Re:Many Americans who live paycheck to paycheck blame debt
by sokoloff on Saturday July 20, 2019 @08:29PM
(#20489179)
By far the cheapest car I ever owned was a Mercedes E300D turbodiesel. Was a $55K car in 1998 and a $6500 car in 2009. Mercedes in general but diesels in particular are built to last and are quite inexpensive to maintain if you DIY or use an independent mechanic.
A $6500 Jaguar is probably not a good budget recommendation though... :)
Re:Many Americans who live paycheck to paycheck blame debt
by Retric on Saturday July 20, 2019 @09:07PM
(#20489329)
88% off on a 12 year old car is a serious discount. But, if it’s actually lasting 10 years as your daily driver without needing serious repairs you may just want to be buying lotto tickets :)
PS: A friend owned a used car for 3 years then sold it for a net profit without doing any repairs. But, good luck retreating that without spending a lot of time looking for great deals.
Re:Many Americans who live paycheck to paycheck blame debt
by sokoloff on Saturday July 20, 2019 @09:24PM
(#20489378)
I suspect the biggest win is getting over the mostly mental hurdle of “I deserve a new car because reasons...”, deciding to buy used, and then just not picking absolute maintenance hogs. Most cars are quite reliable now and can easily go 150-200K miles without major drama. 10 Audis owned for 10 years will likely cost more than 20 Toyotas owned for 10 years. Even “over paying” at a place like CarMax (who makes it “easy” to shop for a late model used car) is better than getting fleeced at the new car dealer.
People love buying new cars though... It’d be a lot more amusing if it weren’t so financially harmful. (I confess to buying a new electric LEAF but only because it came with $10K in government money in the trunk. Even with you guys buying 1/3rd of it for us and Nissan financing it at 0% interest, it’s noticeably more expensive than our other cars. Good car though. Has needed wiper blades and washer fluid in 55 months of ownership.)
That speaks of expertise and therefore is poor measure of TCO for the average person. That said, buying a 3-6 year old used car is frequent advice.
Where people fall down is not buying a used car. It's buying a used car they could not afford as a new car. If your buying a used vehicle that was 30+k new, your not actually getting a cheap vehicle, just an old one.