Peace of mind from driving a beater?

[DGXR]

If I'm going to drive a vehicle, there's no way to avoid life's little irritations. For anyone putting in serious effort to keep their nice shiny car damage-free while using it as intended, I just don't think it's worth the stress. It's just not possible to protect my baby from all the evil forces in the world, that's a losing battle I don't want to fight. So I have fully conceded that the Corvette will get its share of road stones and other surface damage. And the pickup, well... I've had it for 12 years, I use it like a pickup should be used so it's already got little blemishes all over it, all cosmetic, but mechanically it is perfect.
Point being, neither one is a collector, but I keep them up the best I can and I don't have any fantastic delusion that they won't show more wear & tear as they age.

 

[brages]

With a beater, instead of stressing about "what if I get a door ding?", you can think about "what if my car broke down right now?".

 

[Kira]

I didn't read this entire thread because branches of "Beater Theory" are fairly well understood.

1) I love the fact that I've sold 2 cars to pilots who must leave their cars at airports.
2) I drive in near constant fear of a careless twit driving into me at a red light as happened to both my Mom and friend in NC.

While 100% of the damage to Mom's Saab was taken by the rear bumper and its mounting hardware, my friend's 240 Volvo was trashed beyond recognition (the state policeman who arrived first swore he was ready to find a dead person) and his lower, right back is shot for life.
A kid texting his girlfriend (he admitted it) drove into my friend at 45 mph while he was stopped.

 

[ecotourist]

... my friend's 240 Volvo was trashed beyond recognition (the state policeman who arrived first swore he was ready to find a dead person) and his lower, right back is shot for life.
A kid texting his girlfriend (he admitted it) drove into my friend at 45 mph while he was stopped.

That's one of the reasons people drove 240s.

A friend had his parents and his parents-in-law killed in car crashes. he spent some time in wrecker's yards looking at wrecks. His decision - either a Volvo 240 or Mercedes 240/300 survived best. He and his wife both drove Volvo 240s.

 

[Kira]

Yup.
After my friend's episode, my BIL offered his '93 240 for sale. He was the original owner and my own brother owned it for 4 years.

When the time came for me to sell it a lady from Danbury, CT came out. She owned one and a guy hit it hard while her newly licensed son was driving. She wanted a replacement for the car which saved her son.

 

[skyactiv]

One of my brothers is a Walmart pharmacy manager. He bought my old VW GTI which is his work car. He doesn’t like driving his Acura MDX to work.

 

[Huie83]

Cars are a mechanical tool, no reason to treat them like they are some rare object that has to live in a bubble. Get a ding or scratch? Get it fixed and move on. Enjoy that vehicle, you paid a lot for it and it's meant to be used. No one but you really cares if your DD has a ding in the side. If you're DD'ing a Lambo or something that's a different story. Then again, If a Lambo is a DD I bet you don't care that much about it

I do take great mechanical and physical care of my vehicles but don't fret if I get a ding or whatever. It can all be fixed and I'd rather drive something that I want be it a new vehicle or whatever than putt around in a clapped out Geo.

 

[SeaJay]

I don't go out of my way to treat her poorly, but my 8 year old car with 90K miles has some dings and scratches that I have no intention of doing anything about.

OCD not allowed in my household - Does this mean that I will no longer be allowed to post or even read posts on BITOG?

 

[DejaVue]

Other drivers are why we can't have nice things.
In a city with lots of traffic and full parking lots, give up now. Someone is going to mess up your car, and they won't care.

My friend's car is always on security cameras when it's parked, but it's always parked outside. With so many, less than desirable people, in his area, and parking outside in general, I warned him against buying the pricey new BMW he wanted. He still bought a new but much more modest car. Four months after buying it, hail did $2500 in damage to it.

Everyone has their idea of a beater. I knew a guy who sold his business to a big company and suddenly had lots of disposable income. He wanted to buy a supercar and was having trouble deciding on the $250,000 one or the $500,000 one. He wanted the $500,000 one, but he didn't know if he could mentally handle getting a door ding on a $500,000 car.

 

[MCompact]

I daily drive my 2009 Clubman with over 125,000 miles on it. It averages 37-38 mpg and I rarely drive it anywhere other than to and from work. My issue is I hate to drive rough looking cars, so I’ve replaced faded cowl trim and a few interior pieces. I also installed Bavsound speakers(they were on sale). I guess a true beater isn’t for me.