Is it worth having a third car as a 'beater'?

Hard for me to imagine going down to only three cars... :cool:

OK, in all seriousness:

My Daily driver: Tundra
Her Daily driver: 2002 Volvo XC70
My fun car: 2005 S600
Her fun car: 2005 SL600

My classic (also my Dad's car, and not for sale, ever): 1932 Packard

My Colorado car: 2004 V70R

So, six seems like a reasonable number to me...

If I had one nice car, and she had one, I would still have a truck. Too useful not to have...
Her fun car sounds more fun that your fun car. ;) Not to put any shame on your fun car. I am sure it is fun too. But the SL just sounds much more fun.
 
Why add a beater? Buy another car to enjoy.
"Beaters," as defined by something very inexpensive to own and operate, are very enjoyable inasmuch as by driving them in undesireable conditions, knowing one is keeping miles/wear and salt, damage, parking lots, etc. off of a persons' primary or more expensive vehicles. I enjoy my beater MORE than my primary on many days!

When you stop caring about impressing others, keeping up appearances and competing with the Jones' and TV commercial or fakebook highly falsified lifestyles, life gets very liberating.
 
Three vehicles for two people is an unnecessary expense. Let the wife have the nice car and you drive the beater.
That's more or less what we do at our house. I don't drive the car in my signature much. That's the wife's ride. Sold my beater awhile back when I really didn't need a second vehicle but now I'm starting looking around for a new beater this Spring.
 
"Beaters," as defined by something very inexpensive to own and operate, are very enjoyable inasmuch as by driving them in undesireable conditions, knowing one is keeping miles/wear and salt, damage, parking lots, etc. off of a persons' primary or more expensive vehicles. I enjoy my beater MORE than my primary on many days!

When you stop caring about impressing others, keeping up appearances and competing with the Jones' and TV commercial or fakebook highly falsified lifestyles, life gets very liberating.
I think a BITOG beater is probably much different than the average one too. When I have a beater it is old enough not to care about minor cosmetic stuff but it's still reliable and well maintained and everything on the car is in working order.
 
"Beaters," as defined by something very inexpensive to own and operate, are very enjoyable inasmuch as by driving them in undesireable conditions, knowing one is keeping miles/wear and salt, damage, parking lots, etc. off of a persons' primary or more expensive vehicles. I enjoy my beater MORE than my primary on many days!

When you stop caring about impressing others, keeping up appearances and competing with the Jones' and TV commercial or fakebook highly falsified lifestyles, life gets very liberating.
Thank you for the definition of beater. Who is trying to impress others?
 
Thank you for the definition of beater. Who is trying to impress others?
There's a line between decent/respectable and wearing your wallet

Rusty malfunctioning POS vs Over leveraged Luxury SUV are two sides of the wrong coin IMO

I don't care what anyone thinks of me can be just as bad as I only care about what anyone thinks of me
There's a balance ⚖️

This isn't only about cars 😒
 
I have two beaters, both Swedish steel. Love them both. If somebody doesn't like that, they can kiss my lutefisk.

SaVolvo.jpg
 
We have 4 vehicles, well 5 if you consider the RV. Each of them cost us around $250 a year to keep. She's the only one that drives. I usually ride the bike and I've got 4 of those. They've all got their purposes. We only put 5-6k or less on each. I wouldn't buy a beater I'd buy something that serves a purpose, even if it's not used often.
 
Beaters are just that…Beaters!
You could sink lots of money into them
just trying to pass state inspection plus the annual insurance & registration.
Cars are not investments. They are depreciating assets that cost a certain amount per year to drive. I can drive a paid off "beater" for a long, long time including repairs that I do myself on a small fraction of what a depreciating, fully insured, and financed new car costs to drive.

Everyone should petition their state legislators to get rid of stupid annual inspection laws and insurance requirements for non-driven vehicles. In my state we've never had inspections and it's perfectly legal to drop insurance for vehicles that are not being driven for a while.
 
Cars are not investments. They are depreciating assets that cost a certain amount per year to drive. I can drive a paid off "beater" for a long, long time including repairs that I do myself on a small fraction of what a depreciating, fully insured, and financed new car costs to drive.

Everyone should petition their state legislators to get rid of stupid annual inspection laws and insurance requirements for non-driven vehicles. In my state we've never had inspections and it's perfectly legal to drop insurance for vehicles that are not being driven for a while.
Some of the rust belt states that have no inspections have the max number of vehicles that have the complementary weight reduction package aka rust punching out massive holes in the frame and body panels. Some dont look safe to be on the highway, but they exist in the left lane pushing 100mph.
 
The wife has been helping me get it down to the reasonable total number of four vehicles between us, of which only one is a "beater". It was at eight, six regular plus two that were inherited.
The two inherited ones were emotionally easy to unload. I was really reluctant to get rid of one of the six, it being a heavy duty '97 C2500 Chevy truck that I bought new and could last forever. Another one of the six went to our daughter - a 2000 Deville I didn't mind getting rid of because of the maintenance required on it. Joke is on me because I still have to repair and maintain it.
Of the four left, only the wife's Mazda 6 and the beater Colorado are driven enough to not require a battery trickle charger, and occasional drives in the country to rotate the Sta-bil supplemented gas on an annual basis.
 
Everyone should petition their state legislators to get rid of stupid annual inspection laws and insurance requirements for non-driven vehicles. In my state we've never had inspections and it's perfectly legal to drop insurance for vehicles that are not being driven for a while.
Even better tie the insurance to the drivers license, like a SR22 but not for deadbeats, LOL.

Pay the highest registration fee for the most expensive car you own and get the rest for free or five bucks or something. Tax fuel a little more to cover the road expenses-- then people can have a second fuel saving car to beat back and forth to work in.
 
Hard for me to imagine going down to only three cars... :cool:

OK, in all seriousness:

My Daily driver: Tundra
Her Daily driver: 2002 Volvo XC70
My fun car: 2005 S600
Her fun car: 2005 SL600

My classic (also my Dad's car, and not for sale, ever): 1932 Packard

My Colorado car: 2004 V70R

So, six seems like a reasonable number to me...

If I had one nice car, and she had one, I would still have a truck. Too useful not to have...
We need pictures of the Packard
 
Her fun car sounds more fun that your fun car. ;) Not to put any shame on your fun car. I am sure it is fun too. But the SL just sounds much more fun.
It is a lot more fun. No doubt. Same powertrain - but in a considerably lighter car. A birthday present from me.

Mine is awesome on long road trips, as well as being great for taking another couple out to dinner.
 
Do it in a way that you skate paying real car insurance premiums. Like rock something that's technically a classic or you can get a stated value policy for. I'm lucky and don't have a commute and I still have a beater at all times.
 
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