I'm fortunate enough to be able to do a lot of my own car work, and I like older cars where doing this kind of work is dramatically easier. It's a mixture of self reliance, budgetary economy, and a deeper sense of ownership that I enjoy. But for those who don't work on their own cars, I agree that buying a fairly young used car is a good way to go. Cars that are just a few years old generally won't have any real issues to worry about for many years, but they are still way less expensive than brand new.
I would be loathe to go into long term debt for a car, but there may be cases where it's necessary.
joe8185 wrote:
I know first-hand what money sinks automobiles can be. In 2006, when I was a lot less educated about financial matters than I am now, I bought a 2001 Ford Focus to replace my previous car which had been totaled (according to the insurance company anyway; it had had its left front bashed up by a pickup truck that turned right into me from the front without looking, and I'm convinced to this day the damage could have been repaired). It ran well enough at first but there were ongoing issues with the coolant and electrical/ignition systems that soon became obvious. I had to replace the battery three times in 11 years (well, maybe that's not so unusual); have the thermostat replaced at least twice; suffered from persistent coolant leaks throughout the entire history of ownership; had to have the fuel pump replaced about 18 months after I bought the car because of a persisent issue with losing power abruptly that nobody could track down until I had the engine conk out on me repeatedly during a trip to North Carolina; spent two days at the end of 2009 having the fuel-injection system completely cleaned out; had persistent problems with the ignition system culminating in experiencing a very infamous issue with this model of car last year where the ignition column just completely freezes up, requiring replacement and the cutting of a whole new key; not to mention "regular" maintenance on brakes, etc. By last year that wretched thing was literally costing more to fix than it was worth to keep, and I had to spend something like $1800 cash money on repairs that I should have put into the down payment for a replacement instead.
I'm a bit of a fanatic about cooling systems. IMO it's one of the greatest threats to a car over the long term, because it has so many ways to start to go wrong, and any failure will cause a domino effect of bigger failures that can eventually take down the whole car. Due to the way the system regulates in a fixed temperature range, the growing weakness of the system tends to creep up without being immediately apparent. Manufacturers also don't like to illuminate warning lights until the problem has gotten really serious, because warning lights equate to unhappy customers and warranty service calls.
Once overheating starts, then the problems quickly get a lot more serious and expensive. Modern engines are especially fragile with respect to overheating, thanks to the industry's fondness for aluminum nowadays.
When the overheating/cooling system related problems start to get fixed, the scope of them isn't always fully identified, so the problems repeat and the car becomes a festering money pit.
I remember all the problems my nephew had with an old Thunderbird, and it all started with a failed radiator fan, and then an unsuitable radiator that somebody thought was an upgrade (when the real problem had been the fan). That car ended up with so many problems anyone would pull their hair out.
I've seen similar situations with small coolant leaks, and so forth.
@Mrm-na wrote:I'm fortunate enough to be able to do a lot of my own car work, and I like older cars where doing this kind of work is dramatically easier. It's a mixture of self reliance, budgetary economy, and a deeper sense of ownership that I enjoy. But for those who don't work on their own cars, I agree that buying a fairly young used car is a good way to go. Cars that are just a few years old generally won't have any real issues to worry about for many years, but they are still way less expensive than brand new.
I would be loathe to go into long term debt for a car, but there may be cases where it's necessary.
@Anonymous wrote:
I know first-hand what money sinks automobiles can be. In 2006, when I was a lot less educated about financial matters than I am now, I bought a 2001 Ford Focus to replace my previous car which had been totaled (according to the insurance company anyway; it had had its left front bashed up by a pickup truck that turned right into me from the front without looking, and I'm convinced to this day the damage could have been repaired). It ran well enough at first but there were ongoing issues with the coolant and electrical/ignition systems that soon became obvious. I had to replace the battery three times in 11 years (well, maybe that's not so unusual); have the thermostat replaced at least twice; suffered from persistent coolant leaks throughout the entire history of ownership; had to have the fuel pump replaced about 18 months after I bought the car because of a persisent issue with losing power abruptly that nobody could track down until I had the engine conk out on me repeatedly during a trip to North Carolina; spent two days at the end of 2009 having the fuel-injection system completely cleaned out; had persistent problems with the ignition system culminating in experiencing a very infamous issue with this model of car last year where the ignition column just completely freezes up, requiring replacement and the cutting of a whole new key; not to mention "regular" maintenance on brakes, etc. By last year that wretched thing was literally costing more to fix than it was worth to keep, and I had to spend something like $1800 cash money on repairs that I should have put into the down payment for a replacement instead.
I'm a bit of a fanatic about cooling systems. IMO it's one of the greatest threats to a car over the long term, because it has so many ways to start to go wrong, and any failure will cause a domino effect of bigger failures that can eventually take down the whole car. Due to the way the system regulates in a fixed temperature range, the growing weakness of the system tends to creep up without being immediately apparent. Manufacturers also don't like to illuminate warning lights until the problem has gotten really serious, because warning lights equate to unhappy customers and warranty service calls.
Once overheating starts, then the problems quickly get a lot more serious and expensive. Modern engines are especially fragile with respect to overheating, thanks to the industry's fondness for aluminum nowadays.
When the overheating/cooling system related problems start to get fixed, the scope of them isn't always fully identified, so the problems repeat and the car becomes a festering money pit.
I remember all the problems my nephew had with an old Thunderbird, and it all started with a failed radiator fan, and then an unsuitable radiator that somebody thought was an upgrade (when the real problem had been the fan). That car ended up with so many problems anyone would pull their hair out.
I've seen similar situations with small coolant leaks, and so forth.
I wouldn't call 60 months "long-term" myself, but I'd definitely avoid a 72- or 84-month-term loan even if the rates were rock-bottom. 48 or 60 months sounds about right to me based on what you can afford in terms of payments and what the APR is. I think I got a pretty good deal on that 2016 Accent; I had originally been looking at a 2013 Civic LX but it turned out to have been already sold, fortunately they had the Accent in fresh from having been bought at auction for the exact same price. I only had to contact Penfed to get the paperwork updated to the correct VIN and have them up the loan total a few hundred dollars to account for the various taxes and fees, which they did without demur.
That Focus had so incredibly many problems - I think only 2008 and 2011 went by during all the time I owned that car without something requiring significant repair shop time of some sort - with the coolant system and almost everything else that, in retrospect, (1) instead of just plunking down my insurance proceeds to buy a car cash on the barrelhead, I should have gone to Penfed and seen what I could come up with in terms of a loan for a couple of thousand dollars more to cover the balance on a good used car, and (2) I should have investigated more closely why a 2001 model-year (meaning manufactured and sold as new in 2000) car was sitting around five years later on a dealership lot with only 25.6k miles on it. (Carfax is useful, but doesn't always show you everything...)