My statement was purely a generalization. My first car was a '90 corolla, that I still miss, I did a fair amount of work on it but nothing unreasonable and I picked it up for $1500 in 2008. But this was a private deal for a mechanic's own car. My Celica was a damn nightmare on the other hand for almost the same price.
In my opinion though, especially for anyone brand new, a budget of $2000-$3000 is a little more reasonable. They will not require quite as much maintenance, and in this age with craigslist, most vehicles posted at $1000-$2000 are not even worth a fraction of that. Like it has been said, its not necessarily the age or mileage that determines this, it is more so maintenance and general care for it. Some older cars are well taken care of, but the owners will know it and damn well want that extra money. Deals are out there but are few and far between.
I've always thought that early 90's econoboxes are the perfect first car. Cheap, fuel efficient, easy to work on, simple, reliable, and slow.
My statement was purely a generalization. My first car was a '90 corolla, that I still miss, I did a fair amount of work on it but nothing unreasonable and I picked it up for $1500 in 2008. But this was a private deal for a mechanic's own car. My Celica was a damn nightmare on the other hand for almost the same price.
In my opinion though, especially for anyone brand new, a budget of $2000-$3000 is a little more reasonable. They will not require quite as much maintenance, and in this age with craigslist, most vehicles posted at $1000-$2000 are not even worth a fraction of that. Like it has been said, its not necessarily the age or mileage that determines this, it is more so maintenance and general care for it. Some older cars are well taken care of, but the owners will know it and damn well want that extra money. Deals are out there but are few and far between.
I've always thought that early 90's econoboxes are the perfect first car. Cheap, fuel efficient, easy to work on, simple, reliable, and slow.
i have a 1991 toyota celica st and it is my first car, it has almost 200,000 miles on it and i have had it for over 6 months and the only thing that broke were 2 serpentine belts, and it is still running strong
Japanese economy cars, or low end sporty cars seem to accomplish all the things that people who are newer to driving should look for. They're usually rather cheap to buy, parts are inexpensive, at that age they're easy to work on, insurance is cheap, they're reliable, rather fuel efficient, most are decently practical, and most are plenty slow, which I view as being a good thing.
Deals can be had for good examples for under $2000, but especially in this economic climate with inflated used car prices, and the advent of craigslist, most of the ones for sale at that price point, in my experience, usually are more trouble than they're worth. Increasing the budget to 2-3k should net a rather good example, with potentially lower miles, a better service history, and in better overall condition. The money that one puts into repairs are not recuperated in a sale so its usually cheap in the long run to pay a bit more for a used car upfront that has a great service history, then to maybe save $500-$1000 but have to drop the same or much more repairing it.
In other words, these "old" cars should be sent to the scrapyard?
Considering that I own a '77, '80, '87 (x2) Toyotas, I disagree.
I do have to spend a lot of time repairing them, but that gives me a distraction from my desk job.
It's really a time thing. If he is willing to put time into it then he can enjoy it. Otherwise if just becomes frustration.
And depending on his skill (he said he comes from a family of mechanics), extensive repairs may also make it cost more than what a newer car would have cost (depending highly on condition, as mentioned above). I have old cars because I like old cars, not because they are cheaper. And I got a newish car for my wife because she doesn't like fixing cars.
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Besides... Why the hell are we telling him to get a good car as his first? We all know that isn't how it works. You buy a piece of crap and use it to learn to work on cars. You save your pennies and buy something nicer for a second car, because then you won't have to worry about screwing it up by using it as a "learning experience" instead of simply driving it like you should... Or is that no longer how buying a first car works?
That's the question though - does the OP only have $1000, or does he have $3000 so he can spend some money on it?
Because if he only has $1000 and he buys an older car that looks like it's been owned by a hoon, then he'll probably be wasting his time because he won't have the money to fix it when something goes wrong with it as a result of that hoon ownership.
On the other hand, if he's got $3000 and spends $1000 on the car, he'll have the money to have bits replaced and/or rebuilt when something goes wrong with it as a result of that hoon ownership.
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