It's not harder. It's not possible for a vast majority of people. You're telling people that are delinquent on their auto loans to "just pay cash" for used cars that are thousands of dollars. Sure you can find a beater for $800-1500 but what happens when the transmission goes or the engine throws a cylinder? Those of us with auto loans don't have the liquidity to pay outright for a decent vehicle.
You don't need to drive a beater forever. At this level cars are basically worth the same you bought them for. A year of driving a 1k beater and saving 500 a month that is less than an average payment leaves you with 7k for a better car.
Minimum wage in most of the USA is $7.25. Working 40 hours a week, 4 weeks of the month is $1160 dollars before taxes and all the other bullshit. Where exactly is that $500 to save coming from?
Most people aren't making federal minimum wage.
Less than 1% of Americans make federal minimum wage. However, despite your dumb take on the amount of money Americans generally make, I strongly agree that saving $500 a month is a complete possibility for many working Americans
I don't see why they don't just ask their parents for money?
It's like people don't even know how to take care of themselves.
You're buying bad cars, but that aside there's a big range between your $500 shitbox and an overpriced $50,000 penis-extension.
Fyi, beaters can usually be sold for what you paid for them. Buy a beater for $1000, save for better car. Sell beater for $1000, and get $5000 good car.
Any used vehicle has the potential to be poorly maintained and unless you have the time and experience to thoroughly inspect every car you buy, there's a chance that the $4k 2004 Toyota Camry with 130,000mi you bought ends up with a piston rod through the bottom of the block.
On paper it looks like a steal, but you didn't know that it had an oil leak while it was sitting in the garage not being driven for months. Mom and Dad passed away and now it has to be sold along with all their stuff, so the family drove it to their property to make sure it runs. They noticed the oil was low when the light came on so they drained it and added new oil. Now you come along don't see any obvious signs of damage and buy it, but the cylinder wall is warped and it slips a bearing 3 months in. Engine needs a rebuild or you deal with the hassle of selling a car that no car enthusiast is wanting to rebuild an engine in, no dealer wants because it doesn't run, and no highschool kid can use because to get it to run they need to spend $3k on a drop in replacement for the engine.
The scenario you're painting is an infinite money glitch that doesn't exist.
I've driven nothing but beaters and beater-adjacent vehicles all my life. Even though I can afford a nice vehicle now, I don't waste my money. Good test driving and mechanical skill goes a long way.
Oil in the coolant? Coolant in the oil? White smoke? Run away.
Knock? Walk away. Lifter tick? Ask to knock the price down, flush oil. You won't throw a rod bearing on a modern car because it was low on oil a year ago. If it somehow does, you bought a car for less than a car payment. If it lasted 2 months you're still ahead and now you have a parts car, get another.
Always head straight to the scrappers and grab an alternator and starter, put them in the trunk for when one of them eats shit.
Learn to spoon tires or make a friend with a tire machine. Tires are a huge expense and used ones / takeoffs are nearly free. Haven't bought a new tire in many years. Get a plug kit too.
Learn to recharge AC and identify a working compressor with no charge. Then hard ball on the price. "Broken" AC devalues the car terribly and is a $10 fix.
Standard transmission cars go for a song, especially with slipping clutch they are worthless, learn to change a clutch and you can have one for decades. My favorite beater was a 1985 Corolla I owned from the age of 16 to 26, bought for $400 sold for $600.
I'm not saying that it's not possible, but it's not good life advice for the majority of people. You're an enthusiast who knows what they're doing around a car. You seem to spend a lot of time fixing things that go beyond normal garage shop fixes. Rebuilding a transmission requires time, skill, space, and most importantly tools. Two more things, not everyone is going to have the storage space for a parts car like you're suggesting. In fact, lots of American towns have ordinances against sitting cars. And second, I don't trust people to change their tires at the right time. Half the accidents during the first couple of freezes are from people that are essentially driving on belts. Do you really think I should trust people to properly seat their own used tires?
I'm glad that you are able to make this work for you, but it sounds like you have the requisite knowledge, tools, skill, and time to make it work.
Lol. You're buying bad cars.
Okay, and your average person doesn't have the knowledge to buy 'good' cars. Google can only take you so far, and RNG will still fuck a significant number of people even with knowledge. If your system requires people to have fairly in-depth knowledge in a field they don't work in just to not get absolutely fucked, then your system is shit.
Your failures are your own.
when the transmission goes or the engine throws a cylinder?
You take the paperwork out, take the license plate off, and wave good bye to the car with "well car, I guess you are the local government's problem now".
Because the VIN is super difficult to match up with DMV records.
And? The penalty for abandoning a car is they haul it away.
You give shitty advice. They can and absolutely will fine you for the price to tow the vehicle and potentially extra fees and fines for as long as the vehicle sits in the towing company's lot.
Stuff that never happens for $100 Alex. I have done it multiple times.
Congratulations on littering your shitty cars around your city. Do you just go to friends houses and leave a fat shit in the toilet for them to clean up too?
If you were my "friend" I probably would.
How exactly would an engine "throw a cylinder"?
Typically it’s a rod but you’ve either never heard the term before or are being pedantic.
Or I'm literally just asking a question to gain some insight. I've heard the term thrown a rod, and I've actually worked on cars more than most people. But thanks for the unwarranted hostility.
Easy killer “how exactly would a car throw a piston” wasn’t exactly a non-hostile comment yourself.
some engines have cylinder sleeves that can be pushed out. Although, as another commenter already mentioned, they actually meant "throwing a rod"
It's not harder. It's not possible for a vast majority of people. You're telling people that are delinquent on their auto loans to "just pay cash" for used cars that are thousands of dollars. Sure you can find a beater for $800-1500 but what happens when the transmission goes or the engine throws a cylinder? Those of us with auto loans don't have the liquidity to pay outright for a decent vehicle.
You don't need to drive a beater forever. At this level cars are basically worth the same you bought them for. A year of driving a 1k beater and saving 500 a month that is less than an average payment leaves you with 7k for a better car.
Minimum wage in most of the USA is $7.25. Working 40 hours a week, 4 weeks of the month is $1160 dollars before taxes and all the other bullshit. Where exactly is that $500 to save coming from?
Most people aren't making federal minimum wage.
Less than 1% of Americans make federal minimum wage. However, despite your dumb take on the amount of money Americans generally make, I strongly agree that saving $500 a month is a complete possibility for many working Americans
I don't see why they don't just ask their parents for money?
It's like people don't even know how to take care of themselves.
You're buying bad cars, but that aside there's a big range between your $500 shitbox and an overpriced $50,000 penis-extension.
Fyi, beaters can usually be sold for what you paid for them. Buy a beater for $1000, save for better car. Sell beater for $1000, and get $5000 good car.
Any used vehicle has the potential to be poorly maintained and unless you have the time and experience to thoroughly inspect every car you buy, there's a chance that the $4k 2004 Toyota Camry with 130,000mi you bought ends up with a piston rod through the bottom of the block.
On paper it looks like a steal, but you didn't know that it had an oil leak while it was sitting in the garage not being driven for months. Mom and Dad passed away and now it has to be sold along with all their stuff, so the family drove it to their property to make sure it runs. They noticed the oil was low when the light came on so they drained it and added new oil. Now you come along don't see any obvious signs of damage and buy it, but the cylinder wall is warped and it slips a bearing 3 months in. Engine needs a rebuild or you deal with the hassle of selling a car that no car enthusiast is wanting to rebuild an engine in, no dealer wants because it doesn't run, and no highschool kid can use because to get it to run they need to spend $3k on a drop in replacement for the engine.
The scenario you're painting is an infinite money glitch that doesn't exist.
I've driven nothing but beaters and beater-adjacent vehicles all my life. Even though I can afford a nice vehicle now, I don't waste my money. Good test driving and mechanical skill goes a long way.
Oil in the coolant? Coolant in the oil? White smoke? Run away.
Knock? Walk away. Lifter tick? Ask to knock the price down, flush oil. You won't throw a rod bearing on a modern car because it was low on oil a year ago. If it somehow does, you bought a car for less than a car payment. If it lasted 2 months you're still ahead and now you have a parts car, get another.
Always head straight to the scrappers and grab an alternator and starter, put them in the trunk for when one of them eats shit.
Learn to spoon tires or make a friend with a tire machine. Tires are a huge expense and used ones / takeoffs are nearly free. Haven't bought a new tire in many years. Get a plug kit too.
Learn to recharge AC and identify a working compressor with no charge. Then hard ball on the price. "Broken" AC devalues the car terribly and is a $10 fix.
Standard transmission cars go for a song, especially with slipping clutch they are worthless, learn to change a clutch and you can have one for decades. My favorite beater was a 1985 Corolla I owned from the age of 16 to 26, bought for $400 sold for $600.
I'm not saying that it's not possible, but it's not good life advice for the majority of people. You're an enthusiast who knows what they're doing around a car. You seem to spend a lot of time fixing things that go beyond normal garage shop fixes. Rebuilding a transmission requires time, skill, space, and most importantly tools. Two more things, not everyone is going to have the storage space for a parts car like you're suggesting. In fact, lots of American towns have ordinances against sitting cars. And second, I don't trust people to change their tires at the right time. Half the accidents during the first couple of freezes are from people that are essentially driving on belts. Do you really think I should trust people to properly seat their own used tires?
I'm glad that you are able to make this work for you, but it sounds like you have the requisite knowledge, tools, skill, and time to make it work.
Lol. You're buying bad cars.
Okay, and your average person doesn't have the knowledge to buy 'good' cars. Google can only take you so far, and RNG will still fuck a significant number of people even with knowledge. If your system requires people to have fairly in-depth knowledge in a field they don't work in just to not get absolutely fucked, then your system is shit.
Your failures are your own.
You take the paperwork out, take the license plate off, and wave good bye to the car with "well car, I guess you are the local government's problem now".
Because the VIN is super difficult to match up with DMV records.
And? The penalty for abandoning a car is they haul it away.
You give shitty advice. They can and absolutely will fine you for the price to tow the vehicle and potentially extra fees and fines for as long as the vehicle sits in the towing company's lot.
Stuff that never happens for $100 Alex. I have done it multiple times.
Congratulations on littering your shitty cars around your city. Do you just go to friends houses and leave a fat shit in the toilet for them to clean up too?
If you were my "friend" I probably would.
How exactly would an engine "throw a cylinder"?
Typically it’s a rod but you’ve either never heard the term before or are being pedantic.
Or I'm literally just asking a question to gain some insight. I've heard the term thrown a rod, and I've actually worked on cars more than most people. But thanks for the unwarranted hostility.
Easy killer “how exactly would a car throw a piston” wasn’t exactly a non-hostile comment yourself.
some engines have cylinder sleeves that can be pushed out. Although, as another commenter already mentioned, they actually meant "throwing a rod"