Personal Budget Training: I Luv Beaters

Saturday, June 7, 2008

I Luv Beaters

Forget the new cars, I am always on the hunt for a great beater. Just look at how much you can save a year and you never have to worry about where you park.

Do your research on Consumer Reports and Edmunds.com to find out what you should be paying for a reliable used car.

My experience is that factory-new may give you some trouble while you shake out whatever was not quite right to begin with. Then from 5,000 to 120,000 mi, you rarely have a repair. After that, it is unpredictable but reasonable when repairs appear in addition to schedule maintenance. Sure, you may have a bad few months but then you might go 6 months without a repair. We have not always stayed under $1000 per year, but I think that is a pretty good average for most older cars.

Part of my point here is that warranties are pretty useless except for initial factory shake-down. Cars are usually out-of-warranty before they start needing repairs anyway.

That is the beauty of having no car payments. You can go for months and months and pay NOTHING for your cars. If you have payments, you shell out money each and every month, PLUS any repairs.

Labels: money saving tip, used car