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But you didn't answer my questions. As you said "I turn my vehicles rather frequently with very low mileage and in showroom condition." you don't really know how they would perform with 100k miles. You never get there.... IMHO saying "it's not a very wise or responsible thing to do" is quite subjective. If you are talking about a car with 100k which has had minimal maintenance I would totally agree with you. But if the same car has had every service done to the letter there isn't a reason to assume it would fail if you took it on on a 5k trip. I don't typically keep my cars forever either, or drive them a ton (I do have a 2006 BMW M roadster with 20k miles on the clock...) but it isn't that hard to keep a Mazda quite reliable for many, many years.
Again......please refer to all the components I listed that you don't maintain that will fail not only with extended miles but, extended time. Of course you can keep and old car maintained and reliable to use around town, to run errands, and perhaps hand down to a youngster as their first vehicle. Again.....driving an 8,9,10 year old vehicle with 100k plus miles on a 5,000 road trip (in my opinion) is foolish and irresponsible. You may get lucky and not have any issue on that 5,000 road trip. That is a gamble I prefer not to take unless out of necessity.
Again......please refer to all the components I listed that you don't maintain that will fail not only with extended miles but, extended time. Of course you can keep and old car maintained and reliable to use around town, to run errands, and perhaps hand down to a youngster as their first vehicle. Again.....driving an 8,9,10 year old vehicle with 100k plus miles on a 5,000 road trip (in my opinion) is foolish and irresponsible. You may get lucky and not have any issue on that 5,000 road trip. That is a gamble I prefer not to take unless out of necessity.
So - CEB, you like to drive new cars. You don't have experience with older cars. You have expressed your opinion that driving an older car on a road trip is foolish and irresponsible (strong words), despite having no experience doing so. And you keep circling back to the same comments, despite the lack of personal experience or evidence to support your opinion.
So - CEB, you like to drive new cars. You don't have experience with older cars. You have expressed your opinion that driving an older car on a road trip is foolish and irresponsible (strong words), despite having no experience doing so. And you keep circling back to the same comments, despite the lack of personal experience or evidence to support your opinion.
I've owned plenty of old clunkers over the years. I'm just not comfortable driving one on an extended road trip. Even if it's (so called) "maintained". For those who do, good luck to them. Do you think we've beat this old clunker to death and we she move on to a different subject?
I do take care of my vehicles. They're always serviced per the manufacturers user manual, tires always properly inflated, always washed and waxed, garaged day and night. I won't even park my vehicles inbetween two other vehicles in a parking lot (door dings). I've no kids, grandkids or pets. Nobody has even ridden in the backseast of my last 8-10 vehicles. I turn my vehicles rather frequently with very low mileage and in showroom condition. I have a beater car I drive so I don't have to drive my two good vehicles when it rains or snows.
I've always wondered about the purpose of a "beater" car. Because, logically, if you drive your beater car most of the time for your "nice" cars to stay nice, what's the point of having a nice car in the first place? I thought the point of a nice car is to enjoy being in them and driving them, not saving them for the next owner
I've always wondered about the purpose of a "beater" car. Because, logically, if you drive your beater car most of the time for your "nice" cars to stay nice, what's the point of having a nice car in the first place? I thought the point of a nice car is to enjoy being in them and driving them, not saving them for the next owner
In the rust belt, where you're located, people will have a nice car and a beater with a heater. You can drive a really nice car on salty roads and slide off them every now and then, rust it out in a few short years, beat the fenders in, have the brake lines rust out and then you have to buy another one for major bucks. Otherwise you can buy a beater for a couple of grand or less, drive it and when it packs its bags and heads to the scrap yard, get another one. When the salt is washed off by the spring rains, you have a nice late model car ready to go. Get up into North Dakota and they don't use much salt. They use gravel and it hammers the under carriage.
In the rust belt, where you're located, people will have a nice car and a beater with a heater. You can drive a really nice car on salty roads and slide off them every now and then, rust it out in a few short years, beat the fenders in, have the brake lines rust out and then you have to buy another one for major bucks. Otherwise you can buy a beater for a couple of grand or less, drive it and when it packs its bags and heads to the scrap yard, get another one. When the salt is washed off by the spring rains, you have a nice late model car ready to go. Get up into North Dakota and they don't use much salt. They use gravel and it hammers the under carriage.
That "rust belt" is a myth, it's not about salt ruining the cars, but many cars being crap I have a 15 year old Mazda 3, no rust at all, and I don't even wash it that often
I've always wondered about the purpose of a "beater" car. Because, logically, if you drive your beater car most of the time for your "nice" cars to stay nice, what's the point of having a nice car in the first place? I thought the point of a nice car is to enjoy being in them and driving them, not saving them for the next owner
You don't drive a beater car "most of the time". You drive the beater when the road conditions sucks due to nasty weather or you're parking in the vehicle battle zones such as the mall or grocery store parking lots. I put plenty of drive time on my pristine cars. They stay pristine cuz I have a beater car
I recall the days when all I could afford was a beater.
Then I moved on to having one "good" vehicle and one beater.
After multiple years of doing this and gaining some experience and maturity, and actually totaling all the costs on the "beater"....
I find the combined costs of having a "beater" vehicle greatly outweigh the costs of trading more frequently for a new or late model vehicle.
I recall the days when all I could afford was a beater.
Then I moved on to having one "good" vehicle and one beater.
After multiple years of doing this and gaining some experience and maturity, and actually totaling all the costs on the "beater"....
I find the combined costs of having a "beater" vehicle greatly outweigh the costs of trading more frequently for a new or late model vehicle.
$$money$$ is not the total issue. It's seeing what one long snowy winter with the crappy salt/sand covered roads does to a paint job. Or, returning to your brand new vehicle (that still has the paper plates) in the grocery store parking lot to discover a huge door ding or huge scratch from a grocery cart and get that sick feeling. That new vehicle is quickly on its way to becoming a beater car. My $2500 beater over the years has been well, well worth the money.
06-01-2022, 04:42 PM
