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My car is 15 years old. When I bought it (paid $3000 for it about 5 years ago), I made sure it hadn't been abused. I have not abused it. I have just done the typical preventative maintenance and have had no major repairs. I've had no trouble with it at all. I think a big part of people having to spend so much money on their cars is because they don't know how to take care of them. I'm not talking about washing and waxing it (mine hardly ever gets that), I'm talking about not abusing it, not hot-rodding it, and not ignoring the car's needs. The way a car is driven is a huge determiner of how many repairs it will be needing. If you drive it like Mario Andretti, plan on wasting a lot of money on repairs. If you drive like granny, plan on having a dependable car over the years.
I would wager it's less an issue with the roads and more of an issue with the salt air. ...
Maine does enjoy over 3,000 miles of ocean frontage.
However I live in a forest.
By google's most direct route I am 49 miles from sea water [1 hour 5 minutes].
Coastal Maine is the tourist area. In the summer thousands of people flock to Maine's coast and the communities there are filled. In the fall-winter-spring many of those same areas are ghost towns.
Our largest city [Portland] is coastal, but none of our other cities are coastal.
Quote:
... Salt corrodes cars, and since most people live on the coast in maine, the vehicles are exposed to the salt air all the time. Pretty much no one lives inland in Maine.
I do not buy that theory.
Summer tourists do flock to Maine's coast, but I do not think that is where any high percentage of Mainers live.
Buy the cheapest and smallest new car that has the best quality, least amount of electronics, best bumper-bumper factory warranty and best fuel economy at the model change time.
After that, drive it carefully and drive it till the wheels come off.
With this, it only comes down to a few cars like Civic or Corolla. :-)
We tried that a few years ago, we got a Chevy Aveo for $10,500
At 2 1/2 years old both rear shocks snapped their upper mounts and punched up through their wheel wells and into the interior of the vehicle.
I agree with the idea of buying the cheapest and smallest new car, in the hopes of saving fuel expenses and having less break downs.
Only bought one new car and it is now 10 years old without problems... it is the only car that is worth less then what I paid for it.
I grew up around the car business... spent Saturdays as a child washing 60+ cars and moving them around the lot... started doing that at 9 and became official at age 12.
Every car that I've owned has been sold for more then I paid. Still have the 72 Valiant I drove to college... paid $800 for it and have been offered 3 times that...
It would seem finding a good, lightly used second hand car that has already depreciated is the way to go...
I happen to like convertibles and I would buy an old ratty one, clean it up and drive it for a year or so and then sell... did the same for VW and Mustang...
The problem to frugality I saw most often is a young person getting their first paycheck and then committing to 5 or 6 years of payments for a car they might not even want a few years down the road...
The Valiant has only had one breakdown and it was the timing chain... less then $50 in parts and a couple of hours on a Saturday morning and I was good to go...
I also have made out on those lifetime warranties that many companies offered... buy one new battery or a muffler and never have to pay for it again.
Summer tourists do flock to Maine's coast, but I do not think that is where any high percentage of Mainers live.
I visited Maine before, and if I remember correctly, pretty much the whole northern half of the state is a National Park. Looking at a population map, I see in the southern half of the state there people living about 50 miles from the coast, population density drops off quickly after that.
I visited Maine before, and if I remember correctly, pretty much the whole northern half of the state is a National Park. Looking at a population map, I see in the southern half of the state there people living about 50 miles from the coast, population density drops off quickly after that.
Maine has one National Park. It is Acadia National Park. It is on a peninsula surrounded by ocean, on the coast.
I live in the Northern half of Maine and inland.
Maine's densely populated areas are right around Portland [as a suburb of Boston]; and along the coast [to support the tourism industry mostly in the Southern half of Maine's coastline].
Most of Maine is rural.
[We also have Baxter State Park and Bigelow state something]
Last edited by Submariner; 05-11-2012 at 03:05 PM..
We tried that a few years ago, we got a Chevy Aveo for $10,500
At 2 1/2 years old both rear shocks snapped their upper mounts and punched up through their wheel wells and into the interior of the vehicle.
I agree with the idea of buying the cheapest and smallest new car, in the hopes of saving fuel expenses and having less break downs.
Sometimes they still fall apart.
I think the issue was that you bought Chevy Aveo. At least it was cheap purchase and hopefully those are covered by warranty.
I'm in person #2 where I purchased 69,000mile Honda Civic about year and a half ago, and it currently has over 108,000 miles and drives perfect. I like that the car has maintenance minder and it tells me when I need to go into maintenance and how I drive mostly highway, I get my oil change like every 7500 to 8000 miles.
I buy new cars for cash and sell at 150-250K miles.
Do fluid changes often plus DIY maintenance (only synthetics)
Have liability and uninsured motorist policy
I get the new car smell and keep monthly expenses low-I want to keep my car as long I can before major overhaul expenses arrive not to mention trading in costs money to dealer or loss of 9.8% tax on new car tax in state
Last edited by mycity_33; 05-16-2012 at 11:57 AM..
Are automatics really more expensive than manuals to maintain? I believe you, I just have never had to do any transmission repairs on a car, ever, and didn't really think about that. I actually don't know how to drive a manual, as my parents always had automatics (and still do) and my car is an automatic. My husband's is a manual (yes, we really have "his" and "hers" cars, and in 6 years, I've never driven his, although he does drive mine if we are on a road trip.) Anyway, I've never had a transmission repair of any kind needed, and my car is 14 years old. My parents drive their cars to 250k miles + and one van to over 400k miles, and I think they have only ever replaced a transmission 2 or 3 times, and haven't had any crazy transmission maintenance costs. Maybe we've just been lucky.
In the short run, say 100-200K miles, the automatic will probably need only fluid changes, while the manual may need a clutch. But in the long run the automatic will eventually need to be rebuilt, or exchange for a rebuilt unit, while the manual gearbox itself will last about forever, you just change clutches.
On old school Detroit RWD cars, changing the clutch (manual) is typically pretty easy. Some FWD cars it's a good bit harder.
I doubt that transmission repair/maintenance has much effect on the overall cost per mile of many cars though.
I buy new cars for cash and sell at 150-250K miles.
Do fluid changes often plus DIY maintenance (only synthetics)
Have liability and uninsured motorist policy
I get the new car smell and keep monthly expenses low-I want to keep my car as long I can before major overhaul expenses arrive not to mention trading in costs money to dealer or loss of 9.8% tax on new car tax in state
What cars besides Hondas and Toyotas go 250,000 mi. without needing a major repair--engine or transmission?
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