Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
A beater is not always a money pit, compared to a "nice" car. For example, if your beater needs work that'll cost X dollars, you think to yourself "would I buy this same exact car for X dollars if I could?"... if the answer is "yes", fix it... if "no", junk it. But even if it incurs the occasional $300 repair bill, that isn't as bad as a $300+ monthly payment for a decent newer car. I would call the newer car a money pit, since you can count on that huge payment every month. With a beater, it just might run with no problems for months at a time.
Plus, beaters don't depreciate. As you make those monthly payments on that newer car, it depreciates away some of its value. That $500 beater is a car you'll probably always be able to sell for $500 unless it totally quits... and even then you can take it to the junkyard and get $100 for it ($300 if you can drive it to the junkyard). I had a beater that I sold for almost 50% more than what I paid for it, just one year later. You can only do that sort of thing with a beater.
Very good point. In 2007 I bought my wife a very nice 2004 Grand Caravan that she's still driving. Since that time I've had four "beaters." My net outlay for all of the beaters plus repair and maintenance costs is less than 1/3 of what I paid for the van, and of course it's needed repairs and maintenance over the years as well. Plus in our state the registration cost of a car under 12 years old is based on a percentage of the MSRP while the registration cost of an older car is $45/year.
So while the van is much nicer than anything I've driven since we've had it, it's also been significantly more costly.
What constitutes a "beater" car? Age, condition, mileage? My wife has a 10 year old Accord V6 with 84 K. Is that a beater?
It used to be a beater was a car you picked up for a couple hundred bucks and drive it until something breaks on it and throw it away and get another one. With the increase cost of used cars, the number is somewhere around $1,000 to $1,500, something with 200k + miles on it, drive it until some thing major breaks and toss it and get another. When you consider new car payments are $400 or more a month, you really only need a beater to last a few months before your ahead in the game.
As for your wife's car, unless she drove it over a cliff, I wouldn't consider it a beater, it's probably worth more than $8,000 if it's in any decent shape at all.
Usually what people in rust country mean by a "beater" is a more or less disposable car to drive 2 or 3 winters so as to keep their "good" car out of the salt.
I live in a very snowy part of the Rust Belt, and this is exactly what a "beater" is around here. We generally only get one winter out of them, though. Some people around here say "winterbeater".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Merc63
Beaters aren't money pits ever, as you don't put money into fixing them up. Maybe a small repair or two here or there to keep them going, but nothing major. ANYTHING major and the beater is replaced by another beater.
Back in maybe 1987, someone actually stole one of my dad's beaters. He wasn't unduly concerned and just got another one. A few weeks later, it turned up in the middle of a cornfield a few miles away.
Someone who drives Ferrari and Lamborghini all the time, might say a brand new 70k Mercedes is a beater, and someone who drives a 100k mercedes all the time might consider a brand new Accord 25k as a beater.
For the majority of the population beater tends to be something worth less than $5k.
Thanks for all the replies. What about getting a "beater" to pass state inspection and emission tests?
What about it? If your state requires testing you get it tested. If it requires an otherwise non-essential repair to pass you have to decide if it's worth it to you to have the repair done, keeping in mind that if you sell it to someone else who wants to drive it they will have to have the repair done themselves and the price will have to reflect that.
Some states have less stringent inspection requirements or even exemptions for vehicles built before a certain year or for certain types of vehicles so if someone was in the market to buy a beater he or she might want to take that into consideration when shopping.
A beater is any running or non-running car that you can get for less than scrap value or free. Give it some basic life support to make it run, so what if it smokes a little. It then gets used for any nasty job required, and loaned to friends. The day it dies, if life support won't revive it, haul it to the scrap yard for cash
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
