My goodness, people have been trained for far too long that a new car is a better car. I splurged on the newest vehicle I have ever owned last year, a 2020 golf gti, my payment is around 250 a month/60 month at less than 10% apr. It had 120k miles on it when I picked it up but everything that fucks up on these cars happens at 60-80k miles so the previous owner took care of all that. Otherwise every other vehicle I have ever owned has been a craigslist special that I spent time looking for and maintained myself.
We went backwards. Had a 2015 Fit which needed work on the VTC and other electronics, and the new cars have too much unneeded stuff that can fail, and surveillence in the infotainment system, so we traded it down to a 2004 Echo.
The car looks and runs like new, and I can fix whatever breaks.
The reason? It needed most of the suspension redone. Both control arms, sway bar links, tie rod ends, rear shocks, etc. Also the AC was broken. But the engine is solid, might need the valve lash tightened up a bit soon. But the guy didn’t or couldn’t do it himself, and the labor to get it done was expensive.
All that work I can and did do myself, including the AC (the last guy just overfilled it so the head pressure was too high. Probably did some damage, but so far it’s fine).
With parts from rock auto my total for the car was like $1600, not including my labor, two days or so.
Car has 190k miles on it, I can probably squeeze another 100 out of it.
This is the way, if you have the ability.
I could’ve gotten a new car for 3 or 4 hundred a month. But at those prices, this car owes me NOTHING after 6 months. I’d be annoyed if it exploded, but, that’s unlikely. And every year past that is just gravy, money in my pocket.
I managed to get a Mercedes C-Class for under 300 a month, was 3 years old at the time, with 140k km. APR was under 4%… Until Putin attacked Ukraine anyway, after that EURIBOR went up and so did my rate lol, must’ve been about 8% APR at peak (interest rate was around 6%). Best car I’ve ever had and the monthly payment was low enough that it easily made up for all the time I spent in the garage on all of my older cars.
I’ve only had it for about a year but I have put a ton of miles on it and I haven’t had any real issues with it. It’s the base model gti though so no sun roof nonsense and it has a normal ass key instead of one of those dumb ass fobs.
Im jelly. I want like a '13 GTI. I dont have my own car, but if I did a gti is on the list of ones id want. along with a kei truck. I am really surprised the 2020 model has a key, thats dope
I had a few Mk4 ones before I bought the one I have now. They were tons of fun and relatively easy to work on. They always seemed to have vacuum issues but once those werecl cleared up they were fun cars that got decent mpg
My goodness, people have been trained for far too long that a new car is a better car. I splurged on the newest vehicle I have ever owned last year, a 2020 golf gti, my payment is around 250 a month/60 month at less than 10% apr. It had 120k miles on it when I picked it up but everything that fucks up on these cars happens at 60-80k miles so the previous owner took care of all that. Otherwise every other vehicle I have ever owned has been a craigslist special that I spent time looking for and maintained myself.
We went backwards. Had a 2015 Fit which needed work on the VTC and other electronics, and the new cars have too much unneeded stuff that can fail, and surveillence in the infotainment system, so we traded it down to a 2004 Echo.
The car looks and runs like new, and I can fix whatever breaks.
I just bought an 09 fit, crazy deal, like $1300.
The reason? It needed most of the suspension redone. Both control arms, sway bar links, tie rod ends, rear shocks, etc. Also the AC was broken. But the engine is solid, might need the valve lash tightened up a bit soon. But the guy didn’t or couldn’t do it himself, and the labor to get it done was expensive.
All that work I can and did do myself, including the AC (the last guy just overfilled it so the head pressure was too high. Probably did some damage, but so far it’s fine).
With parts from rock auto my total for the car was like $1600, not including my labor, two days or so.
Car has 190k miles on it, I can probably squeeze another 100 out of it.
This is the way, if you have the ability.
I could’ve gotten a new car for 3 or 4 hundred a month. But at those prices, this car owes me NOTHING after 6 months. I’d be annoyed if it exploded, but, that’s unlikely. And every year past that is just gravy, money in my pocket.
Nice.
I managed to get a Mercedes C-Class for under 300 a month, was 3 years old at the time, with 140k km. APR was under 4%… Until Putin attacked Ukraine anyway, after that EURIBOR went up and so did my rate lol, must’ve been about 8% APR at peak (interest rate was around 6%). Best car I’ve ever had and the monthly payment was low enough that it easily made up for all the time I spent in the garage on all of my older cars.
I got a brand new car last year and I’m paying like 300.
You bought a Golf GTI that had 193.000 km on it and it still drove for 5 years?
Youd be surprised how many shit boxes can last to 300k miles with minimal repair.
I’ve only had it for about a year but I have put a ton of miles on it and I haven’t had any real issues with it. It’s the base model gti though so no sun roof nonsense and it has a normal ass key instead of one of those dumb ass fobs.
Im jelly. I want like a '13 GTI. I dont have my own car, but if I did a gti is on the list of ones id want. along with a kei truck. I am really surprised the 2020 model has a key, thats dope
I had a few Mk4 ones before I bought the one I have now. They were tons of fun and relatively easy to work on. They always seemed to have vacuum issues but once those werecl cleared up they were fun cars that got decent mpg