What's a reasonable range to spend on purchasing a car for a single ERE person?

[Smashter]

re: renting a car.

I mostly agree with C-40, but can add a bit based on personal experience. I have now rented from Hertz three times to take trips from Chicago to see my in-laws in Wisconsin. They are a 3.5 hour drive away.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you don't have car insurance (and especially if you have a wife that plays things conservative) you are going to have to get rental car insurance. I didn't budget for this at first because I never bought insurance when I previously rented cars. But now that I don't own a car and thus have no insurance of my own, I feel obligated. This will add 30-40 bucks to every rental.

Also, I'm not sure when the last time you rented a car was, but the whole process sucks. It's slow, and the employees are generally tired and overburdened. Sometimes you have to wait extra long for the car because even though you booked it early, they don't actually have it in stock. Then you have to sometimes race back to return the car within a certain window.

Never make the mistake of selecting a cheaper car that is only available for pick up and drop off from an airport. Seemed good in theory, but what a nightmare.

All in all, I'm not a fan. Lately we've been taking the bus to Milwaukee and then bribing/begging someone from my wife's family to drive to the station to pick us up

[sky]

One car strategy is to buy a 4 cylinder Toyota with a manual transmission, with about 100,000 to 150,000 miles on it. These are available fairly cheaply (about $5,000) and with maintenance you could expect another 100k to 150k miles out of them.

[TopHatFox]

What is the range of milleage wear, in general? For example:

50K miles - good
100K miles - meh
200K miles - pretty much dead

Same with years:

1 year - like new
3 years - good
5 years - okay
10 years - eh
20 years - re-consider

[jacob]

It depends on the model. Go to <website> and plot age vs mileage on a graph. Then fit a line on the scatter plot. Now you know which cars are "interesting". They might be interesting for a good reason. One such reason might be that it has a manual transmission. Fewer Americans know how to drive stick which lowers the demand and thus the price. Consider using two different kinds of dots for dealer vs private.

[Stahlmann]

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[EdithKeeler]

My personal philosophy on cars is to buy a reliable one new and drive the wheels off of it. Bought the current Scion Xb—the small bread truck!—for $20k cash and have driven 9 years and 130k miles. That works out to $185 a month. I have to have a car, and use for work occasionally so get a tad of money back on that. Insurance is a bit higher BC I’ve had collision coverage on it until recently. I think it’s good for another 5 years or so.

[cmonkey]

Given your range, my 2001 Tundra should be passed over, but it's likely the best truck around in terms of reliability and ease of working on. So milage and age are definitely not the determining factors by themselves. As others have said, those factors combined with the model and also how it's been taken care of are the most important.

Also look into State Registration fees. In most states, the fee is based on MSRP percentages up until a certain age. Buy a car just past the cut off and you'll save hundreds in fees annually.

[Kriegsspiel]

I think that $3,000-$7,000 range is a good place to look for a used manual transmission hatchback with less than 90,000 miles and younger than 10 years. If you can, go buy one from a place where they don't have snow/salt.

Another thing to consider if you want to go without a car and rent them; drop fees for one way trips. They apply to trips where you don't need the car at your destination and the daily fees would add up to more than the drop fee (and any inconvenience).

[TopHatFox]

Great, so that covers type of car, cost of car, cost of renting car, age/miles, and insurance.

What about gas, oil, and other routine costs? And what about repairs? How much can one expect to spend on those on a little used hatchback?

[Sclass]

...look for a used manual transmission hatchback with less than 90,000 miles

This is a good point. Check with model specific forums and read about people’s experiences with the particular car you’re after. Automatic transmission repair can be expensive and some models have weak units. A manual is more reliable in general. Also requires less maintenance if you know how to drive it.

If you can get away with a manual (no stop and go commuting, possess coordination to drive a manual) it can be a money saver.

As for mileage...well it also depends on how well the engine was maintained. Sometimes a low mile car has been abused or has spent a lot of time parked because it was too unreliable to put miles on.

[Kriegsspiel]

Title, registration, personal property taxes, notary fees, and inspections will cost the same no matter how much you drive it, unless you move around all the time; they vary by state (E.g Ohio doesn't require personal property taxes, notary fees, or inspections).

Insurance to a lesser extent, but they do ask you how many miles a year you drive it (or estimate you'll drive it).

The other stuff, like gas, oil, filters, tires, windshield wiper fluid, tire pressure stem caps for when you lose them while filling up the tires, coolant, spark plugs, fuses windshield wipers, A/C juice, headlights, interior bulbs, (AFAIK) really depends on how much you drive. The main ones are gas, oil, and tires and you can figure those costs out for your own situation. But a nice cheap econobox hatchback gets good MPG with the cheapest octane fuel and cheap small tires. You can learn how to change your own oil, or pay someone $20 a couple times a year.

[sky]

I also bought a new economy car and continue to own my car as long as I can. When I bought it in 2009 I was hearing crazy stories about self-driving cars and ride apps, so I thought this may be the last car I will have to buy. But we are not even close to economy self driving cars, and uber doesn't help me in a rural area.

I think that the sweet spot is 5 to 10 years old and 50k to 100k miles. But it also about finding the right deal and making a good bargain.

I paid $12,000 and have driven 60,000 miles. If I sold it today, I could probably get $3,000 and whoever bought it could get another 60,000 miles. They might have more maintenance cost, but not necessarily, the car is in decent shape. That is the kind of deal to look for.

[sky]

Here is an example search using the above criteria:

https://miami.craigslist.org/search/mdc ... chNearby=2

I would only look at brands with the highest reliability ratings: Toyota, Honda, Scion, Acura, Lexus.

[Bankai]

If a house should not cost more than 10% of NW, maybe a car should not cost more than, say, 1%? Only if someone is really convinced they need one.

[Jean]

Buying price is only a fraction of what it cost to drive a car. To me it was less than 10 %

[BMF1102]

I would also urge one to, depending on their age/driving record, to look at older models. Insurance kills young drivers and people with bad driving records. Personal exerience here. Shoot even an almost 20 year old Ford Focus Wagon cost almost twice as much as my Cherokee of the similar vintage.

[Dream of Freedom]

If you don't follow the advice to live close to work you need a better car so that it is reliable enough to get to work, but if you do follow that advice you don't need a car all that badly anyway.

There is a case for a larger vehicle. They are easier to sleep in. You can transport cheap used furniture/appliances/riding lawnmower/ect to your house rather than having to find someone with a big car to help. Though admittedly if you are a smaller human or just have a lot of stairs you might need help getting it in the house anyway. A hatchback might work for some of the smaller ones but I needed help when I owned my sedan and I would definitely need help now that I'm carless. Also, they are a tank. That helps in an accident.

[Kriegsspiel]

If you don't follow the advice to live close to work you need a better car so that it is reliable enough to get to work, but if you do follow that advice you don't need a car all that badly anyway.

That was my situation, and I did sell my car. I found that even infrequent car rentals can equal the ongoing costs of just owning a cheap car.

There is a case for a larger vehicle. They are easier to sleep in. You can transport cheap used furniture/appliances/riding lawnmower/ect to your house rather than having to find someone with a big car to help. Though admittedly if you are a smaller human or just have a lot of stairs you might need help getting it in the house anyway. A hatchback might work for some of the smaller ones but I needed help when I owned my sedan and I would definitely need help now that I'm carless.

I am 6 feet tall and I slept in the back of a Scion Xa. Comfortably and infrequently enough that it would be a flimsy reason to buy a bigger car.

Hatchbacks can fit a ton of stuff. Transporting anything that doesn't fit like a fridge or a riding lawnmower happens so infrequently that you could rent a truck and come out way ahead. Or even, like Mike (Lacking Ambition), buy a trailer for a few hundred bucks and pull it with your small car.

Also, they are a tank. That helps in an accident.

Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?!

[TopHatFox]

Does a hatchback come with turret and battering ram features?

[Dream of Freedom]

Hatchbacks no. With SUVs they come optional, but with the zombie apocalypse just around the corner...