Thoughts on newer vehicles mentality..

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DusterKrazy

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Ok, so I was talking to people the other day at college and they told me that they sold off their 80's something GM V6er' beat around car because it burned
to much gas and bought a new car. It ran great and it's been paid off forever and a day.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with people wanting a new ride. It's all preference, however some people will go into debt when the transportation they had was perfectly ok. They will then whine that they are broke. The new car must be a status thing??

Then I get asked "How can you afford to drive that old thing around??"...I told them that "It's paid for and you cannot save any money on gas by making a car payment." I usually get the "you are crazy look". Oh well...

Not only do you make the payment, you also still have to buy gas, pay collison insurance and pay stupid tax rates on them. Not to mention any other wear items that the vehicle will need.

If the average price of a new car is say $18-$30k, I say you can buy a lot of gas for that kind of money.

rant off and enjoy the weekend good folks.
-M
 
Well a lot of people want reliability too. And when there older car starts to break down more often the cost of maintenance goes up and they don't want to get stranded somewhere. So usually, in my experience, people want to get rid of their car when they have had two major repairs within 6 months, which would add up to about the same as a new car payment, and the newer car should be more reliable.

But I am with you, I keep my beaters around forever. In my case it beats having a car payment. But there are times when I do get sick of something breaking on them, in fact I have had one down for quite some time now, and haven't get around to fixing it.
 
Dartboy52 said:
Well a lot of people want reliability too. And when there older car starts to break down more often the cost of maintenance goes up and they don't want to get stranded somewhere. So usually, in my experience, people want to get rid of their car when they have had two major repairs within 6 months, which would add up to about the same as a new car payment, and the newer car should be more reliable.

But I am with you, I keep my beaters around forever. In my case it beats having a car payment. But there are times when I do get sick of something breaking on them, in fact I have had one down for quite some time now, and haven't get around to fixing it.
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Good points for sure. If people get a newer one of anything that holds up, I am happy for 'em..
 
I agree with you for the most part ; at least 95% of what you're saying here .

I much prefer driving / owning a car that is :
- without computers
- accessible to work on myself
- free from smog checks ( esp. I/M tests ! )

It is , however , a trade-off . Parts aren't exactly just kickin' back on the shelf ; there is the concern of other drivers' lack of attention ; and old(er) vehicles are finicky when it comes to fuel grades .

You're 100% right about the concept of trading a car that's paid for and gets respectable mileage , for a new car that has higher registration fees ( good ole California !!! ) , monthly payments , full-coverage insurance , and fuel mileage that's not much better .

However , now a days , with all of the plastic **** in the engine compartment , those irritating and expensive replacement headlight bulbs ( that crap out at least once a
year ) , and all the little nickle-and-dime garbage that one experiences after a car turns 5 years old , it's better to trade the bastard for something new , every 3-5 years .
 
LH23H2R said:
I agree with you for the most part ; at least 95% of what you're saying here .

I much prefer driving / owning a car that is :
- without computers
- accessible to work on myself
- free from smog checks ( esp. I/M tests ! )

It is , however , a trade-off . Parts aren't exactly just kickin' back on the shelf ; there is the concern of other drivers' lack of attention ; and old(er) vehicles are finicky when it comes to fuel grades .

You're 100% right about the concept of trading a car that's paid for and gets respectable mileage , for a new car that has higher registration fees ( good ole California !!! ) , monthly payments , full-coverage insurance , and fuel mileage that's not much better .

However , now a days , with all of the plastic **** in the engine compartment , those irritating and expensive replacement headlight bulbs ( that crap out at least once a
year ) , and all the little nickle-and-dime garbage that one experiences after a car turns 5 years old , it's better to trade the bastard for something new , every 3-5 years .
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Tell me about it! My mom had an '01 Cadillac Deville..the biggest $40k pile of sh** I have ever seen. Everything went wrong with it.
 
I haven't made a car payment since 2005. The secret is to have a backup or two so when the one that you drive daily has an issue you can fix it without distrupting your life. You can sell one and buy another with a few months car payments every couple years and save again. The secret is not wanting the latest and greatest and saving that car payment each month so when something does go wrong you can fix it without too much pain. Believe me it can be tough. I was driving into work for no pay (salary) today and passed three new Chargers with manufacturing plates and they sure looked nice....Willpower!
 
I agree with you completely. (for me)
However, consider yourself lucky that you can do the work on an older car yourself.
A lot of people can't, so that's why they are forced to buy new.
 
I love when people say "I don't have money to fix this car, I think I should buy a new one"
!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
 
My wife's truck is 16 years old, my work van is 23 yrs old, and the Duster is 38 yrs old. No problems!!!!!
 
i drove a piece of paid for crap for a long time. i made a car payment to myself every month. when the new challengers came out in '08, i started saving as much as i could afford. i bought a new chally in Oct. 2010. i didn't buy it because i couldn't work on a car, or as a status symbol. i bought the car i wanted and don't mind the payment.

i understand what you mean though. i can't see how getting rid of a good car and buying something new is "green" or better for the enviroment. considering the nataural resorces it takes to make a new car. at work we are installing charing stations for cars. where do they think power comes from?
 
its like people who buy electric vehicles and think they don't pollute
if they only knew how much coal they had to burn per mile driven, unless you have your own wind or solar to charge it your running on coal and that causes way more pollution than a good running gasoline engine per mile driven
 
where do they think power comes from?[/QUOTE]


Lol,plus the energy and materials expended to build a freakin prius will kill the plannet far quicker than me driving my 00 Caravan for another 100 000 or so.

The coal burned to produce energy is very damaging, and as of yet the only thing they can do with nuclear waste is store it.Never mind all the highly toxic crap in those batteries!

I think drag racing is far more environmentally friendly! It's all about efficieny after all...
 
I've got a 89 Mercedes coupe which is worth under 5 grand, get 27+mpg but takes premium gas, never had a problem since I've had it and my 90 silverado 350 with its new Tremac 6 speed in getting 18 around town with 127,000 miles on the engine.

I don't blame those who get a new vehicle as sometimes that is whats needed but for me, I like older vehicles, all kinds
 
I like having a paid vehicle. Less Insurance,gas can be a pain, depending on the car or truck parts can be cheap.
 
I would rather take my chances in an accident in an older vehicle that actually is made of metal than an electric car that if it got whacked really hard would probably spray the occupants with acid. Acid burns are very nasty!!!!
 
Well, i have had 3 new cars, a 98 ZX2, stupidly traded it for a 2002 PT when i only had $6000 left to pay on it, and a 1999 Ford EB Explorer. The PT got totaled in a accident.

The Explorer finally got paid for a yr or so ago. I will never buy a new car again, after working for the Cobalt Group, who manages dealerships sites and helps with inventory issues/pricing etc. and working at a car dealership, I will never buy a new car again.

I worked for a Mazda/VW/Subaru dealership in the mid 90's, and saw actual factory to dealer invoices, the amount the dealer actually pays the OEM for the car. A 94 Mazda RX7 is a $35,000 to $40,000 car to buy, for the dealer to actually have that car delivered to the dealership, that car only costs $3500.

I dont get the "gotta have a new car"mentality either, car payments for 4 to 5 yrs? i would rather do maintenance and take care of a older car than deal with new car payments again.
 
I would like to know how electric cars or hybird cars are better when it takes more to properly dispose of or to recycle the batteries,not to mention the costs of buying new batteries and electric motors if it all quits working.
 
/rant
Me personally, I have no idea why older guys, like my dad, are so adverse to getting newer cars. His reasoning is that there is too much that can go wrong that I can't fix. My question to him is, when has ANYTHING on your Suburban or Excursion gone wrong that wasn't a simple fix? answer: nothing You've never had an engine break down on either, the windows stopped working on the suburban for whatever reason, the pass window on the Excursion just needed to get the ground wire back in to work. Everything that went wrong on the Suburban was from 230,000 run into the ground miles because he needed a new truck. transmission at 225? wear. brake lines bursting after sold? wear. brake lights not working because the wiring rotted out? wear. AC? botched repair job by the guy doing it. 4 windows open/60mph AC became our routine during the summer. The only serious thing on the excursion was the towing button wire fusing because of heavy usage from the previous owner.

Anyway, I don't get why older guys don't like newer cars when all it takes is research that just ensures that you buy one that has no rep of breaking down. It will run forever if you just take care of it. irritatingly, this mistrust of new tech has rubbed off on my younger bro as well....

/endrant
 
you wont think newer vehicles are so great when you find out what is involved in replacing a head gasket on a newer ford truck (I know ford yuk) but come on now really
step 1 remove body from frame?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
 
I love when people say "I don't have money to fix this car, I think I should buy a new one"
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some time fixing an older car can cost more then a car payment. $300 here, $1500 there. then you have the towing expense, time away from work because your ***** broke down crap like that... me, i have a 80 mile round trip for work. i want something thats good on gas and reliable. i bought a $12,000 car that gets in the upper 30's for mileage and was paid off 2 1/2 years early. now the old lady. i want her in a newer reliable car also especially when she is driving my 2 year old daughter around. we bought her a 07 magnum a few years ago and that **** box left her stranded one too many times so we got her a 07 yota with 24,000 miles on it. so far its been great. gets way better mileage which helps at the end of the week too. when i was younger yes no problem i would drive a **** box arouns. now that i'm older with two kids and way more responsibility i'll take the newer car every day of the week.
 
caferacerx said:
you wont think newer vehicles are so great when you find out what is involved in replacing a head gasket on a newer ford truck (I know ford yuk) but come on now really
step 1 remove body from frame?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Click to expand...


what th ehell do i care? i'm not twisting the wrenches on it.. :)
 
its worth it to drive a FERD though

[ame="http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1945357"]Awesome Truck Commercial - CollegeHumor video[/ame]
 
caferacerx said:
you wont think newer vehicles are so great when you find out what is involved in replacing a head gasket on a newer ford truck (I know ford yuk) but come on now really
step 1 remove body from frame?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Click to expand...

Tell me about it!! 700 smackers just to clean a turbo screen on an 05 turbo diesel. But I still like ford trucks!!!!
 
Dartboy52 said:
Well a lot of people want reliability too...and the newer car should* be more reliable.
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That's the way people think. I'm not gonna disagree with that. My wife and her old boss used to have a war over this, when she was driving her '87 5th Ave over a 1000 miles a week. Hell, there was times I was changing the oil every two weeks. But never more than every three weeks. He would say these exact same words to her.

Her 5th was stone cold reliable. Mechanicals? Hardly ever worked on it. Changed the starter a couple of times. Had to make a rescue run once because the firewall solenoid lost ground. But that many miles on a car in a week? Tell me one that you won't have to do brakes on or keep the maintenance up on constantly.

He kept giving her s*** for driving something so "old." I nailed him at an office party one time. I worked at a dealership at the time. No, dealerships don't have service departments, performing recalls, changing out transmissions, repairing blown head gaskets, testing out bad electronics, what have you. Dealerships never have anything come in on a hook. They don't have loaner cars, rentals at the service counters, or courtesy vans to shuttle customers.

And while you're waiting a week for the dealership to finally get in that reman transmission or all the parts to bench rebuild it you're still paying the bank for the privilege of owning the car.

I'm not against owning anything newer. Just a matter of perspective. I've twisted wrenches on way too many cars from this century to say newer is necessarily more reliable.
 
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