When’s the last time you bought one, and how much did you spend? Sure you can buy a cheap old used car for not much, but usually that means it’s also going to need parts replacements sooner.
A Toyota with 200k miles still runs well and everything works 7 years later with 50k more miles. Repairs include radiator, CV axle, and alternator. -$3300
A Nissan G35, a complete piece of junk, broke down in less than a year with 170k miles, and not worth repairing because it has multiple issues, wiring, bad sensors, early signs of failing transmission, multiple electronic things not working, -$1000
Foxbody mustang, just about to get, 90k miles needs shocks and other stuff, but is a cool car. 5.0 5speed, garage kept, $4000 but definitely not a car for people who don’t want to work on it due to it’s age. It has decently good bones built Inca time where American cars were much better made.
The Toyota is of course the best, ultra reliable, great power and fuel economy, but terribly difficult to find used for a good price. I had to look at 10 different ones before I found one that hadn’t been wrecked and drove straight.
Nissan is a pretty terrible buy since 2000ish, older ones are sort of getting too old to be reliable.
Fords are better then most car brands in terms of reliability but still has many issues, and they haven’t been well made since the early 2000s.
Honestly these days the only thing I would buy is a Toyota or a motorcycle because at least with a motorcycle you can fix it and keep it running yourself and it’s easy to maintain and repair. Modern cars are just trash outside of Toyota. Some brands are a bit better then they used to be in the mid 2000s and later, but they spend all their money in survellence and tracking and annoyer devices like the seatbelt annoyer and stuff, instead of actually making a decent car. Extreamly strict emissions standards have also made it harder to make a good car, even though Toyota always find a way to pull through. New emissions standards seemed to have been made by people who just hate cars and want to kill cars entirely, but unfortunately they aren’t smart enough to realize having reliable cars is a cornerstone of a healthy economy, and you can easily make a car that gets rid of 99%ish of emmisions reliably for many years, without making terrible cars these days, it’s just they want 99.99% of emissions dealt with which makes it extremely difficult. This is one reason why modern engines burn oil and are unreliable. They lose power and burn more fuel then they need after a few thousand miles. They actually end up being much worse for the environment even if they technically pass emissions when leaving the factory. Just more bad policy from the totally out of touch and corrupt rich ruling class because it doesn’t affect them. They can buy a new car every year under warranty because we do all the work and they get all the money.
You might be surprised. I just bought a 2001 Toyota Tundra, super reliable Toyota, right? These list between $7-25k in my area with around my milage (180k). I got a super good deal on it, and it was in good visual inspection. Well, now I can’t find a timing belt sticker and the previous owner didn’t have a book of receipts. Toyota dealer wants $3500 to do the timing belt, something that has to be done every 80-100k miles or you have a ticking time bomb. There are only two independent shops that I would trust in my town, but have a two month wait almost all the time. I can do the job myself and have the tools, but most people would not be able to. Luckily for me, it is to replace my 03 Dodge truck with 350k miles on it, as that is just getting too expensive to keep running. I have already got new shocks, brakes, ball joints, center bearing, and full tune up. I already have over $3k in parts, with “free” labor. For me, this is worth it, but to the average person, you could easily have shop bills over $20k on a “reliable” vehicle that they paid around $10k for. That is a tall order for the majority of lower income people out there.
When’s the last time you bought one, and how much did you spend? Sure you can buy a cheap old used car for not much, but usually that means it’s also going to need parts replacements sooner.
The last couple of cars I bought,
A Toyota with 200k miles still runs well and everything works 7 years later with 50k more miles. Repairs include radiator, CV axle, and alternator. -$3300
A Nissan G35, a complete piece of junk, broke down in less than a year with 170k miles, and not worth repairing because it has multiple issues, wiring, bad sensors, early signs of failing transmission, multiple electronic things not working, -$1000
Foxbody mustang, just about to get, 90k miles needs shocks and other stuff, but is a cool car. 5.0 5speed, garage kept, $4000 but definitely not a car for people who don’t want to work on it due to it’s age. It has decently good bones built Inca time where American cars were much better made.
The Toyota is of course the best, ultra reliable, great power and fuel economy, but terribly difficult to find used for a good price. I had to look at 10 different ones before I found one that hadn’t been wrecked and drove straight.
Nissan is a pretty terrible buy since 2000ish, older ones are sort of getting too old to be reliable.
Fords are better then most car brands in terms of reliability but still has many issues, and they haven’t been well made since the early 2000s.
Honestly these days the only thing I would buy is a Toyota or a motorcycle because at least with a motorcycle you can fix it and keep it running yourself and it’s easy to maintain and repair. Modern cars are just trash outside of Toyota. Some brands are a bit better then they used to be in the mid 2000s and later, but they spend all their money in survellence and tracking and annoyer devices like the seatbelt annoyer and stuff, instead of actually making a decent car. Extreamly strict emissions standards have also made it harder to make a good car, even though Toyota always find a way to pull through. New emissions standards seemed to have been made by people who just hate cars and want to kill cars entirely, but unfortunately they aren’t smart enough to realize having reliable cars is a cornerstone of a healthy economy, and you can easily make a car that gets rid of 99%ish of emmisions reliably for many years, without making terrible cars these days, it’s just they want 99.99% of emissions dealt with which makes it extremely difficult. This is one reason why modern engines burn oil and are unreliable. They lose power and burn more fuel then they need after a few thousand miles. They actually end up being much worse for the environment even if they technically pass emissions when leaving the factory. Just more bad policy from the totally out of touch and corrupt rich ruling class because it doesn’t affect them. They can buy a new car every year under warranty because we do all the work and they get all the money.
20-50k worth?
You might be surprised. I just bought a 2001 Toyota Tundra, super reliable Toyota, right? These list between $7-25k in my area with around my milage (180k). I got a super good deal on it, and it was in good visual inspection. Well, now I can’t find a timing belt sticker and the previous owner didn’t have a book of receipts. Toyota dealer wants $3500 to do the timing belt, something that has to be done every 80-100k miles or you have a ticking time bomb. There are only two independent shops that I would trust in my town, but have a two month wait almost all the time. I can do the job myself and have the tools, but most people would not be able to. Luckily for me, it is to replace my 03 Dodge truck with 350k miles on it, as that is just getting too expensive to keep running. I have already got new shocks, brakes, ball joints, center bearing, and full tune up. I already have over $3k in parts, with “free” labor. For me, this is worth it, but to the average person, you could easily have shop bills over $20k on a “reliable” vehicle that they paid around $10k for. That is a tall order for the majority of lower income people out there.