(albeit brand new and much nicer than what I can drive once I'm FI).
Never having owned a vehicle with this particular feature, it's not anywhere on my list of requirements, because I literally don't know what I'm missing. I'm still pretty excited by a cruise control that lets you set the speed by 1mph increments instead of having the "resume/accelerate/coast" set of buttons that was common for decades.I'm pretty excited about cruise control that works 100% of the time! My '92 has 70%-of-the-time functional cruise control and our '99 has no cruise at all.
Our next cars will probably be one "tier" above this (for "business image reasons" unfortunately): The $2000-3000 cars you fix yourself.
Our next cars will probably be one "tier" above this (for "business image reasons" unfortunately): The $2000-3000 cars you fix yourself.
The neat little loophole with "business image" is that if you drive an older luxury car that's well maintained, they can be fairly cheap (not as cheap as a beat to shit Civic, but... still very reasonable), and nobody really looks at you that weird. It's just your little quirk.
If you're hauling people around, not everyone might appreciate a late 80s BMW, but if it's just you getting places, an 80s or 90s BMW is "classic" and old enough that it's clear you're deliberately driving it, not just driving it because you can't afford to upgrade.
The CTS-V is the Corvette engine & suspension in a Cadillac, right?
How'd you get one for $12k? I thought they were $60k+ cars.
I drove a 1996 Volvo that I picked up for $2k in 2012 for a while, and it definitely fit the sort of thing you're describing. But that's not really what I'm going for.Our next cars will probably be one "tier" above this (for "business image reasons" unfortunately): The $2000-3000 cars you fix yourself.
The neat little loophole with "business image" is that if you drive an older luxury car that's well maintained, they can be fairly cheap (not as cheap as a beat to shit Civic, but... still very reasonable), and nobody really looks at you that weird. It's just your little quirk.
If you're hauling people around, not everyone might appreciate a late 80s BMW, but if it's just you getting places, an 80s or 90s BMW is "classic" and old enough that it's clear you're deliberately driving it, not just driving it because you can't afford to upgrade.
Ah, yeah. For a freelance photographer, something clean and utilitarian sounds like a good option. Probably something boxy enough you can put labels on the side.Sounds like about what we'll be doing. "Visually doesn't terrify people" is a good descriptor.
I drove the beaters in college, but after a while eventually moved up to "still pretty cheap but visually doesn't terrify people" for my general car. Though I kept a few cheap ones around for teaching people to drive stick on. :)
I'd like to have the wagon version of that Merc. For weekend use as you described.
There is a website called Bring-A-Trailer that lists cars and writes up articles about them. Saw a wagon like this Merc on there in perfect condition (I recall) for about $4500. It was just on the wrong side of the country from me. It was a gas engine.
(albeit brand new and much nicer than what I can drive once I'm FI).
Careful with that. Apparently you get used to Things on Cars, and Can't Live Without Them afterwards.
This blog post really got me thinking, but I am NOT a car guy. I am not 100% clueless when it comes to tools and such, and I'm willing to try things, but I currently know almost nothing about mechanical stuff. Is this something I should even think about trying? or should I stick with the 5 to 10 thousand dollar range used cars?
This blog post really got me thinking, but I am NOT a car guy. I am not 100% clueless when it comes to tools and such, and I'm willing to try things, but I currently know almost nothing about mechanical stuff. Is this something I should even think about trying? or should I stick with the 5 to 10 thousand dollar range used cars?
.... replacing suspension on a rust belt car, etc, then it can become more of a headache.
But, anybody can learn how to do those things. All my life I wish I'd had sons to mentor on these things and I only made daughters. I should try to meet some local newbs to train up....
The beauty of the 4-cyl non-turbo diesel was that you could literally fix or bypass anything on it with whatever detrius littered the roadside where you broke down. I have never seen a car with such simple mechanics. Having said that, it did break down with surprising regularity. The most extreme failure being when the driveshaft fell out of the bottom of it. I guess that sometimes happens with 30+ year old cars.
But, anybody can learn how to do those things. All my life I wish I'd had sons to mentor on these things and I only made daughters. I should try to meet some local newbs to train up....
Or just train your daughters.
I think one of the most important things to learn is how to break bolts.
Then stop doing it.
.... replacing suspension on a rust belt car, etc, then it can become more of a headache.
Just did this two weeks ago (not my first time). Definitely requires advanced skills, a good jack, jack stands (SAFETY!!!!), an electric or air impact wrench and a shit ton of sockets, a spring compressor loan from the auto parts store and time.
Oh, and a heated garage. It's wisconsin.
But, anybody can learn how to do those things. All my life I wish I'd had sons to mentor on these things and I only made daughters. I should try to meet some local newbs to train up....
I think I speak for most young women when I say: teach them!
I haven't owned a car for a few years, and was never a pro, but I am so glad I can
change a tire and my oil and drive clutch. There is no reason your daughters can't learn this. Ask them!
In my mind, as long as the car is 1% or less than your monthly income, why not enjoy it?
In my mind, as long as the car is 1% or less than your monthly income, why not enjoy it?
Am I missing something or would this require you to earn more than 80K monthly? 100K over 120 months is 833 monthly. 833 monthly is 1% of $83K.
I'm kinda in the same boat with the above - looking at a new car for my road tripping habit, but also not really wanting to get into a beater when doing 4-5hrs of highway driving in rough weather after a day of work, and driving back from the ski hill Sunday in the same weather.
Whats the Mustachian thing to do when reliability and drivability is more of a concern than total bottom line low cost?
keep 10 keep 15 keep 20 keep 7 keep 5 keep 3 7 year old car new car new car new car 7 years new car jalopey purchase price 7200 18000 18000 18000 18000 2000 sales tax 648 1620 1620 1620 1620 180 annual maintenance 600 400 400 300 250 600 fuel cost 836 836 836 836 836 975 miles driven 13000 13000 13000 13000 13000 13000 start mileage 100000 0 0 0 0 250000 end mileage 250000 195000 260000 100000 80000 290000 sell price 2000 3000 3000 7200 10000 1000 years owned 10 15 20 7 5 4 total maintenance costs 6000 6000 8000 2100 1250 2400 total fuel cost 8357 12536 16714 5852 4179 3900 insurance cost 400 600 600 700 800 300 annual tco $2,420.51 $2,943.71 $2,666.71 $3,610.29 $3,809.71 $2,086.67 decade difference baseline $5,232.00 $2,462.00 $11,897.71 $13,892.00 $(3,338.48) per mile 0.186193407 0.22643956 0.205131868 0.277714286 0.293054945 0.160512821 |