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I'm a 26 year old male living in NY.

First car: $2200 purchase price. 98 vw cabrio. 36k miles in 2010. It died in 2016 due to an electrical issue. Sold to scrap, but I also collected an insurancr pay out from it when someone hit me.

$2200 / 72 = $30 per month.

Bought a 2005 ford focus. Needed the extra space and had to buy it quickly and unexpectedly. Paid $3000, with 100k miles.

It's been 1 year already, and I'm expecting 3 total years of life out of it.

$3000 / 36 = $83 a month.

Not bad at all really! Insurance is $55 a month and I don't spend much on tires/oil.




36k miles on a 12 year old car seems super low. Seems like a great deal! Did you have to get it fixed up? I'm wondering why it only costed $2200.


Yeah, that one was an incredible deal, I agree! I loved that car to bits.

There was nothing really wrong with it in terms of like, cosmetic damage or rust or engine noises or crunchy transmission.

Vw Cabrios just have horrible electrical problems and therefore quite bad re-sell value. Coupled with a motivated seller, VW Cabrios and Jaguar X Types are probably some of the cheapest cars to buy used, but will die quite quickly, especially in wetter climates.

Towards the end of its life, my car flat out wouldn't start if it was rained on, and in the last few weeks of its life, when it was humid! Haha. Water droplets in the starter impeded electrical flow to the spark plugs.


>I don't spend much on tires

You buy stolen tires? Or cheap low end shit? That's the most important part of your car that keeps you alive.


If you're an American and you don't spend much on oil, you probably don't drive much. So the tyres last a long time. That means the cost is low.


I'm not sure what the person above was trying to say about me. Tires are like $70 here to replace, $20 to patch, and if you're like me, "free" because you ride bald tires :p




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