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I'd like to see a source for someone who actually bought a "30-40 year old Volvo for $1-2k" and put it through another few decades of "hard use" while doing onl

by tfourb 3y ago

I'd like to see a source for someone who actually bought a "30-40 year old Volvo for $1-2k" and put it through another few decades of "hard use" while doing only "basic maintenance" for "a few hundred $ per year". I'm all with you that no one in their right mind should ever pay for a new car only to have it depreciate by $10.000+ the moment they drive it off the lot. But the real winner of a strategy is buying a proven reliably car that has been well treated about 10 years after it was new, drive gently for 5-10 more years and sell it once the hefty maintenance stuff starts coming in. Also it should be the smallest, most fuel efficient car you can get away with 95% of the time. You rent or borrow a bigger car for the 5% that you can't cover with your small car.

_yb2s 3y ago
I have done exactly that many times, but if you look at car forums with older high quality cars like 80s Mercedes and Volvos, it's not rare at all, what I am talking about is the norm. Think about what you said- when the hefty maintenance stuff starts coming in, if someone doesn't scrap or sell the thing and just pays for all of that, you usually have about as many miles again before it starts to happen again, yet the value is through the floor. I've bought a few cheap 200k mile vehicles that had really extensive service records, usually bought new by wealthy people and maintained with no expense spared, that I put another 100-200k miles on before they needed any major work again. If you're really thrifty, a small 80s European diesel sedan with a stickshift, like the Mercedes 190D or VW Rabbit, has fuel efficiency close to a modern hybrid, at really low cost. Not so great emissions though.
- bluGill 3y ago
  Late 80s were getting near the peak of fuel economy. They had computers and fuel injection which was the last low hanging fruit. They didn't have to deal with modern emissions which often makes economy worse (they did have 1970s emissions, but many of the downfalls of those systems were sorted out). Modern engines are more fuel efficient, but modern cars are often a lot heaver and so the gains have mostly been taken away in that.
- kipchak 3y ago
  These sorts of cars ware great but are really the needles in the haystack, and you need to have a pretty good idea what to look for, find them before someone else and live somewhere where rust/road salt hasn't killed them which is not typical for most poor people and teenagers. Possible but not typical I think. For example there's one Craigslist 190D on the east coast at $6800, I would guess a increasing amount of sorted cars wind up on BAT or similar.
  - _yb2s 3y ago
    Ironically, on the west coast the more long lived older cars are crazy cheap because there just isn’t enough demand to meet the supply. They still work but not many people want to drive a vehicle that old, especially if it has major cosmetic issues. There is also a fear of them being unreliable, even if it’s untrue.

by tfourb 3y ago

_yb2s 3y ago

I have done exactly that many times, but if you look at car forums with older high quality cars like 80s Mercedes and Volvos, it's not rare at all, what I am talking about is the norm. Think about what you said- when the hefty maintenance stuff starts coming in, if someone doesn't scrap or sell the thing and just pays for all of that, you usually have about as many miles again before it starts to happen again, yet the value is through the floor. I've bought a few cheap 200k mile vehicles that had really extensive service records, usually bought new by wealthy people and maintained with no expense spared, that I put another 100-200k miles on before they needed any major work again. If you're really thrifty, a small 80s European diesel sedan with a stickshift, like the Mercedes 190D or VW Rabbit, has fuel efficiency close to a modern hybrid, at really low cost. Not so great emissions though.

bluGill 3y ago
Late 80s were getting near the peak of fuel economy. They had computers and fuel injection which was the last low hanging fruit. They didn't have to deal with modern emissions which often makes economy worse (they did have 1970s emissions, but many of the downfalls of those systems were sorted out). Modern engines are more fuel efficient, but modern cars are often a lot heaver and so the gains have mostly been taken away in that.
kipchak 3y ago
These sorts of cars ware great but are really the needles in the haystack, and you need to have a pretty good idea what to look for, find them before someone else and live somewhere where rust/road salt hasn't killed them which is not typical for most poor people and teenagers. Possible but not typical I think. For example there's one Craigslist 190D on the east coast at $6800, I would guess a increasing amount of sorted cars wind up on BAT or similar.
- _yb2s 3y ago
  Ironically, on the west coast the more long lived older cars are crazy cheap because there just isn’t enough demand to meet the supply. They still work but not many people want to drive a vehicle that old, especially if it has major cosmetic issues. There is also a fear of them being unreliable, even if it’s untrue.