Ah, don't discount the upside of driving a beater car. I once had an odd, but generally harmless employee who drove a car that seemed to stay together out of habit. He shows up for work one morning, and was all smiles, well at least the few remaining teeth seemed to be smiling. He then reports that he was sitting in his car at the bank, after cashing his check. As he was counting his loot, he felt the car jerk violently. Some asshole gave him one hell of a door ding, as they let their door fly open. He opens the door and shouts WTF? to the other guy. The guy responds with, "so what, it's a junker anyway". My guy calmly walks over to the other car, and caves the door in with his foot. He looks the other driver in the eye and says, "well, now you have a beater too". As he drove off, the other driver just stood then in stunned silence.