Thoughts on newer vehicles mentality..

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91 - 96 GM B bodies with the 5.7s (LT1s or just 350s) or 5.0s are bullet proof unless you crash them. :D
 
ramenth said:
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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I agree 100%
 
I agree with a lot of what's been said here......I think those people who can't afford an old car mean that when it comes down to plunking down $2500 for a new engine or whatever.....it's just an ***-kicker! They'd rather just pay $300/mo. for a number of years and have peace of mind.

I drive between 90 and 150 miles per day for the past 19 years in first a '68, then a '69 Dart and then a '90 Corolla. Yes, I have some back-up cars and when any of my old commuter cars need something, they get it immediately. That's how I roll when I don't have a car payment. My old *** Corolla still knocks down 40 MPG....
 
rp23g7 said:
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.
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Wow!
I thought that the dealerships paid roughly 1/2 of sticker price or a little less than that.
:wack:
 
For some people, it's about paying x amount per month for new, reliable transportation with a full warranty. It's as if they are just using the car, not really owning it. I can understand how that would appeal to some people; personally I hate car payments and I only replace my car when it wears out.
 
I call it the "but I want it now" mentality and I'm trying to beat it out of my kids right now!! Consumerism in the US has grown into a way for people to instantly self gratify themselves and has led our nation into debt like never has been seen before. They think that if you see something on TV that you want, go out buy it and put it on credit!!! That kind of thinking will lead some people down the road to ruin.

I agree with the poster above who made payments to himself (and hopefully collected the interest) and saved his money until he could purchase his car for cash. I know it takes will power, but it makes it SO much more worth the wait. If you have a unexpected expense one month, and you have to skip a payment, so what?!? You can't do that with a bank loan. Once you start missing payments, it can turn into a snowball that you don't want to get in front of. I have worked in finance (loans and collections) and also on the dealership side. I don't intend on giving either of those businesses any more of my money than I am forced to.

My son needed a reliable car to drive back and forth to college. I knew that we would need to purchase a decent used car in a year or so, so I started saving. I bought him a used XXXX (not going to get drug into that argument) for $5000 cash with 74k one owner miles, and so far the car has performed just as expected.

My advice to any younger members is resist the urge to buy on credit and save your money until you can make your purchase with cash. Yes, you'll have to suck it up and drive a beater for a few more years or take your lunch to work in a sack, but it will be worth the wait.
 
abodyjoe said:
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.
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sure sometimes you have to replace a car when it is too far gone but I am talking about people who "cant afford" to maintain the car they have and think that going in debt to buy a newer used car is a good idea because the payments are only going to be a little more than they spend on repairs, then what happens when they need to fix the "new used" car and all the money went to make payments
 
The last new vehicle I bought was an 84 Chevy 1 ton van for my work.
Put 88k miles on it in 13 months and sold it for $1k less than I paid for it.

My 04 Mustang has just turned 120k miles (I got it with 21k on it).
To date I have had to replace 1 battery (7 yr old original), 1 license plate lamp, just put brakes on it (original) and 4 sets of tires plus oil and filter every 3k miles along with tranny and rear end fluids every 50k miles.
I have towed bikes with it, flogged it on around a couple of race tracks, driven it all over the country and it has been a real delight.
Bulletproof !

us1297-1.jpg
 
I used to drive beaters all the time stuff from the 80's that was on its last legs, until I took a good look at the local Kijiji site, couldn't believe some newer cars were going for just over $1000, and by newer I mean 2003-2005, sold the beater (carburated and ran like crap) and went and looked at a few of these, didn't take long and I had a low milage car that got 43 mpg and now I don't have to worry as much about costly repairs, however I do keep up on the regular maintance
 
Grinder said:
Funny....when I see these cars I want to put a bullet in them. Maybe next time I get the urge,i will test your theory:twisted:
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I meant in reliability, but if you do decide to test that theory, let me know before hand so that I can put some armored plates on it first. :D

BrianT said:
I call it the "but I want it now" mentality and I'm trying to beat it out of my kids right now!! Consumerism in the US has grown into a way for people to instantly self gratify themselves and has led our nation into debt like never has been seen before. They think that if you see something on TV that you want, go out buy it and put it on credit!!! That kind of thinking will lead some people down the road to ruin.

I agree with the poster above who made payments to himself (and hopefully collected the interest) and saved his money until he could purchase his car for cash. I know it takes will power, but it makes it SO much more worth the wait. If you have a unexpected expense one month, and you have to skip a payment, so what?!? You can't do that with a bank loan. Once you start missing payments, it can turn into a snowball that you don't want to get in front of. I have worked in finance (loans and collections) and also on the dealership side. I don't intend on giving either of those businesses any more of my money than I am forced to.

My son needed a reliable car to drive back and forth to college. I knew that we would need to purchase a decent used car in a year or so, so I started saving. I bought him a used XXXX (not going to get drug into that argument) for $5000 cash with 74k one owner miles, and so far the car has performed just as expected.

My advice to any younger members is resist the urge to buy on credit and save your money until you can make your purchase with cash. Yes, you'll have to suck it up and drive a beater for a few more years or take your lunch to work in a sack, but it will be worth the wait.
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That is exactly what I did. I had my parents help me get a loan, I bought the car with cash, and the loan is my only credit thingy that I have atm. And since I have a decent paying job, I will have no problem paying it off ahead of time. Hooray for money smart teenagers.
 
goldfish65 said:
For some people, it's about paying x amount per month for new, reliable transportation with a full warranty. It's as if they are just using the car, not really owning it. I can understand how that would appeal to some people; personally I hate car payments and I only replace my car when it wears out.
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The problem is, when you can fix everything, when do you call the car worn out?

If you keep up with it, it will last pretty much forever. That's the mental issue I am having with my daily driver '88 BMW 535is right now. It has 273,000 miles on it (reminds me that I wish my '64 Dart had a 273!), runs like a top but has rust starting and some window leaking issues and other small things. It makes me want to buy something else but the car is so GOOD, fun to drive, paid for, decent MPG (25 on highway), handles awesome, 5-speed, limited slip, great brakes, ice cold A/C, cruise, good styling... I guess when you find something you like, it's best to keep it going. * sigh *

What, is another used car not going to have issues? At least I know my car's history.

I plan on keeping my wife's VW Golf running for as long as possible because it's paid for, gets over 30 MPG, has airbags and it's a hatchback so it's great to take the dog and and associated crap on trips.

Can't bring myself to buy a new car no matter how tempted I am, because I am a cheap-*** and know all of the associated costs with a new car. I can buy a pristine 4-speed dart for way less than a new car and have 20K left over for gas vs. a new car.

Or I can build mine how I want, just like it's a car payment. :thumblef:
 
yellowdartdave said:
The last new vehicle I bought was an 84 Chevy 1 ton van for my work.
Put 88k miles on it in 13 months and sold it for $1k less than I paid for it.

My 04 Mustang has just turned 120k miles (I got it with 21k on it).
To date I have had to replace 1 battery (7 yr old original), 1 license plate lamp, just put brakes on it (original) and 4 sets of tires plus oil and filter every 3k miles along with tranny and rear end fluids every 50k miles.
I have towed bikes with it, flogged it on around a couple of race tracks, driven it all over the country and it has been a real delight.
Bulletproof !

us1297-1.jpg
Click to expand...

Sweet Mustang, i have had pretty good luck with my Explorer too. I have done 1 Battery, 1 set of tires, the Firestones were replaced free, under the warranty with Goodyears,

I replaced the upper and lower intake manifold gaskets, really stupid design here from who ever designed the 4.0 SOHC, and a right front wheel bearing under warranty, replaced the trans and transfer case oil as i tow a boat with the truck. Its got 130,000 on it now, i will be happy if that engine will go 200,000
 
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