(February 22, 2022 at 12:49 pm)pocaracas Wrote:(February 22, 2022 at 9:00 am)onlinebiker Wrote: Our Saturns weigh less than a Mini Cooper and can get just as good or better gas mileage.
My SO bought her first one new, but all the rest - 25 cars- were bought used - averaging UNDER $1000 each.
Several were bought for parts. Several bought with blown engines. The car I am driving now cost $300 with a blown engine. I replaced it with a good engine from a rusted out car - for an additional $250.
The last two cars we sold went for 5 times or more for what we paid.
I know these cars inside and out. I do all of our service on them - and they are remarkably trouble free cars.
Parts are cheap - when I do have to buy new - which is rare.
I can't imagine driving anything else. Buying a new car that gets 50 mpg would NOT be economical - one car payment of $500 is more than I spend on gas in a year.
$500 is also more than I spend on petrol in a year... This thing of calling a liquid "gas" is weird
For a total of $1000, what could we get in the UK?... 2004 Ford Fiestas and that's £999 (which google will tell you is well above $1000).
Of course, we have MOTs here and I've heard that in the ol' U.S. of A. cars drive till they drop - safety and emissions be damned.
What goes in the combustion chamber better not be a liquid.
All of the cars we drive are solid bodies with properly maintained suspension and tires.
We do not have emissions testing in Michigan - but all of our cars would pass California emmission standards for the year produced. (And likely later as well) Being multiport fuel injection the fuel management/ignition advance curve are designed with those standards as a goal.
Simply put - they run best running clean.
