After houses, the second most expensive asset most people buy is a car. Cars can easily cast 6-12 months wages, and if you buy a used car that's a lemon they can end up costing more than a replacement trying to fix it. Each initial repair might seem "cheaper than just buying a new car", and you want to avoid committing the sunk cost fallacy, but that can cumulatively lead you spending several thousand dollars. Financially speaking, how do you ensure that all your gains don't get swallowed up by this (potential) money pit?
>>61525297Buy a car that costs >30k. Anything more is nigger/woman tier
>>61525297>ignore social status>buy used>research a good and reliable make/model>do proper maintenance like oil changes>never finance, cash onlyAny other ways to optimize /bizo/?
Swallow your pride and just buy a reliable used car for cheap. Do not finance a fucking car and especially not a new one that you cannot afford. Simple as.
>>61525297Since 2004, Ive bought 2 cars- Used 1999 Subaru impreza 2.5L with 30k miles on it at the time ($10,000)- New 2013 Toyota Camry (current car, has 114k miles, was $24,000)So that's 21 years of car ownership for $34,000, and the one I have is still worth a good amount, has no issuesJust buy a 4 cylinder japanese car without a turbo
The "car curve" is bending now and the worth of new cars is going back up. Find a reliable make/model, find the cheapest ass new price you can get for it with low interest rates and financing incentives.The advantage here is you have full control over the maintenance. Drive it responsibly (no lead foot driving, keep it in the garage or carport, don't go beyond 5 over the limit), oil/fluid changes every 5k miles. If there is anything notably wrong it will break in the first 60k miles and you are covered by the warranty.You can still do the same thing with a low miles used if you can find a great deal for it. When paying cash it's better to find a knockout deal from a private seller, have it inspected, do the same things I just mentioned.Most of the "lemons" are just retards not driving/maintaining their car right, and picking the most obviously shit makes/models. You are in control of your own car destiny.New or low miles used Japanese sedan => regular maintenance and chauffeur style driving => ??? => profit
I'd never buy a car that costs more than $6k. I have two old hondas that both cost me $3k each. I drive one and the other is a backup. I literally don't care if they break down or get wrecked, I can either just fix it or buy another one. A car should pay for itself by getting you to work and hauling your groceries and shit from home depot. They cost almost nothing to maintain because they're barebones basic manual 4 cylinders with no modern gizmos. My insurance is cheap because they're valued at scrap metal prices. They get over 30mpg and gas where I live is $2.50/gal right now.Not having a car payment is how I was able to afford a decent house on blue collar wages. New cars are the biggest waste of money.
>>61525359The car doesn't care if you're doing 50 in a 40, or 70 in a 60I just did 700 miles at a near steady 75-85mph, including uphill sections over the appalachians, car doesn't care at all
>>61525385Of course it does, the stress on the components grows exponentially past a certain point that it was designed to handle. This is why old people drive cars for 30 years without an issue.Think about your own body, is it happier when you jerkily stress it doing habitual tasks, or smoothly with a certain form?
>>61525297Kia and hyundai can only be purchased new, as soon as they're out of warranty their values go down 75% as a result, but this isn't reflected in the market because retards spend too much on them. Good if you have a family and can't be assed to pay attention to maintenanceDon't even consider german cars, I can't even comprehend all the quality issues and material failures that exist at that price point. Old ones (pre ~2000) are good for classic entheusiasts who do their own work.Toyota and Honda make the only good commuter-tier hybrid systems, honda's new one is supposed to be very good. Both call themselves 'e-cvt's for some reason but neither if them have belts, they have gearsets instead. If it's a honda get a K-engined car, if it's a toyota get a v6. Avoid CVT's. Mazda's are also good, the mazda3 might be the last compact that doesn't use a CVT and isnt a fucking volkswagon. Never buy nissan Mitsubishi offers the cheapest warrantied car in north america in the Mirage, so if you rack up shitloads of miles and need to reduce the overhead as much as possible thats a good option but it's very boring.Obviously don't buy an EV, try again in 10 years.By far the biggest thing you can do to bring down your costs is to do your own work, you'd be amazing what fixing up the suspension on a 15 year old car can dom Makes it drive like new. Rockauto.com is your best friend
>>61525391A modern car can cruise at 80 mph pretty much indefinitely, much less stress than city driving
>>61525391You can drive fast and smoothly, also it's highly dependant on what transmission you have. I have a 2018 accord with a 10 speed it cruises at 2000rpm at 85mph so it's not really adding materially significant wear. Maybe 2mpg worse at 85 than 65. Would never cruise a hybrid or CVT that quick thought, that's asking for trouble
>>61525396But a key point I made was driving like a leadfoot. Hard accelerations, hard stops, this wears on the car. Cruising on the highway is another story. If you're staying under 80 you're fine. Past 80 and you're entering territory it wasn't built to handle long term and it will shorten the effective lifespan.OP is min/maxxing so this is how you do it. Of course you can speed and leadfoot about and just dump the car at 150k miles like most people do. The secret to the 300k+ mile vehicle is smoothness, patience, and routine maintenance.
>>61525354My current car is a 2005 impreza RS 2.5 L. Spent a lot on getting the 200k service done, only to find out later that the transmssion was dying. I bought a replacement from a wrecker for $850 USD, but thinking of selling it because it has the composite headgaskets that need replacing after 200-250k km. >>61525331>>61525394The problem I have with wrenching on your own car is that you need the resources to wrench, like a garage or a flat piece of concrete (you can do minor stuff without this, but I'm talking major stuff). Renting a place with this extra stuff can set you back 5-10k per year. >>61525359This is more what I was thinking. The cheapest car in my country (Australia) is the Kia Picanto at 14,607 USD, and it comes with a 7 year warranty.
>>61525297Owned like 4 different cars within a few years of each other.I started with a rover 600, fun car, engine was pretty reliable (honda) and it wasn't too heavy. Buying a reliable 90's car is often a good choice as they're dirt cheap.Then i got a rover 75, didn't have any problems but it was pig fat, slow and heavy on taxes where i live. Traded that car in for a peugeot 106 with the guy that bought mine. Bought it for like 150 bucks lmao. Needed a lil bit of love, temp. Chip change, which was cheap too and it was really fun to drive for a while. At one point it did look very cracky and i wanted a car that had a more adult appearence for the sake of future dates and jobs. Got a Fiat tipo, reliable, very affordable 4-cyl engine which is fast enough for simple commuting and has lots of space. I'm happy with it other than the reverse locking in crappy often.My dream car would be a Ford mustang 2015+ love the appearence but gas and taxes are high in my country so i'm sticking with the tipo for now.
>>61525431Yes if you're going for least $ spent possible a small, new Japanese sedan might be the surest bet since you are covered if something big fails. Going for the low miles used can be more cost effective on its face but opens you up to a major failure without coverage. The off the lot depreciation isn't very much since we're talking about cars in the 13-20k range.
>>61525448I assure you that the mustang will not do for you what you think it will, it's a boat with a glass transmission. It sounds like you like cars that can dart around easily, you have a lot of great hot hatch options in Europe that many in north america are envious of, why not just get a renault turbo model or something
>>61525431I sold mine around 105k miles, had a short commute so never did put too many miles on itI never had any major repairs, although the axles/cv joints seemed fragile, did replace a few of thoseHad I kept it, I'm sure the maintenance costs would've risen, which is why I got the camry
been looking at EV's. Gonna get an Ioniq5 next summer. Prices keep going down so I'll wait.
>>61525479Keep in mind that next gen EV batteries are going to start coming out in the next few years, the price of 'old' gen EV-batteried cars is going to crash
Learning to work on a simple car is the most value you can have for transportation. 90's classics are at the bottom of their value currently. If you can find a good one and a decent forum to take care of it you can have a sweet ride and almost no bills. Insurance is cheap as well, but if you get a broken window it will be counted as totaled, so that is an issue..
>>61525476>Had I kept it, I'm sure the maintenance costs would've risen, which is why I got the camryYeah that's what I was thinking when your post said you went from a Subaru to a Camry. Honestly a far more rational choice,.When I bought the RS, I thought 200k km for a subaru was pretty good, because I used to have a subaru outback at 300k km and the only issue I had was that after year the airbag light wouldn't turn off. If I get another car but it's probably going to be a used toyota corrolla/camry.
>>61525297>can travel over 300mi in a few hr at a cost of maybe $50 at most depending on fuel and wear>can still transport/haul hundreds of pounds of material while packed like a clown car>dah geez dood its a money pitYou still need one regardless and the best time to buy one is yesteday
>>61525297I treated myself to a brand new Tesla 5 years ago when I became a millionaire. Problem solved. It's the funnest and lowest maintenance car I've ever owned. I had a Mustang with 5 speed manual before that.
Now that I have money I’m finally going to capitulate and buy a nice car. An old jaguar or something, less than $30k or so. I’ve put 100k miles on my outback and I think it’s time to stop being so cheap. Kinda want to spring for an old rari
I was on Alibaba last night and you can literally buy a brand new electric car for less than 20k USD. Then there's shipping and import taxes I guess but that seems pretty cheap to me
For me, it's buying a car that isn't too old and still has some warranty.Bought my fair share of older cars that needed thousands in repairs, I won't buy an old car again, I don't care how many people tell me their cars did 300k miles with no issues. A new noise, vibration, broken switch, etc, appearing every few months is aggravating and makes you regret buying it every time.Also It's all very well saying do maintenance yourself but you need to spend thousands on tools and shit, find a local reliable garage.
>>61528682Yeah i did buy a Tesla, too. However it broke down after one year from rust and software issues. So i went back to driving Porsche.
>>61525297>be me>'97 bmw 'vert incapacitated>need car>shop around>buy 2001 buick park avenue w/93k miles in excellent condition for $3750 out the door
>>61528682Based, I’m just waiting the unsupervised full self driving to be able to do fake taxis
>>61525297Buy a used Prius>cheap insurance>cheap gas>reliable>barely depreciates>will start in the coldest weather>goes 500k miles and refuses to die
>>61525297Toyota Corolla lives forever. Almost all my fixes were just youtube the issue and buy a cheap part off Amazon.
>>61532464Yeah they're a life hack. My only complaint is it's a bit small for a taller man (myself), and it sucks being the smallest car on the road when every moron drives a tonka truck now. But all other things considered it's the perfect min/max machine.
>>61532464>>61532481Corolla vs Prius
i drive a 2011 lexus (toyota). I am a multi millionaire. life is simple and cheap when you dont give care what poors think. this years bonus would buy a new one but im going to use it as a down payment to acquire more rentoid wage slaves to produce assets for me
>>61525312fpbp>>61525479Thinking of doing the same, would like to get a motorcycle but that's not really doable rn.>inb4 /r9k2/ opinionsGasoline engines are a humiliation ritual.
>>61532494That's why I bought a Prius V for the station wagon body. It has as much interior space as a Rav 4
I bought a BMW with some of my crypto gains. I was just living off them and felt like I had nothing to show or enjoy for all my work. I really like my car, did a lot of research and found a good deal on it. The fact mostly shitcoins paid for it made me feel not so bad about the price.
