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You just need to do your research first. I recently bought a 2001 Corolla with 200k miles. I felt confident because it has a timing chain, no belt to snap. Man

You just need to do your research first. I recently bought a 2001 Corolla with 200k miles. I felt confident because it has a timing chain, no belt to snap. Manual transmission which is bulletproof, just needs a new clutch every now and then. And it’s a a common car so it’s easy and cheap to find spare parts. This era is probably the sweet spot for reliable cars. Post 2010 cars have gotten extremely complicated both mechanically and electronically. Manual / slushbox auto transmissions are difficult to find, replaced with CVTs which are extremely unreliable and for some reason unrepairable (usually needing a full replacement), or DCTs which are slightly better but nowhere near as reliable as a manual or slushbox. And significantly more expensive to fix. In 15-20 years the used car market isn’t going to look like it does today. Modern ICEs aren’t going to last. However, I’m looking forward to used electric cars as they age. The mechanics are much simpler which only leaves the electronics, and more people are going to become competent with diagnostics and repair in step with the popularity of electric cars.

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earthling8118 4y ago
What kind of research could you possibly do that will help resolve this? And even if you can is everyone supposed to buy those cars? This only scales for a small amount of peolle. I've exclusively owned vehicles from the time period. They've all been around 120k miles when I got them. They aren't any more reliable than any others. They've all had issues that caused me problems. Some of them have even been incredibly difficult to diagnose. I've never put more than about 10k miles on any of them. In part because I couldn't trust them to get my home
- shortcake27 4y ago
  > What kind of research could you possibly do that will help resolve this? You look at all the cars within your budget and rule out red flags, for me it’s timing belts and CVT transmissions. Then Google the rest and look at the common problems. > And even if you can is everyone supposed to buy those cars? This only scales for a small amount of peolle. This is no different to anything else in life. People who do their due diligence more often than not end up in better situations. I don’t really understand what your point is here, that no one should do due diligence because it can’t work if everyone does it?
  - prophesi 4y ago
    Sometimes you start off with a budget of $1k in the outskirts of town and have to just do with what your options are to be a functional member of society. I was able to do my due diligence and bought an old Volvo, and we knew a mechanic who specialized in Volvos, but even if it's not an expensive repair like a timing belt, the repairs will still be more frequent. And I think this situation will get worse for the next generation as it's more common to have proprietary parts and tooling, drastically increasing the cost of repairs as time goes on (which also makes self repairs a lot more difficult).

deleted 4y ago

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earthling8118 4y ago

What kind of research could you possibly do that will help resolve this? And even if you can is everyone supposed to buy those cars? This only scales for a small amount of peolle. I've exclusively owned vehicles from the time period. They've all been around 120k miles when I got them. They aren't any more reliable than any others. They've all had issues that caused me problems. Some of them have even been incredibly difficult to diagnose. I've never put more than about 10k miles on any of them. In part because I couldn't trust them to get my home

shortcake27 4y ago
> What kind of research could you possibly do that will help resolve this? You look at all the cars within your budget and rule out red flags, for me it’s timing belts and CVT transmissions. Then Google the rest and look at the common problems. > And even if you can is everyone supposed to buy those cars? This only scales for a small amount of peolle. This is no different to anything else in life. People who do their due diligence more often than not end up in better situations. I don’t really understand what your point is here, that no one should do due diligence because it can’t work if everyone does it?
- prophesi 4y ago
  Sometimes you start off with a budget of $1k in the outskirts of town and have to just do with what your options are to be a functional member of society. I was able to do my due diligence and bought an old Volvo, and we knew a mechanic who specialized in Volvos, but even if it's not an expensive repair like a timing belt, the repairs will still be more frequent. And I think this situation will get worse for the next generation as it's more common to have proprietary parts and tooling, drastically increasing the cost of repairs as time goes on (which also makes self repairs a lot more difficult).