New Cars Too Pricey for Many

[cookderosa]

We've looked at pre-owned cars, but the price difference over the life of the vehicle is not that great when you look at cars with high resale values.

Therefore, we've just decided to buy only Honda or Toyota because we know they'll last 10+ years. We buy new and suck it up and make car payments, but know that we'll own the car for many years after the payment is gone. Others may have better ideas for buying cars, but this works for us.

Our Honda mini-van is now going on 12 years and we just got a new Toyota Corolla and hope for the same lifespan.

My sons have 4 Toyotas between them (2 Camrys, 1 Corolla, and a Tacoma)- all over 10+ years old, all run perfectly. In fact, my son just bought his boss' 1994 (?) Camry or Corolla for $500 and it's mechanically very sound. He'll get a year out of it no question before selling it off. My other son's is a 97 (I think?) and it looked pretty bad (to me) but he paid $700 then got a $300 paint job and now it's a really nice looking car! Gotten him back and forth to school for 2 years and it's only just needed brakes and an oil change this weekend- hasn't cost a penny in repairs. These are their dailys, but there are also Jeeps and a very modified Mustang in there for fun lol.

All that said, my oldest is a mechanic and my other sons are very mechanically inclined- so having that knowledge is important - if not yours, then someone you trust. I have zero mechanical inclination, but the only thing I care about are heated seats