Sell good car, drive beater(s), profit?

Seriously thinking about selling the 200 at slightly better than market value, dd'ing the B4000 and using the extra payment and insurance money to finance a nice garage.

Other than possibly being a little upside down on the car loan, what could go wrong?

What says the hive?

I would rather have a couple of older cars, than one new one. Buy at the bottom of the market, drive until completely used up, buy something different.

I'd almost trust the old B4000 more than the new Chrysler anyways, but I'm biased against Chrysler products.

I would daily the B4000 without hesitation.

I'm struggling with this myself. I'd say unless you really enjoy the 200, let it go and build the garage.

I'm not buying another new car unless I absolutely love it and want to keep it after its paid for.

Depends how much you drive. At this point in my life, I'm too old and spend too much time in the car to DD an old true "beater". I consider my '13 Elantra my "beater" but it's a nice car.

I do this, its got its ups and downs.

Ups: You get to have some cool cars and rotate them out. Downs: You better like working on them.

About a year ago I started rotating out the entire fleet, sold the Corvette and bought an E55 AMG, then sold the F250 and bought another F250 with lower miles and nicer options, then decided the AMG and the truck were both too nice to burn up running in the salt and bought a WRX for winter.

This summer I will probably put the AMG up for sale, I wouldnt mind a third gen Camaro convertible. Or maybe a nicely done up LS swapped Monte SS. The F250 is a keeper. Its for sale but at a laughable price.

EastCoastMojo wrote: I would daily the B4000 without hesitation.

I'm starting to lean in that direction too. It goes for its inspection likely next week. The plan is to wait until the snow is gone and the B4000 seems seaworthy before moving ahead with the idea. I actually quite like the 200, but I think I would prefer to add value to the house and have some play space.

I also have the kawasaki for something fast-like.

I won't be buying anything new any time soon, but keep in mind certain beaters may cost as much to maintain as a payment on a cheap new car. I was daily driving a ranger. Maintenance included an engine and clutch within the first year.

Finance a garage, though? A garage is a million percent more valuable than a "new" vehicle.

Depends on maintenance and breakage. I was in a 10 year old avalanche that between payment and breakage was costing me new 40k truck payment per month, so i traded that in and bought new 40k truck with warranty, 3x the torque, 0 miles, better mpg, for basically the same monthly cost.

Before that i was driving a 20 year old suburban that needed nothing but a cv joint over a year and a half. Had a junk blazer before that which was trash and i lost money on. I think it's all about luck when driving older junkier cars, and my business can't take that chance on a daily basis. For personal use and to keep miles and salt off the new truck, i bought a high mile wrx and it's a blast and i have logged 1k so far without more than refueling

I'm in the exact opposite boat. I wanted to get my $2500 back out of my Acura, but I think I overpaid and am being unrealistic. It feels like time to sell it at any price and keep driving my Sonic, on which I still owe <$20.

As for how much I drive, I put ~7000 miles on the 200 in the first year I had it. I put less than 200 miles on the Kawi.

I'm 120 miles round trip to work, plus personal use. Just too much driving to want to drive a worn out, rattling, car. While the Elantra is no high end car, it still feels tight, has heated seats, XM radio, Bluetooth, etc...just a much nicer place to spend time than an old crap can.

I put 40K+ a year on a 12 year, 170K mile, base model truck. My last DD was a base model van that ran to 420K. Everything else in the fleet has between 120K and 300K.

It depends on what you want in a car. I have no use for bells and whistles, I don't use them. Simple maintenance takes care of the rattles and wear.

If you do your own work, it's almost always cheaper to keep a car running, than it costs to buy one. The above truck has cost me less than 15 cents a mile buy in and repairs, and that is dropping every day. I'll keep it another 3-5 years and 200K+ before I replace it with another 10 year old truck.

With a reliable beater, sure. I tried it with a Buick, didn't work so good. Some months I paid more in maintenance than the payment I had on my Mazda (now 5 years old).

slowride wrote: Some months I paid more in maintenance than the payment I had on my Mazda (now 5 years old).

patgizz wrote: Depends on maintenance and breakage. I was in a 10 year old avalanche that between payment and breakage was costing me new 40k truck payment per month

I don't get this. How long can this go on? A beater might cost me more in one month than a monthly car payment once every 10 years. Even if it does so once or twice a year, its likely a financial win.

I've had the same beater DD for the last 5.5 years or so. I spend about 2-4 hours/year working on it. It saves me an insane amount of money over a new or newer car.

New cars are definitely nicer, quieter, more reliable, etc. Financially, they lose. Every time.

I think the key here is doing all your own work. Driving a beater makes no sense if you are paying retail for repairs.

If I paid retail for repairs, my car would still be a crazy amount cheaper to drive than a new car.

There's a balance to be had between money, logic and desire. Where you fall on that bell curve is up to you. Sure, I agree a beater works out better financially. I used to be on the fairly far extreme side of cheap. I'd buy a $1000 car and just beat it, always cheaper. As I age, I'm starting to fall more in the middle. Yeah, I could go out tomorrow and spend $2000 to find some grandma's 2001 gold or tan Toyota Corolla or Nissan Sentra that has been garage kept but she can't drive anymore. Cars like that definitely exist. I can then take that car and drive it for 8 years and put nothing into it. But I simply don't want to do it anymore. I don't want a $600/month on a car payment either. I'll fall more into the middle. The payment on my Elantra is something like $130/month and I'm totally content with that (I actually far overpay it, to knock the loan out faster).

For me there was a family thing that forced me to keep it longer than I would have. My grandparents bought it and then my grandfather died and my grandmother drove it for another 2 years until she decided she was too old. Then I bought it, not knowing that there would be the expectation of keeping it because "your grandfather picked that car out". I drove it for 7 years but it was a POS and was in and out of the shop constantly (one year I rented a car 12 different times because of this). And throughout it all my grandmother called it a "sweet little Buick". I did like having a car I didn't really care about though.

Almost forgot, I wasn't able to do much work on it myself because I lived in a condo without a garage, and car maintenance in the lot was against the condo rules.

In reply to ProDarwin:

I guess the nature of the repairs required makes a difference too. The problem I am personally having is spending a relatively large sum on a clutch when the car is really not worth a whole lot in the first place. If I had the time (and ability if I am being honest) to do it myself, the numbers would make a lot more sense. Yes, replacing a clutch is still a lot cheaper than a new car, but on the other hand something like 6-8 clutch replacements would buy a three year old VW with a warranty.

It costs me around $300 a month to drive my Nissan Leaf, which I bought new. That's fuel, tax, title, license, loan payment, insurance, maintenance, and assume no resale value just for kicks, that I must scrap it on the last day I make a payment. That's obviously a worst case scenario.

Or I could buy a $3000 beater and plan on it lasting 4 years and sell for $1500. Maybe put another $1500 worth of maintenance and repair into it in that time. Cost of fuel estimate about $1000 a year, title, registration, and insurance about $600 a year. That would be about $200 a month to drive my beater.

So in my state, with my numbers, it's costing me $1200 a year to drive a newish car over a beater in the best case scenario. Worst case and I have to do major repair work for the beater, or it strands me, or gets scrapped early, blowing up my budget.

TL/DR: you can save a little money driving a beater, but you're probably not going to save enough to get rich, and you might lose money.

insert comment about how

I drive a 1943 Ford 400 miles roundtrip to work everyday, uphill in the snow both ways, and you're a pansy if you need more than that.

I was taught many years ago that buying a used two year old car for cash and selling it when it reaches 5 years is the cheapest way to motor about.

With about 35 years having passed since I was given that advice, I might change that to buy 3 or 4years old and sell 8 or 9 years old.

BrokenYugo wrote: I'd almost trust the old B4000 more than the new Chrysler anyways, but I'm biased against Chrysler products.

I thought he was going to drive the chrysler and sell the B4000. Then I realized the OP considered the 200 a "nice" car.