Beater Cars?

[TheRootedNomad]

We have always had beaters, jalopies, until this last car for me. It's still an older model, and was when we bought it about 5 or 6 years ago but it only had 30,000 on it at the time. It's a 98 Lumina.

DH generlally drives a step below beaters with what we call disposable cars. Generally we pick them up for a couple of hundred. A couple of them we were actulally given just for getting them off someone elses hands. We don't ever invest much money in them and then we scrap them when he's done with them. One such car was a 1980 Grenada that we picked up while visiting the inlaws in Florida. It had been in someones yard for a couple of years and we actually had to pull the vines out of the engine and undercarriage. It smelled bad and and had rusty holes but it was free and DH got a couple of years out of it going to work. Another was a $300 Nova that was banged up and you had to start with a doorbell. We got a couple of years out of that one as well. None of DH's cars have ever been trustworthy of long journeys.

The beaters I have driven were generally ones in a little better shape and we'd invest a little money in because I would generally have the kids in mine and we used mine to travel. In my opinion you really need to have at least a little mechanical knowledge to drive a beater (or be willing to learn). We would invest in things like a starter, brakes, an alternator but wouldn't have paid to let someone else put them in. I can not even begin to tally how much money driving these kinds of cars have saved us over the years.

[McD]

We own a beater. Hubby has an 06 Pontiac GTO that is apparently some sort of collecter as only 92 of them were made. He refuses to drive it in the winter, so we are the proud owners of a 1986 Chevy Celebrity. It's awful. BUt it runs.

[nvmommyx6]

Hubby is a mechanic here too, so we have not had a car payment ever!! And I am not the type of person who cares what the car looks like, as long as it gets me from point A to Z without too many problems!!!!
We have~
1986 Chev suburban, 118000 miles, the paints going but it is the most trustworthy vehicle we've ever had! Paid $0 for it, good trade!!

1994 for thunderturd!!! Hubby's daily driver, close to 200000 miles, he drives it 126 miles a day, 5 days a week and the paint is going on it too but it is a comfortable car! Paid $250. for it, and trades a old broken 3 wheeler!!

1994 Chevy blazer, nice little truck, paints good, runs good! paid $0 for it!

1996 Chevy suburban paint is trying to go on the hood, has 174000 miles on it, still runs strong and we paid $0 for it! Traded a 1986 chev blazer with no engine for it!!!

We love our "beaters" and the fact that we dont have payment or have to have full coverage insurance on them is a bonus!!

[mombottoo]

I don't know if my car is a beater or not, but I only paid $2,200 cash for it. It looks good and runs very well and gets fairly good mileage. When I think of a beater I think of a car you pick up for $500 bucks give or take a couple hundred and it needs TLC. I would never tell anyone to pick up a beater that was going to cost them a lot of bucks to make it road worthy. But, I do not for the life of me understand why people feel the need to go in debt thousands & thousands of dollars for something that loses value the minute you drive it off the lot.

If I wanted a brand spanking new car, I would figure out what the payments would be and I would save until I had enough to pay cash. I'm just not a car loan type of gal I guess and would rather spend my money on other things/stuff. The most expensive vehicle (other than our travel trailer) that we have bought in the last 30 years cost us $4600...it was my dh's truck. The lot wanted $5400 for it, I offered $4600 cash off the lot including taxes & title transfer...laid the hundred dollar bills out & the guy took it.

[mombottoo]

Our car is paid for....2000 or 2001 intrepid (which we will never buy another due to sludge issues...but that's another story). We have had to put a new engine in it (yep....back to that sludge deal) and at the moment has deer tracks & on both front fenders and the hood....

I have an Intrepid and I love my car...no sludge issues here at all. Have you tried switching the brand of oil you use? If you are having sludge problems it probably lies with the oil, not the car.

[Debbie-cat]

Hubby is a mechanic and we always have beaters. My last car was a 1994 Ford Aspire. Small little tin can. Bought it for $1800, put on 500,00 miles sold it for $1100!

My 2004 Intrepid that I have now is a great running car as well and hopefully I will get the same miles on this one as the last!

I will never buy a new car.

[Grayce]

I have 2 newer cars but the real workhorse of the family is my '99 Honda Civic. It's the car that I drive all winter long. It is great in the snow. When it is storming I would rather drive that than my DH's 4WD.

[TexasPeanut]

My DH is a mechanic as well and always comes across great deals. Sometimes his customers just gives him vehicles they don't want to repair anymore. He keeps track of what's worth what in the vehicle world, which vehicles are reliable...which ones (including brand new ones) that are absolute junk. We have a few that aren't even being driven right now since they are project cars and are in a restoration process to either be sold or traded for other vehicles. We always keep up maintenance on the vehicles and drive them either into the ground or until we come across another great deal. If a major problem arises we just dump the vehicle, sell it for salvage or whatever we can get for it since we've more than got our monies worth out of it over the time we've had them and take a little cash and just go get something else.

Our current daily drivers are -
97 extended cab truck - paid $2000 cash. We just recently got this by selling the truck we bought for $300 and had put another $300 into it, kept and drove for 2 yrs then just sold it for $1500, we were only out of pocket for $500 for the new truck.
96 Acheiva 2 dr sport coupe - paid $250 cash put in another $400...DH's daily driver to work for a little more than 6 yrs now.
97 Intrepid - paid $500 for it, put in a $100 part and I have been driving it for about 4 yrs now.
We do not carry full coverage on any vehicle except the truck, only because it hauls the boat and travel trailer (other great deals we've come across that are worth far more than we paid)

We've had 2 used vehicles over the years that we've bought from an actual car dealer one was $4000 and the other was $3000....both were dead in a year to two years time. We've made a commitment to never spend more than $1000 on a daily driver again, the only exception being the truck only because we made such a good profit off the one we sold and it's in great shape, belonged to an ederly man and was hardly driven. There will never ever be a brand new vehicle coming into this family.

[Dixie]

I think my '88 Jeep Cherokee might qualify as a beater. It has 275,000 miles on the engine. It's very dependable though and looks ok, so I'll keep it.

[sabrelvssammy]

i have a 'beater' moped....it's a 1998 model and is actually in really good condition coz it was driven by a little old lady to the grocery store... (really...) i saw it in her garage last summer (she's a neighbor) and asked her what she was doing with it and she said she wanted to get rid of it coz it didn't run....i bought it for $400 and took it to my friend that can fix anything...he took it apart...cleaned it all out and presto...runs like a top....

i call it a 'beater' coz it is a 'old style' moped....not the new scooter looking things...you don't sit on it like a chair...you 'ride' it like a motorcycle..... and everyone that see's it says "cool...where did you get the 'REALLY OLD' moped ????

and in the summer i ride it everywhere.....(you wouldn't believe what you can strap to those things if you have enough bungy cords.....)

i call it my 'little red convertible'.....