Our second car is an older Beetle and we've kept it around for exactly that reason, it's paid off, and even the occasional repairs needed on it annually are way

Our second car is an older Beetle and we've kept it around for exactly that reason, it's paid off, and even the occasional repairs needed on it annually are way cheaper than a monthly auto loan payment. When I used to commute (pre-COVID, I'm never, ever going back to that), we still used it.