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For 22 years I drove the same $800 Valiant I bought in school... never let me down.
I still have it but now it is retired.
I did take grief a few times and even from the Administrator of the hospital where I work... she said it was embarrassing and knows I can afford better... no dents, good paint, clean whitewall tires... just very dated.
Decided it was time for a discussion since the subject was raised and asked her to think of how much money my frugal ways have saved the Hospital... she paused and said I was right.
I own 50 vehicles with about half show cars dating back to my 1905 Oldsmobile and at least one car from every decade going forward... Model T, Model A, Bantam, Crosley, Morris, VW Bug/Thing, Mustang Convertibles, Range Rover, BMWs. Cadillac Fleetwood, Pickups, 62 Corvette, etc... the car I drive most everyday is a 2001 Corolla S that I watched being built at the NUMMI factory...
My boss did that to me once and I told him to mind his own business and if he wanted me to drive a nicer car then maybe he should pay for it and give me a raise to cover the insurance . I hate when bosses overstep and think they have the right to tell you what to drive and park in their stupid parking lot . He got quiet and never again did he say anything to me about what I drove .
Yes I look at a car as a matierialistic thing to get me from point a to point b and nothing else . I don't need to have all the bells and whistles etc .
I like variety and love cars... that said I can appreciate years of faithful service without issue and no need to park one of my collector vehicles or newer vehicles and subject them to the Hospital Parking lot.
Friday I drove the Range Rover to work... a few stopped and commented... it looks like new and is perfect.
One of my coworkers also drives a Corolla... he asked if I got a new car and I said no... had it for years... he then asked why I drive the Corolla and I said 16 years of faithful service... his reply was but you have a Land Rover???
I grew up around the car business... my first real job was washing cars every Saturday at the dealership starting at age 12.
For several years I could drive a car home off the used car section to "Evaluate"... I drove a different car every day... it was variety I liked... it could be the $500 clunker or the 1 year old flashy convertible... as long as it was different.
The owner of the Dealership was into retired race cars for a hobby... through him I was able to drive several original Cobras, a original GT40, Pantera, etc... great for a high school kid... never let me drive one to High School!
He would drive the GT 40 in on nice summer weekends and flip me the key to top off the gas tanks... GT40 had a right and left tank that you had to slide over to get into the car...
Probably would have worked there for free.
My $800 72 Plymouth Valiant was a trade... one owner, 4 door with green paint... asked the boss if I could by and he said why... I let you drive a car home... said I was going off to college and wanted a reliable and inexpensive car with room...
I bought a new car in 1988. Did a complete color change in 1998. Washed it once a week if it didn't need it and any other time it did. Buffed and waxed twice a year. Went BALLISTIC over the littlest of dings.
I still have it. Came home one Saturday to find my then-husband had essentially disabled it, saying "well you wanted to rebuild it anyway, right?". Thing is, I wasn't planning on what he thought. Years later it still sits in the garage.
But I found another one. It was beat. I started mountain biking and kayaking. I have a roof rack as a permanent fixture. I throw muddy things in the trunk (interior is clean though). I've waxed it maybe 6 times since 2003 - not even worth it as it only holds a wax for about a week.
Funniest thing was a friend who came running into work one day exclaiming "someone hit your car! You have a huge dent in your fender!!" I calmly walked out, looked at it and said you know, I'm pretty sure that was there when I bought it. Had it been the original car I could have told you where and when each and every scratch happened. Two years ago a snow plow pulled a u-turn in front of me and I bounced off his tire - same fender. My SO banged it out best he could and it looked better than when I bought it - I was more concerned with the busted parking light. Last year someone actually did back into it on a job site - got the same fender and tagged the door too. He gave me some cash and I finally found a replacement fender in the exact opposite color and haven't taken the time to repaint it yet. I'm not sure how to get that perfect 30 year old faded barely there black color
I have to say it is liberating not to be so enslaved to the looks of a car anymore! Oh, I can still appreciate a pretty car and will never get rid of my buffer and supplies. But for my daily life a beater is perfect. I doubt I'll ever own a new car again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultrarunner
For 22 years I drove the same $800 Valiant I bought in school... never let me down.
I still have it but now it is retired.
I did take grief a few times and even from the Administrator of the hospital where I work... she said it was embarrassing and knows I can afford better... no dents, good paint, clean whitewall tires... just very dated.
Decided it was time for a discussion since the subject was raised and asked her to think of how much money my frugal ways have saved the Hospital... she paused and said I was right.
I own 50 vehicles with about half show cars dating back to my 1905 Oldsmobile and at least one car from every decade going forward... Model T, Model A, Bantam, Crosley, Morris, VW Bug/Thing, Mustang Convertibles, Range Rover, BMWs. Cadillac Fleetwood, Pickups, 62 Corvette, etc... the car I drive most everyday is a 2001 Corolla S that I watched being built at the NUMMI factory...
Quote:
Originally Posted by phonelady61
My boss did that to me once and I told him to mind his own business and if he wanted me to drive a nicer car then maybe he should pay for it and give me a raise to cover the insurance . I hate when bosses overstep and think they have the right to tell you what to drive and park in their stupid parking lot . He got quiet and never again did he say anything to me about what I drove .
Yes I look at a car as a matierialistic thing to get me from point a to point b and nothing else . I don't need to have all the bells and whistles etc .
I had a boss who asked me a few times a year (times the 7 years I worked for her) when I was going to get a new car. She say it in varying ways. She always drove flashy cars and it didn't matter if she banged them up as she could afford to fix or replace them. She got bored, she bought something else. Did the same with her houses. Anyway.... she didn't pay us that same salary so......
I told her that when she started arriving to events before I did, I'd consider another car. (we often had to be on site between 4-5am and I was, without fail, one of the first people to arrive for each event and she was usually an hour behind the rest of us). I had one mechanical in the entire time and it happened as I arrived an an event. I called AAA and my SO, so when I was ready to leave 4 hours later, the car got towed home and my SO picked me up so I didn't have to spend over an hour at night in a wrecker with a stranger, and I just took his car the next day
My boss did that to me once and I told him to mind his own business and if he wanted me to drive a nicer car then maybe he should pay for it.
It becomes company business if you transport people in the car.
We had a guy at work that had an absolute pit of a car.
He was told in no uncertain terms that no one from outside the company was to be allowed to see it.
Eventually the POS quit and was towed straight from the parking lot to the junkyard.
Dude bought a clean early '90's Taurus, the pinnacle of luxury by comparison.
I'll never drive an unassuming beater if I can help it. I've ALWAYS had custom cars or sports cars. And I always keep them nice, even if they are daily drivers.
OK, so tell us how you avoid nicks or scratches, or anonymous parking lot sideswipes. I want to know the secret.
It becomes company business if you transport people in the car.
But when you arrive at work hours before the first customers, in the dark, and leave 1-2 hours after they are gone, it is not company business. By the time customers show up, they'd be hard pressed to even figure out whose car was whose in the full parking lots.
Not everyone has customers or even co-workers in their car. I've never had to drive a customer anywhere. Co-workers for lunch, yes but that's their choice to carpool. And actually people were probably afraid it would break down so I rarely even had to worry about that. Their loss and my gain - could play any music I want and no one to complain about my singing
OK, so tell us how you avoid nicks or scratches, or anonymous parking lot sideswipes. I want to know the secret.
Don't park next to crap.
Park on the end so there's only one car next to you and you can get as far away as possible.
I'd rather park next to where they put the carts than another car. I've get to get a cart ding.
If you have to walk farther, so be it. But most people are too lazy to do that.
It becomes company business if you transport people in the car.
We had a guy at work that had an absolute pit of a car.
He was told in no uncertain terms that no one from outside the company was to be allowed to see it.
Eventually the POS quit and was towed straight from the parking lot to the junkyard.
Dude bought a clean early '90's Taurus, the pinnacle of luxury by comparison.
I never transported anyone for work...
My car was in excellent shape...
It was old, looked like it should belong to a retired person and I paid $800 for it...
Remember the Hospital receptionist making $9 an hour just bought a 50k SUV with her husband... I'm certain my $800 was much less than anyone in the entire organization... every Saturday I would wash and detail all the way down to the whitewall tires...
The boss thought it reflected badly on the organization for the Director of Engineering to drive a then 25 year old car... she even said god awful...
Correction... I never transported anyone but I did use my car and box trailer to move a $500,000 Excimer Laser about two miles... at the request of the Administrator... got it in writing too just to make sure there would not be any misunderstanding should something go wrong.
Guess my rig was worth about $501,000 for those two miles... $800 car and $200 trailer plus Laser...
Don't park next to crap.
Park on the end so there's only one car next to you and you can get as far away as possible.
I'd rather park next to where they put the carts than another car. I've get to get a cart ding.
If you have to walk farther, so be it. But most people are too lazy to do that.
I've tried this; parking in the end slot, when possible. But that still leaves one side of the car exposed. And parking farther away doesn't guarantee you an isolated slot. At a busy store, the lot is close to full up, even almost completely full up, much of the time. Gym lots can be smaller, for example. But ok, I'll make more of an effort to scout the farther corners of the lots, now. Thanks.
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