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How to buy a good car for $1000

145 points by barry-cotter 22d ago

tech_ken 22d ago
> Car debt is terrible. But many people can’t get car debt, because many banks won’t write a $3,000 car loan, much less to someone with unsteady income. The bottom quintile often can’t even reach the $1,000 car - it’s hard to get out of the cycle where you can’t get a job because you don’t have a car. When people wave off Waymo or bus lanes or bike lanes because car culture is fine, they mean it works fine for them. Banger post. My first car was a $1200 Geo Prism that I bought through the mechanic shop at the gas station up the street. It was older than my (younger) brother; got a good 5 years out of it before the transmission literally fell apart on Rt 2.
- raddan 22d ago
  My grandfather bought me a $200 Ford Taurus at a car auction. I hated that car. It was this ugly green color and handled like a boat. But I drove it for many years, mostly to part-time jobs waiting tables or working at a butcher shop when I was in college. It finally met its end one winter in Worcester, Mass when the road salt ate through the flange that held the exhaust pipe on. This happened while idling in the parking lot in front of a Jo-Ann Fabrics store. If you’ve never experienced an unmuffled V6, think twin engine turboprop loud. A kind employee at Jo-Ann came up with a clever solution to hold the exhaust pipe against the chassis using baling wire so that I could at least drive it without the exhaust pipe dragging on the ground. I continued to drive that car, until my neighbors complained that the “tank noise” was waking them up in the morning. I replaced that car with another car that was even worse, but that’s another story. I am comfortably middle class now. I still buy budget cars because I can’t get past how outrageously expensive most cars are now. But even now I still think, every time I sit in my new (well, three year old) car: wow, this is awesome. I don’t know if my friends think those same thoughts, because I would be honestly a little embarrassed to explain why I feel that way.
  - cgio 22d ago
    I think that anyone who has not experienced the slow churn of driving a car with the engine light on for years, some duct tape holding something in it, is missing nothing. But I still feel like a child with a base modern family car. It is the hint of time travel we are allowed.
    - hn993302 22d ago
      It's not fun or bragging-worthy or anything. The "haha the driver door doesn't open" bits are very different from getting stranded in random places. The only good experience is if you manage to fix it for cheap.
    - aworks 21d ago
      My dad put electrical tape over the check engine light in my car...
      - hn993302 20d ago
        I'll bet ⅓ of Craigslist car listings had the codes cleared right before the test drive
  - hn993302 22d ago
    I have one piece of junk and one newer (ie 2012) car, so I get to experience the difference every week. Except, the driver side window doesn't work in either car. Wish power windows weren't invented.
  - jjav 22d ago
    > I continued to drive that car, until my neighbors complained that the “tank noise” was waking them up in the morning. Curious why not simply replace the exhaust flange? Cheap and easy repair.
    - raddan 21d ago
      It was cheap, but on this car, it was not easy. I tried. I would have no trouble replacing it now, but then, I had no money, no tools, and I could not afford to bring it to a mechanic.
- matthiaswh 21d ago
  This made me laugh nostalgically. A Geo Prism was one of my first "$1000 cars" as a kid. Fun little car, but once it hit 40 it started shaking like a tree. I always joked that if I drove it on the highway it would shake itself apart around me and I would end up with suspended in air with only a seat and a steering wheel left, looney tunes style, before plummeting to the ground. I sold it off for a different $1000 car before it happened, but sounds like that's precisely what happened to you!
Neywiny 22d ago
I guess it can be like the Terry Pratchett boot theory a bit. But yeah even among your circle, you need to be careful. I know somebody who got a junk car for a bad price because it was from somebody in their circle and everyone else vouched for the seller.
- al_borland 22d ago
  Very few people buying a new car keep it long enough to make it cheaper than buying $5-10k cars. The last cheaper used car I bought, I kept for about 10 years, it was $10k. I sold it to my brother in-law after that, who had it another 5 years… it would have gone longer, but he didn’t realized I had changed the timing belt before I sold it to him, so he misjudged how long the one he put on would last, and it destroyed the engine… anyway, let’s go with it.. The last new car I got, was relatively inexpensive, as far as new cars go, at $35k. If a $10k used car ran for 15 years, I’d have to keep that $35k car for over 50 years to make it worth it. New cars are almost never financially justifiable. And that new car will run into the same maintenance issues and costs as the used one as it ages. The nicer the car, the worse this equation gets, as increased car pricing translates to luxury, not quality. This makes them very different from work boots.
  - Neywiny 21d ago
    The question isn't so much how long it lasts until the engine explodes, it's how expensive is maintenance. That's the boot theory part. If you can't save up enough for the $10k car that lasts 15 years (though you mentioned a timing belt replacement and on some cars that's a few thousand $, ask me how I know...) and instead can only afford to keep buying $1000 cars, that could turn into a slew of smaller fixes that add up to a lot more than the car was initially bought for. I'm also a bit surprised you'd buy a new car. Off-lease is much cheaper and they're still fairly new ish.
__d 22d ago
[flagged]
- Zambyte 22d ago
  What about selling busses and trains, and buildings bike lanes and train tracks? Loans and cars aren't the solution to loans and cars, but there are solutions.
  - lhamil64 22d ago
    Plus, money isn’t always the reason people can’t or don’t drive. People may have disabilities that prevent them from driving. Heck, some people just don’t like driving. Improving public transit, biking, and pedestrian infrastructure solves most of these issues, and it’s frustrating how car-centric the US is in most places.
  - raddan 22d ago
    I lived in a place for a few years that had a free public transportation network. I can’t tell you how liberating that was, because it meant that I could get to lots of places without owning a vehicle. They even had bike racks on the busses, which meant that you could easily cover the last mile. That place decided that free public transportation was a good investment. I think many people here would see it as a waste of their tax money. But those people are not low income. They can afford to buy cars. I occasionally hear my coworkers remark about how they would never ride one of those city busses—YUCK. It kind of grinds my gears. Living in that place made me feel like the community actually cared about me. It made a big impact on how I think about what is worth spending my taxes on. We already subsidize the middle class (roads ain’t free!) and we subsidize the heck out of corporate America. A small slice of those subsidies would make a big difference for people at the bottom.
    - WalterBright 22d ago
      > A small slice of those subsidies would make a big difference for people at the bottom. More than half of the federal budget is for entitlements.
Synthetic7346 22d ago
I'm curious about the insurance aspect of this, do people buying $1000 cars forego insurance?
- JohnFen 22d ago
  I just carry liability. There's no point in comprehensive coverage on such a car. My car insurance costs about $500/yr.
  - encrypted_bird 21d ago
    Jesus, only $500 a *year*?? May I ask where you live in? I live in MI and I pay about $990 a year for minimum liability insurance.
    - JohnFen 20d ago
      I live in the west. I also have an excellent driving record and drive a small econobox. Here's an interesting story that gave me greater understanding of how insurance is priced. Years ago, I worked at a place where I lived 5 miles away as the crow flies. However, due to geography, the only way to get between my work and my home was by car, using one of the most dangerous freeways in my state. I got tired of the commute and moved closer to work, close enough that I didn't have to use the freeway (or even drive unless I was lazy) anymore. I reported the change of my residence to my car insurance company, and they cut my premium by a third. They didn't say why, but I'm certain the reason was that I didn't take that freeway 10 times per week anymore.
      - encrypted_bird 20d ago
        Damn that's a big difference!
        JohnFen 19d ago
        I was genuinely shocked and it made me happier with my car insurance company. The behavior I expected is that they'd keep my premium the same and just pocket the extra profit. Of course, them doing this may earn enough loyalty and goodwill that they benefit more from being honest than from being overly greedy. I do wonder if the same thing would have happened if I carried comprehensive rather than liability. I suspect not. They may see liability-only policies as an indicator that the customer is of limited means.
carabiner 22d ago
My first car was $1k bought in Michigan in 2006. It was a massive POS and took $1,500 in repairs to run reliably. I immediately bought a $7k car when I got a job.
- miah_ 22d ago
  I still drive a '97 4runner that I bought for 5k around 2020. I've probably put 5k into repairs. I've spent less on it than anything I could buy new, and it will probably outlast us all. Nearing 300k miles on it now.
  - skyberrys 22d ago
    Very smart to go with a Toyota! I did the opposite and learned the hard way that the 'discount' for buying American will be paid for in $3k increments whenever it wants over the next few years until your finally give up and just buy the Toyota you should have bought to begin with.
    - carabiner 22d ago
      Nowadays Toyotas are more expensive than fords and every Toyota hybrid has a year long waitlist. Everything is priced in today.
JackFr 22d ago
My wife was from Reno, I was from NY. The week before we got married (in 1996) we were out there and her sister lent us a 1979 F150 at about 2O0k miles —- 3-on-the-tree, no air, AM radio, lap belts. The passenger door would fly open on left turns unless it was locked. I nearly lost my brother when I picked him up at the airport and forgot to warn him. Maybe cause I was about to get married but I loved that truck.
- bluGill 22d ago
  I always wanted to try a three one the tree, just cause they were so different. Alas all the cars I've ever owned were 5 or 6 speeds. Today I drive an EV with no gears. Maybe someday a collector will trust me with his car - but I wouldn't myself with something classic.
  - sokoloff 21d ago
    We (mostly) restored a barn-find 1959 Mercedes 220S (Ponton) cabriolet. Manual transmission with selector on the tree (but four speed I think). Honestly, it felt different for about a half hour, then just fades into the background.
djmips 22d ago
Toyota Echo - perhaps the car car ever made.
SOLAR_FIELDS 22d ago
In the course of my work I deal with organizations who sell cars out of impound lots. There is a whole capitalistic recycling industry of buying junked cars and reassembling them into functioning vehicles again. Interestingly, a fair portion of junked cars get shipped overseas where the labor is very, very low cost and high tech, cheap labor chop shops in places like India or in some countries in Africa will have highly skilled workers basically cut out crumple zones and restore completely totaled vehicles into new looking cars and turn around and sell them. This would never be viable here in the States because of the labor cost, but when you are paying someone $1 USD a day to do highly skilled and technical labor like this it becomes very viable. Another popular tactic where I live in Texas is to steal a car and drive it south of the border and strip it. Then buy a junked car same make and model with a clean VIN. Then ship that clean VIN second car south of the border as well and rebuild it with the stolen parts and ship it back over for resale.
coderenegade 22d ago
My newest and most expensive car cost $5k in freedom dollars. It gets the job done. I have an older, more clapped out vehicle that cost $1500, and is in surprisingly decent knick for a 30 year old car, but it does need a paint job and some imminent TLC to keep it from deteriorating. That will cost more than it's worth, but I think it's worth doing in the long run.
SoftTalker 22d ago
I'm not poor but I think it's ridiculous to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a car. I learned that after buying a new car when I got my first job. Since then about $5k is my limit.
thelastgallon 22d ago
Buying a beat-up used car is risky. They are cheap for a reason, they have repairs that cost thousands. And cascading repairs, you don't know what else is wrong until the first problem is fixed, and the first problem itself is $3000 - $5000. The article has anecdotes that worked out for some people, but it doesn't work out for most people. It is like buying a lottery ticket. Buying a new cheap car is the safest, and I'm sure there are always some models available under 20K. Poor people (or even non-poor people) can buy the cheapest transportation available. US used to have the cheapest cars in the world. Its completely changed now, all you need to do is to ask your administrators to let the manufacturers from China bring them in. 1) They can buy a cheap car that will cost nothing in fuel. This is the worlds cheapest SOLAR CAR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk6aTKV-des https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk6aTKV-des 2) They can buy EV KEI cars (https://insideevs.com/news/807141/byd-racco-kei-driven-japan/ https://insideevs.com/news/807141/byd-racco-kei-driven-japan...) 3) They can ask for biking trials to be built. Atlanta seems to have built many miles of connected trials. 4) EV Golf carts are a perfectly acceptable form of transportation: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-golf-cart-kingdom/ https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-golf-cart-kingdom/ Ask your admin to allow cheap cars/KEI/golf and work with your local city to build walk/bike/golf-cart trials. Its a one time cost, you can make transportation cheap permanently.
- hn993302 22d ago
  Poor people can't afford a new $13K car. EVs also make less sense if you live in an apartment.
  - thelastgallon 22d ago
    Agreed, and thats why we have the boots theory. The Poor Man’s Shoe Theory, widely known as the Sam Vimes “Boots” Theory of Socio-Economic Unfairness, is a concept that explains how those who are poor often end up spending more in the long run because they can’t afford to make quality purchases up front. This idea was popularized by Terry Pratchett, the acclaimed British writer, in his 1993 Discworld novel Men at Arms, through a passage in which the character Captain Sam Vimes observes the realities of poverty and consumption. “Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.” “But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.” https://footwearmagazine.com/poor-man-shoe-theory-poverty-costs-more/ https://footwearmagazine.com/poor-man-shoe-theory-poverty-co...
nbf_1995 22d ago
Before getting a job in software, I used to buy cars from insurance auctions. Plenty of cars that run and drive end up there for various reason and if you were patient, you could get running and driving cars for $1000 or less (This was 7+ years ago). The catch is that you don't know what you're getting. You either have to have be mechanically inclined or know somebody who is to walk the lot and check the cars out before you bid. Case and point, I bought a car that was fine when we inspected it, but when they picked it up with the forklift they knocked a hole in the oil pan, and we had to get it towed. $100 for a new oil pan (for the wrong year lol) and I got many years out of it.
- kazinator 22d ago
  If it fits, it's not the wrong year. I once put an exhaust manifold from a 95 Civic into a 98 Civic (replacing its cracked one that was filling the cabin with toxic exhaust fumes). I had gone to a Honda dealer to inquire about a new one; it cost too much, but the guy gave me some free nuts for bolting on a used one before I went on my merry way. Did the work myself. I seem to remember those things have two oxygen sensors that had to be moved from old to new.
  - jjav 21d ago
    > If it fits, it's not the wrong year. I once put an exhaust manifold from a 95 Civic into a 98 Civic No such thing as wrong year nor wrong model, or even wrong brand as long as it works! Honda in particular lots of parts interchange (at least used to) between Civics and Accords and other models. I had a fuel pump die on an older BMW on 101 (Silicon Valley near googleplex). Late on a Saturday, could not get the BMW part. Found an Audi fuel pump which was similar enough, installed it on the side of the highway and worked fine. Ran for many years, still going when I sold that car. Cops showed up to harass us about working on the car on the side of the highway.. Fortunately my friend is a big talker and kept them entertained while I finished the installation and started the car.
    - master_crab 21d ago
      No such thing as wrong year nor wrong model, or even wrong brand as long as it works! Or even make! Many manufacturers use the same supplier for various parts. The lock actuator on my 2010 dodge pickup is also used in Fords.
thelastgallon 22d ago
One solution that exists in third world is motorbikes. New motorbikes cost ~$1000. These are perfectly acceptable, ideal for the western economies, if there are enough of them on the road, it will get safer. One bike in between 10,000 cars is hard to see, but enough of them create bike-awareness. China's EV cars are known, but it also has 350 million electric motorbikes.
- deleted 22d ago
  [deleted]
- pipes 21d ago
  They will not get as safe as cars. They are inherently dangerous, it's like taking a car and removing every safety feature. Removing doors, windows and belts. There's a reason that there is a legal requirement in many countries to wear a helmet. I spent some time in Vietnam back in 2005, after getting a few lifts on the the back of mopeds in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, I decided to look up some road traffic accident stats for those cities: I never took another lift like that again.
- herbst 21d ago
  My honda NC750 at 10 years old cost me $4200. I had to replace wheels once (rubber, $600) and the transmission failed on me ($850) all within my first 8k kilometers. My last car was a Subaru forester that did cost a little less, was older tho, on that I spent about $800 in total per year on to keep it alive, easily doing 20k kilometres a year. Motorcycles arent so much cheaper necessarily.
  - prmoustache 21d ago
    You got scammed if by rubber you mean that 2 motorcycles tires cost $600.
    - herbst 21d ago
      Wheel cost alone was about $300 for both, rest is work time and new breaks.
rekabis 22d ago
I have never owned a vehicle newer than 20 years old, I have just never seen the point of doing so. The financial math just never worked out. With that said, I have always done my research and managed to obtain vehicles which, after maybe some high-importance fixes in the beginning, managed to last another 5-20 years without any other major work done to them. Hell, aside from oil changes and minor fixes that I did entirely by myself, I got my last car for nearly free and it lasted me a good decade before some idiot with a jacked-up pickup - he couldn’t even see me behind him - backed into me even though I was laying on the horn like crazy. Besides, anything prior to 2006 is going to be much easier to fix, does not have DRM, and will not spy on you unless it comes with OnStar. Honestly, the biggest pain point these days is the lack of a true manual clutch, with the full three pedals on the floor. These vehicles are becoming distressingly rare.
PeterHolzwarth 22d ago
Wow! This didn't last long on the front page. Strange - I thought it was an honest and informative little article. I noticed it on the front page. An hour later, it's on page 3. <edit> Now I'm just curious to see how fast the downward trajectory is on this currently 70-post article is. Still in the 1-2 hour range and now it is on page 4 of HN.
- cowboylowrez 21d ago
  Yeah when you think of it, HN is like a 1 topic reddit without messages ability, so front page is a crapshoot
- deleted 21d ago
  [deleted]
WalterBright 22d ago
My current car is 54 years old. I bought it in 1986.
- raddan 21d ago
  Is it sitting on blocks on your lawn or does it actually roll?
  - tosti 21d ago
    It's called maintenance. And probably a diesel engine.
    - WalterBright 21d ago
      Nah. It's got its original 340 V8, but bored, stroked, ported, forged crank & rods, gear drive, roller cam system. Dynoed at 400 hp. I can't remember seeing another one (Dodge Challenger) on the road for decades. My original plan was to swap in a 383 big block. I talked it over with a Mopar motorhead, and he said the big block unbalanced the car, and was difficult to work on because it didn't really fit in the car. He said the 340 would produce a lot of power reliably. I took his advice and didn't regret it. The car is terrifying when one steps hard on the gas.
      - tosti 20d ago
        That's awesome! And probably outranks anything I've seen (or heard).
        WalterBright 20d ago
        It's an E-ticket ride, that's for sure! All old school.
  - WalterBright 21d ago
    I drive it a couple times a week. Sorry to disappoint you!!
JohnFen 22d ago
Interesting. I'm far from poor, but that's pretty much exactly how I buy cars, and I have never regretted it. The couple of times that I bought more expensive cars, I've regretted it. The only time I'd take out a loan to buy a car is in an emergency situation. That's happened once, and is one of the purchases I regretted. The car I currently drive is a 2007 economy model I purchased for $2,000 with ~150,000 miles on it. I've had it for almost 10 years now, and it remains solid and reliable. I am meticulous about regular maintenance, though.
- duskdozer 21d ago
  Are you able to do your own work though? I use and prefer old cars, but I know I won't always be able to because I won't personally be able to deal with the issues on my own.
  - JohnFen 21d ago
    I can do the basics like oil changes. I don't, though, because it's worth it to me to pay my mechanic to do all the maintenance. I'd do the same if the car were new.
    - duskdozer 20d ago
      How did you find a reliable mechanic like this?
      - JohnFen 20d ago
        I asked everyone I knew who they used, paid attention to which ones people had stuck with the longest, then tried those ones out by getting oil changes from them. Then out of the ones that I had good vibes from, I chose the one that was physically closest to where I live.
bob1029 21d ago
There's an incredible amount of value in simply not worrying if your car will run when you need it to. Cortisol is one hell of a drug. In many cases it might be better for someone to go deeper into debt on the car if it means they will be able to focus and perform better at work. It might even be worth engaging with less scrupulous financiers. Stability in transportation unlocks a lot of opportunities.
- dainiusse 21d ago
  Hubberman says spiking cortisol in the morning is good. So the $1000 car can solve that problem.
  - Cyan488 21d ago
    Huberman also said it was good to gargle and swallow a glass of water in the morning before brushing your teeth. I think that was the last episode I listened to...
- prmoustache 21d ago
  People say buying used car is a lottery, but so is buying a new released car model. I've seen people having to send their brand new shiny car to the shop on a regular basis. The odds of getting a good experience are higher than blindly buying a second hand car with unknow history but not necessarily much better than buying a 20y old car (whose typical failure points are well known by that point) with complete documented history and knowing a good maintenance shop. Usually buying a new car that already went to a facelift is your best bet as it means it has been significantly long enough in the market to get most of its early gremlins known and sorted. Having said that I would now only consider buying a new car if I can pay it in one installment. I once loaned a new car and I regretted it immediately. Car was good but the amount I paid each month would have been better spent/invested elsewhere. I now drive a 20y old car that I paid cash last year. I checked before buying what were the main failure point (CVT transmission if not maintained properly) and bought a car with all the invoices and documentation checking it had been maintained properly and had her CVT oil changed. I expected a few things to fix (audio speaker, shocks) and negociated taking those into account. The car drive very well, is spatious and comfortable, I could afford replacing it if it died suddently. I would only consider a new car if I decided to go electric but gas price would need to multiply by 3 at the very least. I've seen people going EV then back to gas when they realized that after ~8 years of use their EV needed a battery replacement whose cost negated any saving on gas. I think battery price needs to go down for more EV adoption. Nobody wants to buy a second hand EV if it needs a usd10-15k for a new battery and an EV becomes pretty much unsellable at this point without a replaced battery.
roflchoppa 21d ago
if you can do a little maintenance you can go a long way... builds character too.
rsanek 21d ago
The median US commute distance is <10 miles [0], which is well within ebike or motorcycle range. You can get a new ebike on Amazon that will go up to 30mph for $500, or get a used motorcycle that will go highway speeds for ~$2500. There are of course other trade-offs with these modes of transport, but they are usually just as fast (and sometimes faster) at single-digit-mile distances. My hope is that as we improve biking infrastructure, biking will become an increasingly-viable primary mode of transit. [0] https://nhts.ornl.gov/assets/2022/pub/2022_NHTS_Summary_Travel_Trends.pdf https://nhts.ornl.gov/assets/2022/pub/2022_NHTS_Summary_Trav...
- barry-cotter 21d ago
  I cycle everywhere in Shanghai and I would not even buy a bike if I lived in the US. Motorcycles are for wannabe organ donors. Maybe I’d change my mind if robocars took over from human driven ones but I’d be hesitant about commuting by bike in Ireland, never mind anywhere in the US. Good bike infrastructure is rare.
  - pastage 21d ago
    > Good bike infrastructure Is also really cheap to build.
    - BobaFloutist 21d ago
      The construction is cheap, overcoming the obstruction is not.
- jjav 21d ago
  Unfortunately the US is moving hard in the opposite direction, making cycling choices less achievable. https://ctmirror.org/2026/03/12/bike-walking-trails-lose-federal-funding-trump/ https://ctmirror.org/2026/03/12/bike-walking-trails-lose-fed...
RickJWagner 21d ago
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jake_and_fatman 21d ago
To get back to the essay's point, car know-how has traditionally been a blue-collar preserve. YouTube and a bespoke forum for each make and model changed all that. Fixing and maintaining a beater is a source of pride, particularly for the well-heeled who, like Zuck's bow hunting foray, will go out of their way to simulate a more rustic existence.
- bko 21d ago
  I honestly don't know what the essay's point is. It starts off promising, gives good general advice about looking at friend of friends to finding these cars and looking past cosmetic issues. But it stops there. Okay, I can ignore things like the car doesn't look nice or doors don't lock. But what should I actually look for? What are the things I shouldn't compromise about? Is there some useful metric to calculate useful life of the car? Rules of thumb for issues that may arise, like bad brakes, tires, engine noise, etc? What are things I can fix myself?
  - abi00 19d ago
    Thanks! :) I didn't mean to make it an explainer of how to actually do the thing. I've been meeting a lot of people in my DC policy circles who didn't realize you could buy a car below $5,000. To be honest, I'd have to ask my dad to answer your more specific questions. My point was this is cultural knowledge among blue-collar circles. My other posts were about things I learned about white-collar circles. To try to answer your questions: I don't think there's any useful metric. Unfortunately, you never know how long a car will last. It just lasts until it's giving you a lot of trouble. The things you can fix yourself are depends more on your willingness to spend time + money on parts, not just mechanics. I'd say my family personally stop a bit earlier than some because we're not ourselves mechanics as a side hobby. The answer is different for every person. :)
abound 21d ago
I drive an 04 Civic I got from a coworker for $2000 seven years ago. One door handle is missing, the trunk leaks a bit when it rains, some of the ceiling fabric is starting to droop, the clear coat is mostly peeled off, first gear requires some finesse, and if you roll down one of the windows too far, it's going to take two people and 45 minutes to get it back up. But it drives, requires only the usual regular maintenance, and isn't tracking me. I'm going to drive it until it turns to dust beneath me (or more likely, like the article says, when repairs get more costly than what it's worth).
- jjav 21d ago
  > when repairs get more costly than what it's worth I've never understood why that would be a relevant criteria? If the car is cheap enough, it's easy for any repair to cost more. So what? The comparison to make is not whether the repair cost or car value is higher. The interesting comparison is whether repairing this car I already own is cheaper or more expensive than selling it getting a different one. Nearly always (unless catastrophic failure like blown engine etc) it is cheaper to repair the one I already own.
  - abound 21d ago
    "Than what it's worth" is basically a shorthand for "if the cost of repairs is more than what it'd cost to buy a less problematic car, it probably makes more sense to just buy a less problematic car with that money"
memcg 21d ago
Growing up, my Dad would buy cars from bulletin board ads where he worked at NASA. I was third of six kids and we had a fleet of as many as six cars at a time at our house. Oil changes were unnecessary, but adding oil every tank of gas was common. I'm driving a 2005 Toyota Matrix with 230K miles that I bought new in 2004. It's just recently needed oil added before an oil change is due.
gabrielsroka 21d ago
Actual title: "How Poor People Buy Cars"
bibek55 20d ago
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145 points by barry-cotter 22d ago

> Car debt is terrible. But many people can’t get car debt, because many banks won’t write a $3,000 car loan, much less to someone with unsteady income. The bottom quintile often can’t even reach the $1,000 car - it’s hard to get out of the cycle where you can’t get a job because you don’t have a car. When people wave off Waymo or bus lanes or bike lanes because car culture is fine, they mean it works fine for them. Banger post. My first car was a $1200 Geo Prism that I bought through the mechanic shop at the gas station up the street. It was older than my (younger) brother; got a good 5 years out of it before the transmission literally fell apart on Rt 2.

raddan 22d ago
My grandfather bought me a $200 Ford Taurus at a car auction. I hated that car. It was this ugly green color and handled like a boat. But I drove it for many years, mostly to part-time jobs waiting tables or working at a butcher shop when I was in college. It finally met its end one winter in Worcester, Mass when the road salt ate through the flange that held the exhaust pipe on. This happened while idling in the parking lot in front of a Jo-Ann Fabrics store. If you’ve never experienced an unmuffled V6, think twin engine turboprop loud. A kind employee at Jo-Ann came up with a clever solution to hold the exhaust pipe against the chassis using baling wire so that I could at least drive it without the exhaust pipe dragging on the ground. I continued to drive that car, until my neighbors complained that the “tank noise” was waking them up in the morning. I replaced that car with another car that was even worse, but that’s another story. I am comfortably middle class now. I still buy budget cars because I can’t get past how outrageously expensive most cars are now. But even now I still think, every time I sit in my new (well, three year old) car: wow, this is awesome. I don’t know if my friends think those same thoughts, because I would be honestly a little embarrassed to explain why I feel that way.
- cgio 22d ago
  I think that anyone who has not experienced the slow churn of driving a car with the engine light on for years, some duct tape holding something in it, is missing nothing. But I still feel like a child with a base modern family car. It is the hint of time travel we are allowed.
  - hn993302 22d ago
    It's not fun or bragging-worthy or anything. The "haha the driver door doesn't open" bits are very different from getting stranded in random places. The only good experience is if you manage to fix it for cheap.
  - aworks 21d ago
    My dad put electrical tape over the check engine light in my car...
    - hn993302 20d ago
      I'll bet ⅓ of Craigslist car listings had the codes cleared right before the test drive
- hn993302 22d ago
  I have one piece of junk and one newer (ie 2012) car, so I get to experience the difference every week. Except, the driver side window doesn't work in either car. Wish power windows weren't invented.
- jjav 22d ago
  > I continued to drive that car, until my neighbors complained that the “tank noise” was waking them up in the morning. Curious why not simply replace the exhaust flange? Cheap and easy repair.
  - raddan 21d ago
    It was cheap, but on this car, it was not easy. I tried. I would have no trouble replacing it now, but then, I had no money, no tools, and I could not afford to bring it to a mechanic.
matthiaswh 21d ago
This made me laugh nostalgically. A Geo Prism was one of my first "$1000 cars" as a kid. Fun little car, but once it hit 40 it started shaking like a tree. I always joked that if I drove it on the highway it would shake itself apart around me and I would end up with suspended in air with only a seat and a steering wheel left, looney tunes style, before plummeting to the ground. I sold it off for a different $1000 car before it happened, but sounds like that's precisely what happened to you!

Neywiny 22d ago

I guess it can be like the Terry Pratchett boot theory a bit. But yeah even among your circle, you need to be careful. I know somebody who got a junk car for a bad price because it was from somebody in their circle and everyone else vouched for the seller.

al_borland 22d ago
Very few people buying a new car keep it long enough to make it cheaper than buying $5-10k cars. The last cheaper used car I bought, I kept for about 10 years, it was $10k. I sold it to my brother in-law after that, who had it another 5 years… it would have gone longer, but he didn’t realized I had changed the timing belt before I sold it to him, so he misjudged how long the one he put on would last, and it destroyed the engine… anyway, let’s go with it.. The last new car I got, was relatively inexpensive, as far as new cars go, at $35k. If a $10k used car ran for 15 years, I’d have to keep that $35k car for over 50 years to make it worth it. New cars are almost never financially justifiable. And that new car will run into the same maintenance issues and costs as the used one as it ages. The nicer the car, the worse this equation gets, as increased car pricing translates to luxury, not quality. This makes them very different from work boots.
- Neywiny 21d ago
  The question isn't so much how long it lasts until the engine explodes, it's how expensive is maintenance. That's the boot theory part. If you can't save up enough for the $10k car that lasts 15 years (though you mentioned a timing belt replacement and on some cars that's a few thousand $, ask me how I know...) and instead can only afford to keep buying $1000 cars, that could turn into a slew of smaller fixes that add up to a lot more than the car was initially bought for. I'm also a bit surprised you'd buy a new car. Off-lease is much cheaper and they're still fairly new ish.

__d 22d ago

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Zambyte 22d ago
What about selling busses and trains, and buildings bike lanes and train tracks? Loans and cars aren't the solution to loans and cars, but there are solutions.
- lhamil64 22d ago
  Plus, money isn’t always the reason people can’t or don’t drive. People may have disabilities that prevent them from driving. Heck, some people just don’t like driving. Improving public transit, biking, and pedestrian infrastructure solves most of these issues, and it’s frustrating how car-centric the US is in most places.
- raddan 22d ago
  I lived in a place for a few years that had a free public transportation network. I can’t tell you how liberating that was, because it meant that I could get to lots of places without owning a vehicle. They even had bike racks on the busses, which meant that you could easily cover the last mile. That place decided that free public transportation was a good investment. I think many people here would see it as a waste of their tax money. But those people are not low income. They can afford to buy cars. I occasionally hear my coworkers remark about how they would never ride one of those city busses—YUCK. It kind of grinds my gears. Living in that place made me feel like the community actually cared about me. It made a big impact on how I think about what is worth spending my taxes on. We already subsidize the middle class (roads ain’t free!) and we subsidize the heck out of corporate America. A small slice of those subsidies would make a big difference for people at the bottom.
  - WalterBright 22d ago
    > A small slice of those subsidies would make a big difference for people at the bottom. More than half of the federal budget is for entitlements.

Synthetic7346 22d ago

I'm curious about the insurance aspect of this, do people buying $1000 cars forego insurance?

JohnFen 22d ago
I just carry liability. There's no point in comprehensive coverage on such a car. My car insurance costs about $500/yr.
- encrypted_bird 21d ago
  Jesus, only $500 a *year*?? May I ask where you live in? I live in MI and I pay about $990 a year for minimum liability insurance.
  - JohnFen 20d ago
    I live in the west. I also have an excellent driving record and drive a small econobox. Here's an interesting story that gave me greater understanding of how insurance is priced. Years ago, I worked at a place where I lived 5 miles away as the crow flies. However, due to geography, the only way to get between my work and my home was by car, using one of the most dangerous freeways in my state. I got tired of the commute and moved closer to work, close enough that I didn't have to use the freeway (or even drive unless I was lazy) anymore. I reported the change of my residence to my car insurance company, and they cut my premium by a third. They didn't say why, but I'm certain the reason was that I didn't take that freeway 10 times per week anymore.
    - encrypted_bird 20d ago
      Damn that's a big difference!
      - JohnFen 19d ago
        I was genuinely shocked and it made me happier with my car insurance company. The behavior I expected is that they'd keep my premium the same and just pocket the extra profit. Of course, them doing this may earn enough loyalty and goodwill that they benefit more from being honest than from being overly greedy. I do wonder if the same thing would have happened if I carried comprehensive rather than liability. I suspect not. They may see liability-only policies as an indicator that the customer is of limited means.

carabiner 22d ago

My first car was $1k bought in Michigan in 2006. It was a massive POS and took $1,500 in repairs to run reliably. I immediately bought a $7k car when I got a job.

miah_ 22d ago
I still drive a '97 4runner that I bought for 5k around 2020. I've probably put 5k into repairs. I've spent less on it than anything I could buy new, and it will probably outlast us all. Nearing 300k miles on it now.
- skyberrys 22d ago
  Very smart to go with a Toyota! I did the opposite and learned the hard way that the 'discount' for buying American will be paid for in $3k increments whenever it wants over the next few years until your finally give up and just buy the Toyota you should have bought to begin with.
  - carabiner 22d ago
    Nowadays Toyotas are more expensive than fords and every Toyota hybrid has a year long waitlist. Everything is priced in today.

JackFr 22d ago

My wife was from Reno, I was from NY. The week before we got married (in 1996) we were out there and her sister lent us a 1979 F150 at about 2O0k miles —- 3-on-the-tree, no air, AM radio, lap belts. The passenger door would fly open on left turns unless it was locked. I nearly lost my brother when I picked him up at the airport and forgot to warn him. Maybe cause I was about to get married but I loved that truck.

bluGill 22d ago
I always wanted to try a three one the tree, just cause they were so different. Alas all the cars I've ever owned were 5 or 6 speeds. Today I drive an EV with no gears. Maybe someday a collector will trust me with his car - but I wouldn't myself with something classic.
- sokoloff 21d ago
  We (mostly) restored a barn-find 1959 Mercedes 220S (Ponton) cabriolet. Manual transmission with selector on the tree (but four speed I think). Honestly, it felt different for about a half hour, then just fades into the background.

djmips 22d ago

Toyota Echo - perhaps the car car ever made.

SOLAR_FIELDS 22d ago

In the course of my work I deal with organizations who sell cars out of impound lots. There is a whole capitalistic recycling industry of buying junked cars and reassembling them into functioning vehicles again. Interestingly, a fair portion of junked cars get shipped overseas where the labor is very, very low cost and high tech, cheap labor chop shops in places like India or in some countries in Africa will have highly skilled workers basically cut out crumple zones and restore completely totaled vehicles into new looking cars and turn around and sell them. This would never be viable here in the States because of the labor cost, but when you are paying someone $1 USD a day to do highly skilled and technical labor like this it becomes very viable. Another popular tactic where I live in Texas is to steal a car and drive it south of the border and strip it. Then buy a junked car same make and model with a clean VIN. Then ship that clean VIN second car south of the border as well and rebuild it with the stolen parts and ship it back over for resale.

coderenegade 22d ago

My newest and most expensive car cost $5k in freedom dollars. It gets the job done. I have an older, more clapped out vehicle that cost $1500, and is in surprisingly decent knick for a 30 year old car, but it does need a paint job and some imminent TLC to keep it from deteriorating. That will cost more than it's worth, but I think it's worth doing in the long run.

SoftTalker 22d ago

I'm not poor but I think it's ridiculous to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a car. I learned that after buying a new car when I got my first job. Since then about $5k is my limit.

thelastgallon 22d ago

Buying a beat-up used car is risky. They are cheap for a reason, they have repairs that cost thousands. And cascading repairs, you don't know what else is wrong until the first problem is fixed, and the first problem itself is $3000 - $5000. The article has anecdotes that worked out for some people, but it doesn't work out for most people. It is like buying a lottery ticket. Buying a new cheap car is the safest, and I'm sure there are always some models available under 20K. Poor people (or even non-poor people) can buy the cheapest transportation available. US used to have the cheapest cars in the world. Its completely changed now, all you need to do is to ask your administrators to let the manufacturers from China bring them in. 1) They can buy a cheap car that will cost nothing in fuel. This is the worlds cheapest SOLAR CAR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk6aTKV-des https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk6aTKV-des 2) They can buy EV KEI cars (https://insideevs.com/news/807141/byd-racco-kei-driven-japan/ https://insideevs.com/news/807141/byd-racco-kei-driven-japan...) 3) They can ask for biking trials to be built. Atlanta seems to have built many miles of connected trials. 4) EV Golf carts are a perfectly acceptable form of transportation: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-golf-cart-kingdom/ https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-golf-cart-kingdom/ Ask your admin to allow cheap cars/KEI/golf and work with your local city to build walk/bike/golf-cart trials. Its a one time cost, you can make transportation cheap permanently.

hn993302 22d ago
Poor people can't afford a new $13K car. EVs also make less sense if you live in an apartment.
- thelastgallon 22d ago
  Agreed, and thats why we have the boots theory. The Poor Man’s Shoe Theory, widely known as the Sam Vimes “Boots” Theory of Socio-Economic Unfairness, is a concept that explains how those who are poor often end up spending more in the long run because they can’t afford to make quality purchases up front. This idea was popularized by Terry Pratchett, the acclaimed British writer, in his 1993 Discworld novel Men at Arms, through a passage in which the character Captain Sam Vimes observes the realities of poverty and consumption. “Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.” “But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.” https://footwearmagazine.com/poor-man-shoe-theory-poverty-costs-more/ https://footwearmagazine.com/poor-man-shoe-theory-poverty-co...

nbf_1995 22d ago

Before getting a job in software, I used to buy cars from insurance auctions. Plenty of cars that run and drive end up there for various reason and if you were patient, you could get running and driving cars for $1000 or less (This was 7+ years ago). The catch is that you don't know what you're getting. You either have to have be mechanically inclined or know somebody who is to walk the lot and check the cars out before you bid. Case and point, I bought a car that was fine when we inspected it, but when they picked it up with the forklift they knocked a hole in the oil pan, and we had to get it towed. $100 for a new oil pan (for the wrong year lol) and I got many years out of it.

kazinator 22d ago
If it fits, it's not the wrong year. I once put an exhaust manifold from a 95 Civic into a 98 Civic (replacing its cracked one that was filling the cabin with toxic exhaust fumes). I had gone to a Honda dealer to inquire about a new one; it cost too much, but the guy gave me some free nuts for bolting on a used one before I went on my merry way. Did the work myself. I seem to remember those things have two oxygen sensors that had to be moved from old to new.
- jjav 21d ago
  > If it fits, it's not the wrong year. I once put an exhaust manifold from a 95 Civic into a 98 Civic No such thing as wrong year nor wrong model, or even wrong brand as long as it works! Honda in particular lots of parts interchange (at least used to) between Civics and Accords and other models. I had a fuel pump die on an older BMW on 101 (Silicon Valley near googleplex). Late on a Saturday, could not get the BMW part. Found an Audi fuel pump which was similar enough, installed it on the side of the highway and worked fine. Ran for many years, still going when I sold that car. Cops showed up to harass us about working on the car on the side of the highway.. Fortunately my friend is a big talker and kept them entertained while I finished the installation and started the car.
  - master_crab 21d ago
    No such thing as wrong year nor wrong model, or even wrong brand as long as it works! Or even make! Many manufacturers use the same supplier for various parts. The lock actuator on my 2010 dodge pickup is also used in Fords.

thelastgallon 22d ago

One solution that exists in third world is motorbikes. New motorbikes cost ~$1000. These are perfectly acceptable, ideal for the western economies, if there are enough of them on the road, it will get safer. One bike in between 10,000 cars is hard to see, but enough of them create bike-awareness. China's EV cars are known, but it also has 350 million electric motorbikes.

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pipes 21d ago
They will not get as safe as cars. They are inherently dangerous, it's like taking a car and removing every safety feature. Removing doors, windows and belts. There's a reason that there is a legal requirement in many countries to wear a helmet. I spent some time in Vietnam back in 2005, after getting a few lifts on the the back of mopeds in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, I decided to look up some road traffic accident stats for those cities: I never took another lift like that again.
herbst 21d ago
My honda NC750 at 10 years old cost me $4200. I had to replace wheels once (rubber, $600) and the transmission failed on me ($850) all within my first 8k kilometers. My last car was a Subaru forester that did cost a little less, was older tho, on that I spent about $800 in total per year on to keep it alive, easily doing 20k kilometres a year. Motorcycles arent so much cheaper necessarily.
- prmoustache 21d ago
  You got scammed if by rubber you mean that 2 motorcycles tires cost $600.
  - herbst 21d ago
    Wheel cost alone was about $300 for both, rest is work time and new breaks.

rekabis 22d ago

I have never owned a vehicle newer than 20 years old, I have just never seen the point of doing so. The financial math just never worked out. With that said, I have always done my research and managed to obtain vehicles which, after maybe some high-importance fixes in the beginning, managed to last another 5-20 years without any other major work done to them. Hell, aside from oil changes and minor fixes that I did entirely by myself, I got my last car for nearly free and it lasted me a good decade before some idiot with a jacked-up pickup - he couldn’t even see me behind him - backed into me even though I was laying on the horn like crazy. Besides, anything prior to 2006 is going to be much easier to fix, does not have DRM, and will not spy on you unless it comes with OnStar. Honestly, the biggest pain point these days is the lack of a true manual clutch, with the full three pedals on the floor. These vehicles are becoming distressingly rare.

PeterHolzwarth 22d ago

Wow! This didn't last long on the front page. Strange - I thought it was an honest and informative little article. I noticed it on the front page. An hour later, it's on page 3. <edit> Now I'm just curious to see how fast the downward trajectory is on this currently 70-post article is. Still in the 1-2 hour range and now it is on page 4 of HN.

cowboylowrez 21d ago
Yeah when you think of it, HN is like a 1 topic reddit without messages ability, so front page is a crapshoot
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WalterBright 22d ago

My current car is 54 years old. I bought it in 1986.

raddan 21d ago
Is it sitting on blocks on your lawn or does it actually roll?
- tosti 21d ago
  It's called maintenance. And probably a diesel engine.
  - WalterBright 21d ago
    Nah. It's got its original 340 V8, but bored, stroked, ported, forged crank & rods, gear drive, roller cam system. Dynoed at 400 hp. I can't remember seeing another one (Dodge Challenger) on the road for decades. My original plan was to swap in a 383 big block. I talked it over with a Mopar motorhead, and he said the big block unbalanced the car, and was difficult to work on because it didn't really fit in the car. He said the 340 would produce a lot of power reliably. I took his advice and didn't regret it. The car is terrifying when one steps hard on the gas.
    - tosti 20d ago
      That's awesome! And probably outranks anything I've seen (or heard).
      - WalterBright 20d ago
        It's an E-ticket ride, that's for sure! All old school.
- WalterBright 21d ago
  I drive it a couple times a week. Sorry to disappoint you!!

JohnFen 22d ago

Interesting. I'm far from poor, but that's pretty much exactly how I buy cars, and I have never regretted it. The couple of times that I bought more expensive cars, I've regretted it. The only time I'd take out a loan to buy a car is in an emergency situation. That's happened once, and is one of the purchases I regretted. The car I currently drive is a 2007 economy model I purchased for $2,000 with ~150,000 miles on it. I've had it for almost 10 years now, and it remains solid and reliable. I am meticulous about regular maintenance, though.

duskdozer 21d ago
Are you able to do your own work though? I use and prefer old cars, but I know I won't always be able to because I won't personally be able to deal with the issues on my own.
- JohnFen 21d ago
  I can do the basics like oil changes. I don't, though, because it's worth it to me to pay my mechanic to do all the maintenance. I'd do the same if the car were new.
  - duskdozer 20d ago
    How did you find a reliable mechanic like this?
    - JohnFen 20d ago
      I asked everyone I knew who they used, paid attention to which ones people had stuck with the longest, then tried those ones out by getting oil changes from them. Then out of the ones that I had good vibes from, I chose the one that was physically closest to where I live.

bob1029 21d ago

There's an incredible amount of value in simply not worrying if your car will run when you need it to. Cortisol is one hell of a drug. In many cases it might be better for someone to go deeper into debt on the car if it means they will be able to focus and perform better at work. It might even be worth engaging with less scrupulous financiers. Stability in transportation unlocks a lot of opportunities.

dainiusse 21d ago
Hubberman says spiking cortisol in the morning is good. So the $1000 car can solve that problem.
- Cyan488 21d ago
  Huberman also said it was good to gargle and swallow a glass of water in the morning before brushing your teeth. I think that was the last episode I listened to...
prmoustache 21d ago
People say buying used car is a lottery, but so is buying a new released car model. I've seen people having to send their brand new shiny car to the shop on a regular basis. The odds of getting a good experience are higher than blindly buying a second hand car with unknow history but not necessarily much better than buying a 20y old car (whose typical failure points are well known by that point) with complete documented history and knowing a good maintenance shop. Usually buying a new car that already went to a facelift is your best bet as it means it has been significantly long enough in the market to get most of its early gremlins known and sorted. Having said that I would now only consider buying a new car if I can pay it in one installment. I once loaned a new car and I regretted it immediately. Car was good but the amount I paid each month would have been better spent/invested elsewhere. I now drive a 20y old car that I paid cash last year. I checked before buying what were the main failure point (CVT transmission if not maintained properly) and bought a car with all the invoices and documentation checking it had been maintained properly and had her CVT oil changed. I expected a few things to fix (audio speaker, shocks) and negociated taking those into account. The car drive very well, is spatious and comfortable, I could afford replacing it if it died suddently. I would only consider a new car if I decided to go electric but gas price would need to multiply by 3 at the very least. I've seen people going EV then back to gas when they realized that after ~8 years of use their EV needed a battery replacement whose cost negated any saving on gas. I think battery price needs to go down for more EV adoption. Nobody wants to buy a second hand EV if it needs a usd10-15k for a new battery and an EV becomes pretty much unsellable at this point without a replaced battery.

roflchoppa 21d ago

if you can do a little maintenance you can go a long way... builds character too.

rsanek 21d ago

The median US commute distance is <10 miles [0], which is well within ebike or motorcycle range. You can get a new ebike on Amazon that will go up to 30mph for $500, or get a used motorcycle that will go highway speeds for ~$2500. There are of course other trade-offs with these modes of transport, but they are usually just as fast (and sometimes faster) at single-digit-mile distances. My hope is that as we improve biking infrastructure, biking will become an increasingly-viable primary mode of transit. [0] https://nhts.ornl.gov/assets/2022/pub/2022_NHTS_Summary_Travel_Trends.pdf https://nhts.ornl.gov/assets/2022/pub/2022_NHTS_Summary_Trav...

barry-cotter 21d ago
I cycle everywhere in Shanghai and I would not even buy a bike if I lived in the US. Motorcycles are for wannabe organ donors. Maybe I’d change my mind if robocars took over from human driven ones but I’d be hesitant about commuting by bike in Ireland, never mind anywhere in the US. Good bike infrastructure is rare.
- pastage 21d ago
  > Good bike infrastructure Is also really cheap to build.
  - BobaFloutist 21d ago
    The construction is cheap, overcoming the obstruction is not.
jjav 21d ago
Unfortunately the US is moving hard in the opposite direction, making cycling choices less achievable. https://ctmirror.org/2026/03/12/bike-walking-trails-lose-federal-funding-trump/ https://ctmirror.org/2026/03/12/bike-walking-trails-lose-fed...

RickJWagner 21d ago

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jake_and_fatman 21d ago

To get back to the essay's point, car know-how has traditionally been a blue-collar preserve. YouTube and a bespoke forum for each make and model changed all that. Fixing and maintaining a beater is a source of pride, particularly for the well-heeled who, like Zuck's bow hunting foray, will go out of their way to simulate a more rustic existence.

bko 21d ago
I honestly don't know what the essay's point is. It starts off promising, gives good general advice about looking at friend of friends to finding these cars and looking past cosmetic issues. But it stops there. Okay, I can ignore things like the car doesn't look nice or doors don't lock. But what should I actually look for? What are the things I shouldn't compromise about? Is there some useful metric to calculate useful life of the car? Rules of thumb for issues that may arise, like bad brakes, tires, engine noise, etc? What are things I can fix myself?
- abi00 19d ago
  Thanks! :) I didn't mean to make it an explainer of how to actually do the thing. I've been meeting a lot of people in my DC policy circles who didn't realize you could buy a car below $5,000. To be honest, I'd have to ask my dad to answer your more specific questions. My point was this is cultural knowledge among blue-collar circles. My other posts were about things I learned about white-collar circles. To try to answer your questions: I don't think there's any useful metric. Unfortunately, you never know how long a car will last. It just lasts until it's giving you a lot of trouble. The things you can fix yourself are depends more on your willingness to spend time + money on parts, not just mechanics. I'd say my family personally stop a bit earlier than some because we're not ourselves mechanics as a side hobby. The answer is different for every person. :)

abound 21d ago

I drive an 04 Civic I got from a coworker for $2000 seven years ago. One door handle is missing, the trunk leaks a bit when it rains, some of the ceiling fabric is starting to droop, the clear coat is mostly peeled off, first gear requires some finesse, and if you roll down one of the windows too far, it's going to take two people and 45 minutes to get it back up. But it drives, requires only the usual regular maintenance, and isn't tracking me. I'm going to drive it until it turns to dust beneath me (or more likely, like the article says, when repairs get more costly than what it's worth).

jjav 21d ago
> when repairs get more costly than what it's worth I've never understood why that would be a relevant criteria? If the car is cheap enough, it's easy for any repair to cost more. So what? The comparison to make is not whether the repair cost or car value is higher. The interesting comparison is whether repairing this car I already own is cheaper or more expensive than selling it getting a different one. Nearly always (unless catastrophic failure like blown engine etc) it is cheaper to repair the one I already own.
- abound 21d ago
  "Than what it's worth" is basically a shorthand for "if the cost of repairs is more than what it'd cost to buy a less problematic car, it probably makes more sense to just buy a less problematic car with that money"

memcg 21d ago

Growing up, my Dad would buy cars from bulletin board ads where he worked at NASA. I was third of six kids and we had a fleet of as many as six cars at a time at our house. Oil changes were unnecessary, but adding oil every tank of gas was common. I'm driving a 2005 Toyota Matrix with 230K miles that I bought new in 2004. It's just recently needed oil added before an oil change is due.

gabrielsroka 21d ago

Actual title: "How Poor People Buy Cars"

bibek55 20d ago

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