Thirteen Drive

[Kim Veller]

Tableof Contents Title 46.2. Motor Vehicles Subtitle III. Operation Chapter 8. Regulation of Traffic Article 1. General and Miscellaneous 46.2-812. Driving more than thirteen hours in twenty-four prohibited

No person shall drive any motor vehicle on the highways of the Commonwealth for more than thirteen hours in any period of twenty-four hours or for a period which, when added to the time such person may have driven in any other state, would make an aggregate of more than thirteen hours in any twenty-four-hour period. The provisions of this section, however, shall not apply to the operation of motor vehicles used in snow or ice control or removal operations or similar emergency situations.

There are some drawbacks to having an older car. I once had to have the car towed, and then was without a vehicle for five days while it was being repaired. I also spent a few weekends doing work on the car myself in order to keep costs down. The car is starting to rust. And, of course, it no longer has that new car smell.

I realize this might not work for everybody. And who knows? My next car might not be as good as the Prizm has been. But numbers like these are why I have opted not to buy a new car yet. I have better things to do with my money than to keep up with the Joneses.

You are very lucky though to only have put in $2000 in repairs. I had a 1998 Saturn SW1 that last year alone I put in $2000 in repairs. This plan works depending on the car. If you have a car that is and will be dependable it works. If your car costs more in repairs it does not work. The $2000 I spent in repairs is about $166.67/month not to mention the time cost of going to the repair shop.

I am following the same sort of plan. Our cars are considerably younger than the Geo Prizm (2004 and 2005) but they are both paid off and we intend to drive them until the fall apart beneath us. When the second car was paid off, we started putting the same amount we paid on the car payment every month into and ING account. That money is for a down payment someday but it is also to be used for any repair bills that come up. Not regular maintenance like oil changes etc. but for bigger, unexpected things.

ah yes, i was almost forgetting: here we dont have the habit of leasing cars and be paying them every month for all our lives. people who have more money do that, but most people buy used cars, either cash or financed, and then keep them for several years. we dont put car payments as a monthly expense.

PS We will probably keep all 3 cars. Put the newest car in the garage for family time and long trips, Give me wife the 10 year old sedan for trips to the station, and I keep the 22 yr old car for daily things around town. That might enable us to get 12-15 years on the new car!

We are still paying off my 2002 Subaru Forester we bought used in 2006 (about $5600 left on that loan), but we are about to switch our debt snowball to that loan with the goal of paying it off this year.

My wife is doing the same with her car, too. She has a 1996 Honda Civic (with only 60,000 miles on it!). She wants a new Prius. But she, too, is content to continue driving her vehicle until it runs no more.

I am right with you as I have a long since paid off 1994 Sentra that is quite a spectacle to look at, but continues to run without any repairs. I only paid 5k for it 7 years ago. We have two children and the two door and very small nature of it are an inconvenience, but how really cares. I have bigger dreams and things to focus my energy on.

There is a guy I work with who is a really cheap guy. Not frugal but cheap. For me frugal = good. Cheap = bad. He has a 95 Honda accord, which is starting to break down on him. His windshield cracked and it cost him $800 because he has to get some rust around the window fixed first. I have trouble investing $800 in a car that is probable worth $50. I told him to get rid of the car then. Well the next week his break lines went. Guess what I told him. After he spent just over a thousand dollars fixing that. The engine started making a bad sound and it quite on him. I am not sure what it cost him to fix. Oh he also had new breaks put on it.

The calculation that you need to do is: how much did I initially spend, how much has the car depreciated, how much can I sell it for now, how much does it cost for upkeep, and how much will it cost me to replace it.

We have two beaters, a 1991 Chevy and a 1995 Honda (40 mpg), both pass the 240,000 mark. Even though they both were running fine, we took them to a local mechanic for a maintence workover this past summer.

We have the cash to, but never have and never will buy new.

In addition to this, a newer car can be more fuel-efficient, safer, more dependable and more comfortable. The first of these is directly financially important, the rest also has some value to people, how much depend on personal preference.

Great Post! My car is going on 10. And until it no longer runs, it will be my car. I think though when you do have to buy a car, you should try to find something not too old to make sure you get the benefits of the milage and hopefully some warranty. Just not new.

My last used car (pd cash $5300) looked pretty bad after 10 years of driving it. After one accident I was left with an off color replacement hood. I suffered years of jeers from friends for the two tone car with the paint splatter flanks (drove over a wet line on the road). I didnt care! Why? Because I saved 30k in 10 years driving that ugly (yet v. reliable) car.

Point of trivia for other readers: This post did not start out as a post. It was an e-mail that Joel sent to a friend. As an afterthought, he forwarded a copy to me. I polished some rough edges, and voila!

NB: The focus is not know for rusting, but one of the rear doors had some internal flaking, replacement off eBay for 35, mate painting it as a favour for some work I did for him, (professional indistinguishable job, free)

It goes without saying that should the car become unsafe, it will be immediately replaced. I have also thought about whether I would trust this car on long road trips. The solution I have come up with is to rent a car on those few occasions. There are great deals to be had on weekly rentals and I figure it still far outweighs the cost of a monthly car payment!

That guy is lucky. As others stated it really depends on the car and not everyone can do their own repairs. Besides I think there is a line between being thoughtful about your money and just being cheapskate for its own sake.

I fail to follow the basic principle that a new car cost more than keeping your old. Just before the holidays, I got a new car.

I had a rented a Honda Civic 2006. Signed up in march 2006+ for five years and planned to buy it back at the end. Last december, my vendor called to offer me a deal : Rent a 2009 Civic for the same condition in my contract for five years, starting now. He wants my car to sell it as a used one.

I currently have a Honda Civic and it is awesome! 1999 model (bought brand new), at 110K miles and 10 years later, I only had to replace batteries, brake pads, oil, air filters, fluids and tires ? These are typical wear and tear stuff. My other Honda before this approached 200K miles.

I love this philosophy and enjoyed it for many years. I recently bought a new car and have a payment for the first time since 1996. A Wise man once said you should never finance a depreciating asset. Being a Finance major, I get his drift.

However, I sure am enjoying my sweet, new Mustang!

Instead of spending that money on repairs I used it and some other earned money to buy a Honda Civic Hybrid and I am so much happier now! Besides saving 80 to 100 a month in gas, I have only had to spend $1,200 in additional maintenance in the now almost 6 years I have owned the car.

I have bought Honda odyssey 2007 New @ $29k. I am thinking of down grading to some cheaper used car due to too much loan liability. The current value I can sell it for is $24k and almost same amount I owe to the bank as well.

I also live in Poland and buying a new car is quite expensive. You have to worry about theft, buy auto insurance that covers theft, etc. When you drive an older one, you can drop that insurance and it costs waay less.

I was very delighted to have our first vehicle for 12 years here in Poland. We had to finally sell our Ford Transit van as junk/parts because it was in such bad condition/worn out. We had bought it a couple years old and used it to haul around young people for youth group as well as our family of 7. It was still running when we finally sold it for a few hundred dollars, but we were really afraid of some things breaking that could have caused a major accident.

One trick my wife and I did after we paid off her car, was to take the payments we were paying, and putting them directly into savings. Since we knew we could make do without the amount of the car payment, that amount could right into savings after the car was paid off.

I have a 1991 Nissan Sentra. Bought it new and continue to drive it with now almost 230,000 miles on it. I change the oil about every 7500 miles and maintain the car regularly as per most of the manufacturers recommendations (such as tuneups and replacement of filters, cleaning the injectors, flushes, etc). The air conditioner has worked well without incident since the beginning and the car continues to get between 28 and 32 MPG (sometimes with extended highway driving, 34 MPG). Except for routine brake (about every 60,000 miles) and tire replacement, the only major repair was having the transmission rebuilt for about $2400 at around 175,000 miles. I intend to keep it until it gives me a real expensive reason not to.

Also, by choosing to drive an old car (with reasonable fuel efficiency) rather than buying a new one in the marketplace, you have significantly reduced the *enormous* carbon emissions necessary to create a new car, especially when considering the ecological impact of mining the original metallic ores. It amazes me to see people with just a few years on their small cars going out and buying a *new* Prius/hybrid and thinking they are doing the ecosystem a favor instead of exacting a high cost in new carbon emissions.

3a8082e126