12th Aug 2012, 10:08

Wow, a 21 year old car that has rust and needs mechanical repairs. That is truly an outrage.

By way of a little perspective, within the last year, my dad, who also likes to think he can get something for nothing, bought a '93 Ford Tempo with about 100,000 miles for $250 and proceeded to spend about another $1,800 on it replacing struts, new radiator, fixing a starting/stalling problem, replacing wheel bearings, and other myriad issues, then sold it to a friend for 2/3rds of what he had in it to unload it after driving it only 6 months. When the engine seized a month later, he gave the guy half his money back, and his friend still wouldn't speak to him for months.

To replace that beater, what would make more sense than buying another beater? So next he bought a 1989 Chrysler LeBaron with around 100,000 miles for $2,500. Like the Tempo, it was also the "best car ever" and "well worth" spending another $2,500 to replace the window motor, struts, fix starting problems, and other things to "really make it nice." Thank goodness, he was lucky enough that it caught on fire and burned up by the side of the road before he could spend any more on that POS, because the transmission was clunking, too.

Now it should be recognized that the local garage certainly talked him into getting a number of unnecessary repairs done on both vehicles, preying on his desire to think he could have a really nice car without buying a new (or within a few years old) car, but the lesson there is: You buy a 20-year-old car, you are going to have to fix some things; you buy a beater for a few hundred dollars, that's fine, run it like a beater and get your money's worth out of it, but don't expect that a $500 beater is "just like" a brand new car.

Keep in mind my tale of two similar-aged domestics before you apply the blanket statement of "domestic = good" across the board, and don't listen to these guys who say they drove an old Ford 300,000 miles with only $15 in maintenance, because it is a fantasy. For any car!