Financial graphic comparison of buying a new or used car

The graphic leaves out the part where five years later Sarah was raped and murdered when her now worn-out clunker broke down when she was passing through the bad part of town.

There's a saying: "penny wise, pound foolish." Both of these people made choices on the extremes of the spectrum, and the extremes of spectrums are rarely where you find the best ideas.
That's quite a graphic way to illustrate your point.
Regardless, I agree.
 
That sounds a bit crazy south of the rust belt? I guess we tend towards KISS vehicles, but almost nothing breaks before ten years? The odd suspension piece, and brakes? I guess dealers like $500-1000 service packages for a couple hours of work and some fluids...
No surprises with 6 year old non-rusty cars, keeps it simple for them I guess.
Not really. They work on it. A week later something else breaks, they get blamed even though they had nothing to do with it. Or they go to remove something to replace something else and it breaks. Just not worth their trouble, they have enough other work. It to a degree weeds out those that (generally) can't afford to pay as well I am sure. Probably are exceptions for regular customers, but for the most part you show up with your 20 year old Buick, there not interested.

The tire / break / exhaust / service places will do those things, but there not going to try to trouble shoot a misfire or something.
 
10 years old with 150k, give or take. Corolla might be 100k on the clock while Camry 150k. But yes, simple cars who unfortunately have the Toyota tax. But again, 10 years old with unknown problems that can pop up. And up here, with the rust that comes with that age.

I toy with getting myself a truck or SUV, or even a CUV, something slightly more capable than a sedan, but I know purchase price and repair costs scale with size. So I'm stuck with sedan and hoping for the best. Just haven't found it yet, scratch the surface and every used car has its detractors.
I have said this before. It's a lot easier to drive a vehicle with "mega miles" in certain parts of the country (East Coast/South) where there is truly no "middle of no where".
Here in "The Great West" I have zero desire to own a vehicle with 200,000 miles on the clock and drive it from Las Vegas to The Great Basin National Park or to Death Valley.
 
The graphic leaves out the part where five years later Sarah was raped and murdered when her now worn-out clunker broke down when she was passing through the bad part of town.

There's a saying: "penny wise, pound foolish." Both of these people made choices on the extremes of the spectrum, and the extremes of spectrums are rarely where you find the best ideas.
Positive thoughts for Sarah 😱
 
As a daily driver expected to last and be dependable for six years? Probably. The graphic seems to assume her $10k car will last the entire time and incur $0 repair costs.
I guess if the $80k car is serviced at the dealer and service advisor is good at their job, they could average $1-2k+/year for service. Afterall he needs to take care of his "investment" and a good car needs $2k/set good tires and rims. $2000 brake jobs, etc... Lots of premium gas.
If $10k car is a KISS reliable car(4 cyl Camry, RAV4, etc) and they use a good independent garage, they could spend less on maintenance, insurance, cheaper gas, good sets of tires for $600. So the 12yr old Camry could(likely?) cost less to service.
With rust spraying the $10k car is probably worth $5k at the end of 6 years. A new 2019 BMW 5 series was $70-100k OTD in Canada, now they are worth $30-40k and if you aren't a car person, now that service advisor has a couple 4 digit out of warranty repairs to add to service every year...
$5k depreciation vs $50-60k, and perhaps the odd repair bill well beyond what a Camry could possibly produce.
For sure I'd like to drive a new BMW, but it is a poor return on investment, in my limited fun money budget! But that's just for me, if you've got all the cash you need already, have at it!
 
Not really. They work on it. A week later something else breaks, they get blamed even though they had nothing to do with it. Or they go to remove something to replace something else and it breaks. Just not worth their trouble, they have enough other work. It to a degree weeds out those that (generally) can't afford to pay as well I am sure. Probably are exceptions for regular customers, but for the most part you show up with your 20 year old Buick, there not interested.

The tire / break / exhaust / service places will do those things, but there not going to try to trouble shoot a misfire or something.
When the rear brake line rusted through on my 98 Chevy the mechanic warned me I would be lucky if they didn’t break the fuel line fixing my brakes. Apparently there’s a place where the two run together in a zigzag and it’s notorious for holding moisture and corroding them.
 
If I only had $10k cash for car I would only spend $7.5k and leave balance to fix nags to inspect if private sale and have a cushion for repairs. I also would be putting $150/month away of that invest amount to repair/maintain/replace it.

I own 4 vehicles worth $5k - $9k each. I spend about $300 - $400/month on maintenance/repairs across them all.
 
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My 96 Cutlass had ABS. Worked quite well. How far back would you have to go to not have ABS?

Had front airbags too. Side airbags are pretty recent I think?
Toyota for the fail... Corolla didn't get side airbags standard until what 2009? ABS might have been before that but still, they were a bit cheap on some things. Then there is the "well it has ABS but it's broke" or maybe it's one of the early 2 or 3 channel systems. Someone on here a few months ago had a 2WD Jeep for sale, and I gave it serious thought; non-functioning ABS was a concern (who can debug 20+ year old ABS systems?).

Side airbags as a standard option did come along a bit later, but like many things... after a while, one starts to think they are a necessity. For my daily beater, I can do without--but as a family we tend to share cars, so I'm a bit hesitant to get a car that only I can drive--I'd love to, then I know no one has moved the seat :) --but it seems smarter to have something we all can use.
 
If I only had $10k cash for car I would only spend $7.5k and leave balance to fix nags to inspect if private sale and have a cushion for repairs. I also would be putting $150/month away of that invest amount to repair/maintain/replace it.

I own 4 vehicles worth $5k - $9k each. I spend about $300 - $400/month on maintenance/repairs across them all.

$10K car for me I would be looking at a Mazda3, Corolla or Civic.
 
Toyota for the fail... Corolla didn't get side airbags standard until what 2009? ABS might have been before that but still, they were a bit cheap on some things. Then there is the "well it has ABS but it's broke" or maybe it's one of the early 2 or 3 channel systems. Someone on here a few months ago had a 2WD Jeep for sale, and I gave it serious thought; non-functioning ABS was a concern (who can debug 20+ year old ABS systems?).

Side airbags as a standard option did come along a bit later, but like many things... after a while, one starts to think they are a necessity. For my daily beater, I can do without--but as a family we tend to share cars, so I'm a bit hesitant to get a car that only I can drive--I'd love to, then I know no one has moved the seat :) --but it seems smarter to have something we all can use.
My 2008 Xterra has ABS and front airbags, but no side airbags - they were options but I seldom saw the option ordered.

Never had a problem with ABS. In the end its mostly wheel speed sensors or wiring that give out. People hate trouble shooting electrical because they don't understand it.

My 2011 Nissan has side airbags - they were standard then. They had to do a recall and reprogram them because people kept setting them off going off road. :ROFLMAO: The suggestion on the forums before the recall was to pull the fuse before off-roading.

My 96 Cutlass, 2002 grand marquis, and 2002 Jeep GC all had ABS and front airbags, but no side airbags. Never had an ABS issue. No salt maybe part of that?
 
My 96 Cutlass had ABS. Worked quite well. How far back would you have to go to not have ABS?

Had front airbags too. Side airbags are pretty recent I think?
I don't think most of people on this site place crash test performance and/or safety features to be very high on their list. Even with ABS and side air bags, any vehicle from the mid 2000's is going to perform poorly compared to vehicles built within the last few years.
 
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the point being, if you can afford to pay a loan, you could've afforded saving....
It also assumes she’s going to have that steady income the entire time. What if she lost her job the following month after getting her $10k car? No more investment money.
 
My 2007 Corolla had ABS but no side airbags.
Maybe that's what i'm thinking of, one of them wasn't common, probably side airbags. Too long since I was shopping that era.

My 96 Cutlass, 2002 grand marquis, and 2002 Jeep GC all had ABS and front airbags, but no side airbags. Never had an ABS issue. No salt maybe part of that?
It sure helps. No rust jacking to make the sensor move away from the tone ring.

I do have concerns about replacing old ABS pumps and things like that. They might not have the programming woes that newer cars seem to have (where every module has to be somehow coded with VIN or whatever before being used) but getting a replacement pump... no idea how that works. Sourcing old parts, I'm not sure what cars have expensive parts sourcing problems.
 
I don't think most of people on this site place crash test performance and/or safety features to be very high on their list. Even with ABS and side air bags, any vehicle from the mid 2000's is going to perform poorly compared to vehicles built within the last few years.
No- its the cheapest possible vehicle to drive to 200,000 miles. The " I scored this for $5,000" posts we used to see on here have gone the way of the dinosaur!
 
Maybe that's what i'm thinking of, one of them wasn't common, probably side airbags. Too long since I was shopping that era.


It sure helps. No rust jacking to make the sensor move away from the tone ring.

I do have concerns about replacing old ABS pumps and things like that. They might not have the programming woes that newer cars seem to have (where every module has to be somehow coded with VIN or whatever before being used) but getting a replacement pump... no idea how that works. Sourcing old parts, I'm not sure what cars have expensive parts sourcing problems.
You should check in your state, but in Ontario ABS isn't required to function unless the car is 2012 or newer. My 06 Focus doesn't have ABS and its not a big deal IMO, as its pretty easy to threshold brake and you can feel which front tire locks first, and it has lots of front brake bias. It's a blessing not to have traction control in the winter as its now predictable on what's going to happen, and again, it has steering feel, so you know which tire started to spin.
 
You should check in your state, but in Ontario ABS isn't required to function unless the car is 2012 or newer. My 06 Focus doesn't have ABS and its not a big deal IMO, as its pretty easy to threshold brake and you can feel which front tire locks first, and it has lots of front brake bias. It's a blessing not to have traction control in the winter as its now predictable on what's going to happen, and again, it has steering feel, so you know which tire started to spin.
ABS stops faster in every scenario.

Traction control can be disabled in all my vehicles. Not sure how common / uncommon that is?
 
I don't think most of people on this site place crash test performance and/or safety features to be very high on their list. Even with ABS and side air bags, any vehicle from the mid 2000's is going to perform poorly compared to vehicles built within the last few years.
Yeah, in the country, I feel like most accidents are avoidable/minimizable with paying attention, slowing up a bit when things look complicated and prepare for evasive maneuvers, or someone is driving like an idiot. And I don't often drive in prime drunk driver hours.

But for you guys in the urban/suburban areas, I can see why you want to drive a Brinks truck... At least on the outskirts of the Toronto area, the number of dangerous drivers is many multiples per mile of what I normally see, and the number of stupid accidents is astounding... I can drive years before I see a small fender bender at an intersection in the towns near me, but on the 25 minute drive on a sunny sunday morning from the hotel to the ball diamond, I've seen many!
 
You should check in your state, but in Ontario ABS isn't required to function unless the car is 2012 or newer.
I've checked, and as long as the ABS light is not on, I'm ok. But if it's on, it's an inspection fail.

And after driving for years, I know exactly how I handle panic stops--slam on the brakes and don't think (at all). Push harder when things aren't responding properly. I'm sure I'd eventually figure out that I need to pump, but probably right after plowing into whatever it was that i needed to avoid. I'd have to spend quite a bit of time out in a field to build that skill.

Traction control can be disabled in all my vehicles. Not sure how common / uncommon that is?
IIRC someone on here complained about how their Honda would not allow TC to be disabled if the TPMS system was not working properly. Might have been a one-off.

But otherwise, yes, as far as I know, it can be turned off for most if not all. I had to in my truck as it was too invasive (VSC). My Corolla takes great offense at it being off and keeps lighting up the dashboard when it is off.
 
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