How the rich stay rich

[ChrisMiss]

Yes, Honda's do kick butt!  I love my car, we've had it for 11 years now.  I know I'm going to cry when we have to get rid of it.  Hubby says if it ever requires work of $1,000 or more it's gone.  We'll upgrade to a newer used vehicle.  We will definitely never buy new again.  The payments are just not worth it.  What are they now 4 plus years of hundreds a month?  No thank you.  I'll buy a used vehicle and put a little TLC into it and keep it for a long time. 

[Jay2TheRescue]

Our car is a 1996 Honda, over 155,000 miles on it and it still runs like a champ.  It looks pretty bad right now, it could use a paint job and some dent removal; but I don't care, it's paid for and gets me from place to place.

I hear ya!  My car is a 1995 Honda (I bought it used in 97) and it has over 200,000 miles on it (I'm such a dork, I even took photos of the odometer rolling over) and it still runs great - Hondas kick butt!  Not to mention I'm getting about 35 miles to the gallon!

Sally

You want high mileage?  My old '74 Chevy pickup had over 300,000 miles on it when I sold it in the mid 90's, and it had no problems.  I loved it, and kind of regretted selling it.  It had more power and got better mileage than my new truck did.  It was extremely ugly though.  My '86 Chevy P/U currently has 190,000 miles, the '98 GMC P/U has 140,000 miles, and the '81 Buick has about 170,000 miles.  I drive 'em till the doors fall off, (and in the case of the Buick, I put them back on and kept on going!  I think I've worn out 2 sets of door hinges on that Buick over the years.  Can't blame the car though, that door is extremely heavy.  I remember it took both me & my dad to carry it over to the garage when we took the door off.  I think it weighs like 300 pounds.

-Jay

[alexandra]

I do buy new -- economically, of course. Then I drive them until they die... well, most recently, the car died while the hubs was in it.  You know the car is old when the repair shop has to go to a junk yard to get a piece to fix it.  My last car was bought from a friend whose father owns the dealership.  Got a really good deal -- but they didn't have a car I wanted this time around.

Right now, I'm in a Scion xB -- and love it.  Tons of room, great mileage.

Thrifitly,
Alexandra
www.livingwithoutmoney.blogspot.com

[ChrisMiss]

That is what we did when we bought our Honda; we bought it new.  At the time my husband was out of town a lot with his job.  He wanted me to have dependable transportation.  And we bought into the hype of keeping up with the Jones'.  It has been a dependable car but 4 years of payments is pretty high price to pay IMHO.  Personally, I'd never do it again.  I think I'd rather risk having it break down and tow it to a shop than pay those payments again.  I'd rather put the money in the bank. 

We've had several cars that we bought used and they did us extremely well.  Our daughter always complained about how ugly they were, because they weren't new but they ran well, got us where we wanted to go and no car payments.

[ChrisMiss]

If a person is mechanically inclined at all they can save a lot of money doing the work themselves.  That's where we save the most money.  Hubby is very mechanically inclined and does a lot of the work on our vehicles.  I think we've saved thousands by his doing the work. 

If a person isn't mechanically inclined or can't do the work for some reason then the labor bills at a repair shop do run up into a lot of money. 

Then it becomes a matter of how much do I invest in this car before I buy a different one.  Our current car, dear ole' Honda, has served us well.  But if the transmission needs replacing or some other costly item then it's history.

[Cookie]

Go Hondas!  Ours is a '93, but it's missing a muffler.  It fell off because they were doing tons of road work in our neighborhood and the muffler just couldn't handle being beaten to death every day on the bumpy dirt roads.  I was on my way to work one day and I heard it dragging on the ground.  I stopped and tried to wrestle it off, but it wouldn't budge.  I was only three blocks from home so I just drove back to our house.  Somewhere along the way the muffler fell off, so I retraced my route and found it and threw it in the trunk.  My favorite little old guy at the grocery store just offered to buy it the other day, too.

[Big Daddy Audio]

Not that it was a particularly high mileage car (I forget now about the mileage) but when I was in college I bought an almost completely rusted out 1978 Toyota Corolla (2 door with a 1600 cc engine and a 5 speed) for $600.00.  I changed an oil pressure sensor - $78.00 at the dealership - and bought 4 new tires at Sears ($154.00).  I remember the dollar figures, because it was easily the most economical used car (in terms of repairs) that I ever bought.  I sold it two years and 22,000 miles later for $450.00.

The best new car I ever bought was my 1993 Ford Escort Wagon with a 1.9 liter engine and a 5 speed.  I loved that car.  Sadly, it was totaled by a dreadnought olds wagon at a weird intersection (They didn't see me, I didn't see them).  I paid $10.1K out the door for that car, and never had to do a repair in the 14 months I had it.  Put 28K miles on it.  It was great.

That is all.
     

[alexandra]

I thrift for my car -- mostly baby blankets and cushions.  Anything cool that will protect the seats and upholstery.  I keep a large settee cushion over the area of the backseat.  I always keep the seat down to have more cargo room!

Sadly, our most recent dog is gone (she turned out to be dangerously dog aggressive), but with her coat, we needed to keep a blankie down at all times.  I have found lots of good stuff for protective coverings at thrifts.

My one indulgence... is I use seat covers for the front and because a friend runs a monogram shop, they are both personalized with a large "A."  I do, however, look for nice seat cushions... I am short and it helps to raise me up to see better!

Thriftily,
Alexandra
www.livingwithoutmoney.blogspot.com

[Jay2TheRescue]

Not that it was a particularly high mileage car (I forget now about the mileage) but when I was in college I bought an almost completely rusted out 1978 Toyota Corolla (2 door with a 1600 cc engine and a 5 speed) for $600.00.  I changed an oil pressure sensor - $78.00 at the dealership - and bought 4 new tires at Sears ($154.00).  I remember the dollar figures, because it was easily the most economical used car (in terms of repairs) that I ever bought.  I sold it two years and 22,000 miles later for $450.00.

The best new car I ever bought was my 1993 Ford Escort Wagon with a 1.9 liter engine and a 5 speed.  I loved that car.  Sadly, it was totaled by a dreadnought olds wagon at a weird intersection (They didn't see me, I didn't see them).  I paid $10.1K out the door for that car, and never had to do a repair in the 14 months I had it.  Put 28K miles on it.  It was great.

That is all.
     

My most economical used car was the '74 Chevy p/u.  I purchased it in '94 for $1,000.  I charged up the a/c with freon (back in the days you could do that yourself for $10) and was a nice, happy, ice cold person...  About 2 years later I was slightly hit by this little old lady.  She broke my driver side mirror and there was a slight scratch that ran down the entire left side of the truck (hard to see because of all the rust).  Her insurance company wrote in the estimate paint & repairs for the entire left side of the truck for $1,200.  The only repair I made was I replaced the broken mirror for about $40.  I then sold the truck a few years later for $1,200. 

I loved that truck.  Sure it was very rusty (you could stick your arm through the rust holes in the fenders), and what wasn't rust was that yucky yellow-green that I called Baby S**t Green, but the a/c was so cold you could keep ice cream inside w/o melting, it rode like a Cadillac, and got fantastic mileage.  I usually got 20 city and about 30 highway.  That's great for a 20 y/o p/u w/ a 350, a/c, and over 300k miles.

-Jay

[eddieb]

Our car is a 1996 Honda, over 155,000 miles on it and it still runs like a champ.  It looks pretty bad right now, it could use a paint job and some dent removal; but I don't care, it's paid for and gets me from place to place.

I hear ya!  My car is a 1995 Honda (I bought it used in 97) and it has over 200,000 miles on it (I'm such a dork, I even took photos of the odometer rolling over) and it still runs great - Hondas kick butt!  Not to mention I'm getting about 35 miles to the gallon!

Sally

you are NOT a dork! i did the same with my odometer and a girlfriend of mine just took a pic of her bmw turning 100K.....

[Jay2TheRescue]

Our car is a 1996 Honda, over 155,000 miles on it and it still runs like a champ.  It looks pretty bad right now, it could use a paint job and some dent removal; but I don't care, it's paid for and gets me from place to place.

I hear ya!  My car is a 1995 Honda (I bought it used in 97) and it has over 200,000 miles on it (I'm such a dork, I even took photos of the odometer rolling over) and it still runs great - Hondas kick butt!  Not to mention I'm getting about 35 miles to the gallon!

Sally

you are NOT a dork! i did the same with my odometer and a girlfriend of mine just took a pic of her bmw turning 100K.....

LOL, It was a momentous occasion when my Buick's odometer rolled, but as its just a toy now, and not my primary transport it will probably be another 10 years for me to put the required 30,000 miles on it to hit 200,000 miles.  I will probably never roll the odometer in my truck though.  It has a 6 digit odometer so I'll need to get up to 999,999 miles before it will roll.

-Jay