I have 2 stories re: gardeners and vehicles!
1)Oddly, I bought and drove a $17k brand new truck (dodge dakota 4.7 v8, great truck) as a 19yr old college student paying the bills by mowing lawns, lots of lawns, hundreds of lawns! 8lawns/day 5 days a week, with another 3-5 on Sat, charging $15/ea and averaging about $17/ea with tips. It was a good hustle, making $600-800 a week, mostly cash. The average lawn took about 30minutes. I was busting my hump big time, start by 7am and done by 11 or 12 before the Houston heat really kicked in.
The first vehicle was an ancient $1600 chevy. It got rear-ended and destroyed. I needed something reliable, quickly, and had the prospect of a well paying engineering career ahead of me. 3-5yr old used trucks at the time were like 15k, made no sense; so I worked a deal on the brand new Dodge at 1.9% interest. It also helped me build my credit history. I kept it for 8yrs and 80k and sold it for $8000
2) current neighbor lawn guy. I admire this guy. Hard working Hispanic dude, little English, wife and small kids. He started in the neighborhood with 1 customer and an ancient hatchback Civic, lawnmower strapped in the back with the hatch open. he picked up more customers and bought an old mazda truck. Kept hustling and now has a late model shiny red 1/2ton chevy with 20" chrome wheels. Living the dream in the land of opportunity! Badass on him.