.
One major issue that will make me always buy a new car is safety. When a (similar sized) new car and a 6 year old car hit each other, the 6 year old car will come out of that accident a lot worse than the new one. The older the car the bigger the death trap.
RetroACTIVE:
--- Quote from: ChadTower on March 19, 2008, 11:25:23 am ---
In New England they are all rusted out when they reach that tipping point. More cars are done in by rust and undercarriage rot than by other mechanical failure. There is no point in replacing a transmission or engine in a car that also has major rust problems in the suspension and body, especially since state inspections now fail cars with any more than small amounts of body rust.
--- End quote ---
I grew up in NH and this was always the case.... now I'm in MD and rust is not a problem... I remember it seemed like I needed to replace my exhaust systems every two years in NH.. and when stainless steel exhausts came around it was like woah! In NH they put a mixture of sand and salt on the roads... they don't do that here... the sand is killer, you are basically sand-blasting your car just by driving it around.... no mud flaps and your screwed!
shardian:
Buying 8 year old cars with 80k miles is like the lottery, only with much better odds. You have probably a 60-70% chance of driving without any problems at all for 3-4 years. And honestly, you won't lose much in depreciation at all if it was a nice car. Hondas and Toyotas depreciation levels out after so much.
After that 3 years is up and you came out like roses, you can get nearly ALL of your original money back for the car, especially if you leave it nicer than you got it.
As to constant repairs - I have been there. As a college kid, it was the only way I could have a vehicle. Breakdowns are a way of life when you can only afford a $1000 car.
At this point though, I'm not quite to the point I can afford a new car, but I want a nice used car that will get me there without issues day in/day out. That is definitely worth a few more thousand spread over a few years.
ChadTower:
--- Quote from: shardian on March 20, 2008, 08:41:01 am ---Buying 8 year old cars with 80k miles is like the lottery, only with much better odds. You have probably a 60-70% chance of driving without any problems at all for 3-4 years. And honestly, you won't lose much in depreciation at all if it was a nice car. Hondas and Toyotas depreciation levels out after so much.
After that 3 years is up and you came out like roses, you can get nearly ALL of your original money back for the car, especially if you leave it nicer than you got it.
--- End quote ---
Not here. Even a Civic is a bit eyebrow-raising if it goes 175k here. By that point you've poured a ton of money replacing nearly everything on the undercarriage at least once, nevermind any type of drivetrain wear parts like a timing belt or a transmission. An American car of any brand? Forget it. By the time you get to 150k, if you're damn lucky to get there, your floorboards will be gone, the steering will be trash, and you're on your third exhaust longpipe.
You just don't stand a chance when you can run your car through the car wash, and by the time you get the 4 miles home, there is already a white powdercoating of salt all the way up to the door trim.
ChadTower:
I've never known anyone that well who actually owned a Volvo but you do see a good amount more older Volvos than Fords, Chevy, etc.
As RetroActive mentioned there isn't a paint job out there that is going to protect your undercarriage from being sandblasted 8 months a year. Not even electrolytic. Cars are better than they used to be about this, sure, but it used to be a Ford was swiss cheese at 100k. Now you just get more time but still nothing like you'll get elsewhere.
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