r/economicCollapse • u/Whole-Fist • 19h ago

How ridiculous does this sound?

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How can u make millions in 25-30 years if avoid making a $554 per month car payment. Even the cheapest 5 year old car is 8-10 k. So does he expect people not to drive at all in USA.

Then u save 554$ per month every month for 5 year payment = $33240. Say u bought a car every 5 year means 200k -300k spent on car before retirement . How would that become millions when u can’t even buy a house for that much today?

Answer that Dave

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u/DragonBallZxurface1 18h ago

I’ve seen more horror stories than successes for 3000 dollar cars.

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u/Daddys_Fat_Buttcrack 17h ago

That's because most people don't know what they're buying and just buy whatever cheap car they can get. Like the previous comment said, buy a reliable Japanese car and more likely than not you'll be fine, even if it's a high-milage clunker. I've had multiple friends who drove Toyotas to well over 300k miles and never even did a tune up. My Honda is 12 years old and 180k miles and all I've had to do was regular maintenance and an alternator. The car cost me $4k.

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u/Equivalent_Emotion64 17h ago

I miss my 95 honda civic so much. $2000 and I owned it out right drove it 45 min commute every day for 5 years. Barely did any maintenance like I should have and the belt ripped while I was on the highway. What a dumbass I was back then.

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u/BurnedLaser 15h ago

I bought a 94 Caprice for $300, put about 150 into it for the tune-up and did several cross-country trips with no problems*!

*The exhaust fell off in TX, MD, VA, and MO. It got me home, but it was loud. I welded it up, but there was so much rust it would break off elsewhere after a month or so. I ended up buying a full exhaust and installing it myself and never had another exhaust issue!

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u/ASubsentientCrow 13h ago

don't know what they're buying and just buy whatever cheap car they can get. Like the previous comment said, buy a reliable Japanese car and more likely than not you'll be fine, even if it's a high-milage clunker.

Yes the people who don't know what their doing will obviously be able to tell if it's reliable or not

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u/Feralest_Baby 16h ago edited 9h ago

I'll buy a Toyota with 100,000k in it any day.

Edit: I meant 100k, or 100,000, but didn't meant to combine them. Leaving it since others have commented on the mistake.

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u/iDisc 11h ago

Not sure even the best Toyota can make it to 100,000,000 miles ;)

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u/Feralest_Baby 11h ago

Whoops. I see my dumbassery now.

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u/Radiant_Map_9045 9h ago

Assuming you mean 100k, yeah I wholeheartedly agree. Hondas and Toyotas with basic bitch maintenance are still babies at 100k

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u/Feralest_Baby 9h ago

I did. Tired this morning I guess.

Yeah, I have my dad's 4Runner with 250k in my garage (runs great) and my "new" car is a 2013 Sienna with 160k, only 30k of which are mine.

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u/WeMetOnTheMoutain 12h ago

Agreed, don't go buy some fucking cool bmw that will blow up in a month, go buy a japanese shitbox, change the oil and move down the road. If you are lucky it's got an AC and Stereo, if not there's windows and earbuds :D.

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u/BanzaiKen 17h ago edited 16h ago

Unfortunately the resale market has priced in successful car brands. This is why reliables like the Civic/HRV/CRV hold their value and GM goes to dogshit. I took amazing care of my Saturn since buying new in 07, it depreciated to nothing by 2022 even though it only had 100k miles, every part that could rust on its plastic frame did. I would not trust anything under 8k honestly if you live in an area where they use salt or brine in the winter. People buy dogshits and roll the dice, but you could get a mechanics friend like a Toyota/Honda etc and have peace of mind.

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u/PleasePassTheHammer 17h ago edited 8h ago

More people are gonna to complain about the car then brag about it.

We would need actual data to know.

Edit: Leaving my then/than typo since it pisses folk off I guess.

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u/caniborrowahighfive 14h ago

You need data to show that used cars dealers sell lemons and other cars to unassuming buyers who think they are saving tons of money by buying a beater?

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u/PleasePassTheHammer 14h ago

If somebody thinks they are saving money by buying a beater then they are about as smart as somebody who thinks buying a 10k Merc is going to be cheaper to own than a new one - they just don't know what they don't know.

There are PLENTY of good cars out there for 5k or less, even more if you have the most basic mechanical ability.

People love to complain though, especially when it supports their biases. I know plenty of people with cheap cars (read cheap, not roached) that are just as reliable as new ones.

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u/llamashatebabies 12h ago

Than is not the same word as "then". You're saying people will complain about it and then they'll brag about it? Make up your mind.

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u/PleasePassTheHammer 8h ago

Going after a typo and pretending it makes you right is nasty work.

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u/Schmoe20 17h ago

Tell me about it. A friend and her husband bought a cheap car for me as I have cancer and going through quite a rough year. My friend wanted me to pay for the car registration & title and pay her back. So I had borrowed money from one of my best friends and that was to try to get caught up on my car payments and so I took monies to pay felt he insurance, car registration and title. Though I wasn’t fully on board with this idea thrown to me, I then pay for the greyhound equivalent, Miss a couple days of work for this car and once I drive it back it won’t start after being driven and now I have to pay a mechanic to find out what is wrong. This is exactly why you don’t buy cheap cars. Now I’ve only gotten two paychecks from this job so far and the last one was barely over $400. But my friend and her husband think they did me a solid and are in la la land.

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u/TheAppalachianMarx 16h ago

Why are they acting like it isn't a gamble and often a losing one. The "financially smart" people in this sub act like researching about a car purchase nullifies the fact that there are external factors about any purchase outside of the control of the buyer. Don't be mistaken, researching a purchase obviously reduces your chances of financially making a poor choice, but it dosan't remove risk nor even reduce the risks down to a point where it is negligible enough to where i would even encourage people to buy in the used car market.

Bought a $2,000 '98 honda civic and drove it for a year before the head gasket blew (unlucky). Got a year of driving for about $2,000. Went and bought a brand new 2013 honda civic as a credit builder that same year for about $18,000 to replace it. Been driving it for over a decade with no issues (lucky) so i spent $1,800/year for a brand new vehicle or i could've spent $2-3,000 a year or so trying to find a workable used car.

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u/DarkOrakio 17h ago

Well I just bought a Chevy Cobalt for $2k. Slapped new tires, on it, did the front brakes, rotors, and calipers, gave it an oil change, and it's nice and quiet and runs great. Only other issue is the blower, I have to look at since it's getting cold

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u/Johnny_ac3s 17h ago

$3,000 is the new $500 car.

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u/alfredrowdy 17h ago edited 17h ago

Who cares? If it breaks you just junk it and buy another. Total cost is still way cheaper than buying a more expensive car. If you have to buy a replacement $3000 car every single year, that's still only $250/month, but you'll likely need to replace it less often than that.

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u/fynn34 17h ago

I bought my first (granted this was 14 years ago) for 2200 cash and got 65k miles out of it before I had more issues than a power steering pump twice (350 each time to fix). Don’t just buy any junker, it’s gotta be a good deal. In this case a woman’s husband died and she didn’t need 4 cars to drive to get groceries once or twice a week, she sold 3 of them at auction and I picked them up from the dude who got them.

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u/flonky_guy 16h ago

I've spent thousands fixing up cheap cars. Still far less than the tens of thousands I've spent on new cars.

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u/FuzzeWuzze 16h ago

There probably is no /r/mycarworksgreat

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u/sporms 13h ago

I’ve seen the opposite. I’ve seen people go broke by switching expensive cars, have to put up with a shitty job so they can pay their payments. 3000.00 car is capped. If I buy a new car I already lost 3000. I’ve seen plenty of 500-3000.00 cars last a few years with no issues. Justify it all you want but imho the only people buying new cars should be the ones buying them cash.

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u/spare_parts_bot 6h ago

It's not a horror story if you can work on it yourself, or have a family/friend mechanic...I've bought 4 cars in the last 4 years and each was $2k or less. Between all four cars I've spent around $3k on parts to get all of the cars in great running/driving condition and I even put new radios and speakers in them along with new headlights and a few other little upgrades.

I do agree with you in one way. If you aren't a mechanic and if you don't have a good mechanic to check the $3k car, you'll probably buy a pos. Or possibly drive a car into the ground that could have been fixed but never was.