People who drive junkers, what's your stories?

Posted by jules083@reddit | askcarguys | View on Reddit | 170 comments

Just curious, felt like having a fun post instead of the typical 'which Toyota should I buy' or 'why is my Hyundai broke?' I know we all have stories. Random breakdowns, ditching your car and taking a bus home, watching your car burn to the ground on the side of the road, buying a car for $250 then driving it for 15 years, etc. Anyone want to share? I'll throw mine in the comments.

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Popular-Ad2193@reddit

I usually own 2 beaters at the same time! The theory is when one breaks I can fix the other but there are times when both need work but usually I can still drive one or both if needed. It’s still cheaper to have liability insurance on 2 beaters than a car payment!

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jules083@reddit (OP)

My move is 2 beaters and a good one, or 1 beater and 2 good ones. I'm over budget right now. My fiesta and my ranger were both giving me a ton of problems. Had a crown Vic in the barn for a backup, it was my good one. Problem is I was working out of town and the Vic is also my wife's backup. Got annoyed working on junk and bought a Miata. That was a year and a half ago. My ranger and my fiesta quite literally fixed themselves and have never since given me a lick of trouble. Figures. Lmao. So my my Miata is just tucked away nice and clean for weekend driving, Vic is still the backup, and I have 2 beaters. Lol

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ApprehensiveClub6969@reddit

In 2010 I got a good paying job that stipulated employees were never allowed miss work due to bad weather. It was a ways outside of town and over the hills in an area that sometimes gets snow and my only vehicle was my 1990 5.0L Mustang on summer tires. I wasn't about to sell my Mustang so I bought a '91 Jeep Cherokee with 140k miles and in fair condition for $1300 to use as a backup vehicle. I ended up liking the Jeep so much I proceed to daily drive it for most of the next 8 years and put another 55k on it. Did lots of maintenance and fixing it up a bit but it never stranded me once. Drove it all over Oregon, to the mountains and the coast to go camping, and from Portland to Seattle numerous times. I was a broke 20-something so more often than not if it needed a part replaced I'd just go find a less worn out one in a junkyard. I eventually even put a 4" lift on it out of junkyard parts. In 2019 it was stolen from in front of my house and I figured I'd never see it again. A year later I get a call saying it's sitting in a tow lot and to come get it if you want it back. Apparently the theif had abandoned it in a public parking lot. It was beat to shit, half spray painted, interior absolutely trashed and disgusting, but I put a good battery in it and it fired right up and ran. Whoever stole it managed to put about another 6k miles on it as it now had over 200k. I think they ditched it because the power steering had went out and the material inside the cat converter had broken and was rattling like hell making a ton of noise. I cut the cat off and put a reman power steering pump in it, threw the old carpet and seats away and scored a nice set of seats out of a junkyard. Put a new ignition lock cylinder in it from Napa for like $20 and renewed the tags. It still drove exactly the same as it always had. I was planning to semi restore it with a DIY paint job, new carpet, etc, but I decided to move to Hawaii and it just didn't make sense to ship it when I likely wouldn't have a good place to work on it out here. I sold it for $2500 to a teenage kid who planned to fix it up with his dad and I assume it's still running around rural Oregon.

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jules083@reddit (OP)

That's awesome. Those old Cherokees were great.

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jules083@reddit (OP)

Here's some of my good ones in no particular order. 1. 1994 Grand Am. Took it on a road trip, threw the title in the glovebox in case it broke. Was driving through Missouri and started hearing some fantastic noises from the motor. The dipstick and radiator looked like chocolate milkshake, and it looked like a green milkshake got sprayed all over the engine bay. Made it to a used car dealer. Gave him my car and $600 for a beat up 1991 Ford Ranger, and drove that truck for 8 years before it finally rusted away. 2. Driving through Cleveland on Easter Sunday. Timing belt broke, 1996 Ford Ranger. Non-interference motor. Hitchhiked to AutoZone. Bought a timing belt and a set of tools. Hitchhiked back to the truck. 3 hours later I was back on the road. 3. Bought a jeep that was 1500 miles away. It had a bunch of little stuff wrong with it but the price was right. Hauling it home the crank sensor went bad on my truck. The truck went on a flatbed, hooked the jeep to my now empty car trailer, and followed the flatbed. Used the jeep the next day as a parts runner, fixed the truck, and continued. Jeep had a leaky radiator and every steering component was worn out, it was absolutely all over the road and right on the ragged edge of overheating trying to run 75 on the interstate towing a car trailer. 4. Driving home in my Ford Fiesta, timing belt falls apart. Expensive noises. Interference motor, figured it was done for. Came home on a flatbed. Told my friendly local shadetree mechanic I'd give him a couple hundred bucks to look at it if he wanted to, but it was probably scrap metal. That was 30k miles ago, car runs fine but has a wonderful rattle in the motor on cold mornings now. 5. Bought a 1976 F-250 in Kansas. Drove it home to Ohio. Had a 390 big block, 4.56 gears, no overdrive. Got 4mpg the whole way home and burned a quart of oil about every 80 miles. Started dumping 20w50 Harley Davidson oil in the motor partway home and it helped.

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Turbulent-Matter501@reddit

why were you doing 75 in such dangerous conditions? jeeps that you Are familiar with aren't great for towing when they are in good condition. that's not really something to be proud of, it's extremely dangerous and irresponsible.

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jules083@reddit (OP)

I had to keep up with the flatbed hauling my truck. I had no idea how to get to the hotel and I definitely didn't want to be playing on my phone trying to figure it out

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PolybiusChampion@reddit

We used to use tow straps to get cars home when they’d break down. Nothing says safe like being 25’ off your buddy’s rear bumper attached with a strap and needing to use your brakes to slow him down……at night……in the rain.

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Scarlett-the-01-TJ@reddit

I did that a few times back in the 90’s. A group of friends had wranglers and we would go out to a place called Tower City in eastern PA. Totally unregulated like it is now. I had a stock 4 cylinder YJ. Ex husband had a lifted YJ, as did most of his friends. I was cautious about where I drove, and never went through the water holes. Pretty much every time we went one of the idiot guys would break down and need towed home. After I towed my ex home I decided I needed to upgrade to a Cherokee . Then I just tailed gated the jeep towing that week’s broken down jeep home on the Interstate so there’d be a vehicle with brake lights at the end of the procession.

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One-Bodybuilder309@reddit

😂. I towed my car home one day with an old Honda XL185 😂 Thankfully it wasn’t very far Thanks for the flashback !!

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jules083@reddit (OP)

Damn I forgot this story. 2002, senior year of high school. Had a Ford Ranger. Did dumb kid things, went in a mud hole, sucked in water, locked up the motor. Called a buddy. He came in his old Ford Explorer. Dragging me along the field and it quits running, we can't figure it out. Buddy calls his dad. His dad showed up in his F350 diesel dually. Hooked a chain from the dually to the explorer, then another chain from the explorer to my truck. Told my friend, his son, to just steer. Told me that I was the brakes for all of it. Went like 6 or 7 miles down a 2 lane back road in the dark like that. Lol

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PolybiusChampion@reddit

That’s a great story!

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jules083@reddit (OP)

Man I was scared. My buddy's dad raced Honda 250R 3 wheelers back in the 80's, anyone with enough balls to race those things also drives way faster than they should on the road. We were doing like 50mph on the straight stretches. Lol

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CommonBubba@reddit

You left out the downhill both ways part…

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PolybiusChampion@reddit

It sometimes felt that way. Curvy, country roads at night being flat towed behind a buddy’s pickup. It’s a wonder any of us made it to adulthood. This was the early 80’s so the roads were not so crowded then.

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Pretend_Detective558@reddit

Used to? I did this a week ago. lol I’m 49, been doing this my whole life.

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klde@reddit

Its called skill. We learn it in the Midwest winters when we play the what lane are we in game

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TremorOwner@reddit

You can't see the dents from the driver seat is an awesome perspective. Have you seen the video of the car salesman that claims to only sell you and engine and transmission the rest of the car is free? That comment reminded me of him.

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Jack_Attak@reddit

[Cash Cars Kansas City](https://youtu.be/JQ7TZ-3qILQ?si=GEo8UmwVaiuLKN2r). I wonder if he's still selling cars to this day. He was locally famous 9 years ago.

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OldMathematician5973@reddit

As is means as the fuck is!

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TremorOwner@reddit

That's him, his videos are hilarious.

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No_Payment_3889@reddit

That is awesome. Almost feels like a Cramblin & Duvet ad lol.

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jules083@reddit (OP)

No I haven't, I'll have to look that one up late. Lol

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TremorOwner@reddit

https://youtube.com/shorts/ZReBJ4dvTR4?si=OOLk-l731GDn5dsT

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OutlandishnessLimp25@reddit

Wow I’m impressed you’re handy enough (and pre YouTube days might I add!) to doing the timing belt in such an environment ie., not at a shop. Also, the post caught my eye because I grew up on the east side of Cleveland suburbs, ha! I don’t really have a story to contribute other than my first car was an 1986 Oldsmobile Delta 88. All maroon exterior and interior, it was smooth. It was in fairly good shape other than some northeast Ohio winter elements getting the best of it and had some rust spots.

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klde@reddit

When I was 18 straight our of high-school me and three friends drove from Michigan to Yellowstone to go hiking in a early 2000s Pontiac grand prix. We had it packed to the brim with our gear. Second day of the hike one guy fell crossing a river and got hurt and couldn't continue a second had never hiked before and brought like a 80 pound pack full of photography gear and boots he hadn't broken in so his feet were sausage and gross. So we left them at a site by a fire road and me and the second guy that wasn't hurt dropped as much weight as we could took on tent minimal food and clothing and hike this 26 mile fire road back to the car. We got lucky some dude came bouncing down the road in a Saturn so we didn't know what do but were desperate. So we stood in the middle of this shitty fire road waving our arms to get him to stop and pick us up to take us to the trail head where the car was. It worked. He was a super chill guy. And what we thought was going to take 2-3 days to get back to our friends we made it back late that evening or early morning I guess. Beat the hell out of that Pontiac driving it back to where we left my buddies and it took it like a champ.

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OregonMothafaquer@reddit

Driving a 93 town car right now. It’s pretty reliable

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Weary-Concentrate-75@reddit

All of my cars, they all sucked. I’ve owned nothing but Aussie cars, I still have one. Guess what? L98, 600hp. It still fucking sucks

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DEMONSEASONTHROWAWAY@reddit

Holden?

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Weary-Concentrate-75@reddit

Sure is man! It’s the best-worst handling pick up abomination money can buy!

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Turbulent-Matter501@reddit

I killed the transmission in my last truck pulling a trailer through the rocky mountains and got stuck in a trailer park in a small town. There was a crappy old Chevy truck in my price range sitting for sale on the main strip so I went to inquire. Test drove it. The engine light was on. bought it anyway. Twelve years and 80k miles later and I'm still pulling my trailer around the country with it. The check engine light is Still on. none of the 20 mechanics who have been in there over the years have been able to figure it out lol.

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xIgnoramus@reddit

It’s just letting you know the engine is still there.

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paleologus@reddit

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shiiiine

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Usual_Purchase_9567@reddit

I wanted to bang this surfer chick with no car so I bought a 2005 ford escape because it has a roof rack and she seemed like she'd like banging in the back of little SUV. It didn't work, but that piece of cheese is still running happily along and now carries all of my stuff.

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xIgnoramus@reddit

Way she goes.

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TheRealDon1994@reddit

This would’ve been an awesome “How I met your mother” story. Sorry it didn’t work out

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ApprehensiveWash7969@reddit

Well, 2 years ago I got tired of paying a butt load of money every week for gas as I was commuting with an 02 Ford F150. That 26 gal tank was costing over $100 to fill at the time and today it would cost around $150 about once per week. I decided to spend my tax refund on a commuter car and was about to pick up an older Nissan Sentra when I saw it. An 03 Honda Civic Hybrid. They wanted $2k for it. I got them down to $1500. And boy did it look like crap. But I did not buy it for appearances. I bought it because it was capable of getting around 40mpg. I put in a lot in maintenance and replacement parts. Now, 2 years and 30k miles later its a relief. My gas bill right now is less than $200 per month.

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No-Atmosphere-3092@reddit

05 accord. 200k mikes - $2500. Only debt is house. 100k in out of pocket fertility treatments in the last 4 years.

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AllFiredUp3000@reddit

I bought my first car for $900 cash. I kept the windows rolled down since the AC barely worked. It cried if I tried to drive uphill 😂

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doornoob@reddit

In my teens amd early 20s, I would buy Dodge K cars from the state at auction for $100-$500. They would all need a battery, tires, and an oil change. For less than $1000 I'd have the least cool car, but I'd have a car! I kept them until something broke, then sell it. It was a life hack. Some time around 2003/4, there were no more K cars. The auctions got busy, costs went up. Its probably still an inexpensive route for a car but not worth the hassle to me.

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jules083@reddit (OP)

I miss the cheap Kcars. A buddy from high school did a burnout in his once and junked the transmission. Only thing that worked was reverse. Drove home, like 8 miles mind you, in reverse. Then an hour later left home and drove to work in reverse. I worked with him at the time at a grocery store and got the story that night. Finally got pulled over when he was driving home from work at night in reverse. Lol

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BigSkyHawk1@reddit

LOL love this story. 🤣

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Extra-Western7405@reddit

I would look through the ads in the paper for cheap gm A body and X body cars. I've had 2 Pontiac 6000s, a Chevy Citation, 3 Buick Century's (4 if you include a parts car)

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totaltimeontask@reddit

I got a 2006 Crown Vic P71 for $1300 at auction in 2018, and drove the piss out of it. Sold it for $1500 and a Glock back in 2024.

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Malarky3113@reddit

Hell yeah 🇺🇸

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MrMackSir@reddit

I had a GF who had a K car. We used to joke the K was for Kwality. It was constantly having small but fixable/liveable problems. Like the passenger door would only unlock with a key from the outside and you would have to slam the glove box closed or it would fall open after a small bump.

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StonedMasonry@reddit

Buddy used to do this with $500 tercels.

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BigSkyHawk1@reddit

Paid $500 for 1992 accord with 300k miles that smoked so bad people at stop lights thought it was going to explode. Oil leak right on the exhaust. I drove it like that for 2 years until the head gasket blew when it overheated around town. Wife refused to drive it. It was my daily beater so I did have another car I drive on the weekends. I also found a helluva deal on a 1991 M5 in Canada. Tried to drive it from the Washington/Canada border to Texas when the water pump blew up outside of Salt Lake City. Luckily I was near a truck stop in the middle of nowhere and was able to pull in and have it shipped back to Texas. I slapped on a water pump from rock auto and was driving it 2 weeks later.

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wiscoguy0043@reddit

1. 1990 accord picked up from a coworker for $250, drove it across the country twice and won some street races. sadly was totaled and came out on top with a personal injury attorney. 2. 1992 s10 blazer 4x4 paid $350 and claimed the 4x4 didnt work. burnt out horn fuse was replaced and has worked since. it has a plow on it and has made $$$$ in the past 8 years.. the floors are gone now 🤣 3. 1998 honda civic 5spd - drove to dekalb for her and nabbed it for $500 from a friend. Huge thunderstorm rolls up and the wipers do not work (wasnt told this/2 hour drive back) FUN. daily drove it for 6 months and was stolen in milwaukee never to be seen again. insurance paid me $3500 😘 4. patiently waiting for the next opportunity!

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jdkimbro80@reddit

I drive a 2011 Honda accord. I do have several other nice cars. I daily the old Honda because 1.) I don’t want to dirty up the interior on my truck, and 2.) it’s now a game to see how far the Honda will go. It’s at 206k currently and going strong. It always starts and has required almost zero repairs.

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jules083@reddit (OP)

You have a long ways to go before you manage to wear it out. Lol I'm doing the same with my Ford Fiesta. I'm at 241k now

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Beneficialsensai@reddit

Buy a japanese made one 10 years old Drive it 10 years then repeat.

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jules083@reddit (OP)

Sounds boring. Lol

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illthrowawaysomeday@reddit

91 mazda truck, clutch master cylinder went out at my buddies house. Coasted out of the driveway in neutral, started it in first gear to get going, floated gears the whole way home. It was my dad's truck and he was genuinely impressed at my 17 year old driving skills, he said he probably wouldn't have made it home, nor even attempted that. Other than that my junkers don't really break down. That truck leaked fluid from anywhere that had fluid, cv axles clicked whenever you are in 4wd, never had any maintenance ever. Ran forever, never got stuck, out 4x4'd tons of nicer/bigger trucks. Only sold it because my dad was tired of adding a weekly quart of oil.

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Bulky-Plate-4288@reddit

Bought 06 Chevy Aveo with 65k miles and manual for $800. Sold it one year later for 1500. Bought my dad’s 05 v6 mustang manual with 135k on it for $1000 and drove it till 220k and held onto it. Bought a 2004 Corolla le auto for 5500 and got into wreck 6months later and got 5200 back after fighting opponent adjuster who claimed it had 250k miles and engine problems…, used the mustang again until it got to 255k still held onto it, bought my brothers 2008 Yaris with 160k miles for $3k and been driving that. So in 8 years of driving I spent 3600 on buying cars and another 1-2 grand on minor repairs and maintenance mostly doing the work myself, I would say that’s pretty damn good. Everyone around me is struggling while I’m having fun and saving money, they ask for help and I tell them you gotta work your way up and they would rather have a car payment and work for nothing. And I commuted 60-70 miles a day for work for 2 years, all cars air conditioning struggled in Florida but they got me to where I needed to go and only got stranded once in the mustang because a coolant hose clamp broke, 15 min fix becasue I had to walk to part store.

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Usual_Safety@reddit

2010 Hyundai sonata. It runs good but the paint has been flaking off for years now, windshield is broken, no dents tho. It passes inspection and emissions, does great on gas and it’s reliable.

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Viking2151@reddit

I can't say I had anything major like that, I've had junk, one that comes to mind in my 96 ford taurus, ugly bubble car, it had no floors left, it caught fire in the dash so it was all melted, wiper motor caught fire so the paint on the hood and the cal was melted on the driver side, no idea how the windshield didn't get damaged, the fuel take fell out one day in the driveway, the mounts for the straps were gone, I bought a new fuel tank, old one had pin holes, ratchet strapped it back up, Ended up ripping the bolt out of the body for the sub frame on the passenger side, ended up scrapping it. My lovely 2006 cobalt, what a fugly car that was, not the shape of it like my ford up there, but it had no rockers left, the hood was splitting so I installed some hood pins, trunk lid was rotted, fenders were pretty much gone, Had some weird issue where it wouldn't idle if it was below 30F, had to 2 foot it until it ran for more than 30 min and it was good, Had an issue where it would not shift out of park, I had to look up and figure out how bypass the shift lock, it wasn't reading the position of the shifter so it was locked into park for "SAFTY" by passed that with a bent brad nail I found on the ground, I only paid $1,000 for this thing, had 160k, when we got done with it, had 280k, was just getting too unsafe to keep on the road, little 2.2 kept on going though, Only had minor repairs, nothing crazy with it, the major things were wheel bearings. Yet that car is way more reliable than my 2011 Cruze with 118k on it sadly.... I had a sketchy Beretta before was in a accident and the frame or sub frame was bent, couldn't align it so It kept going threw a driver side every 6 months, and was missing most of the driver side floor lol.

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_no_usernames_avail@reddit

2002 base Acura RSX bought for $4400 including the rust work and paint, and driven for 13 years from 170k to 180k. Lowest cost per mile vehicle I’ve owned and a great daily driver. 2003 civic si hatch bought for $3500 at 20 years old and spent double that in missed maintenance, rust repair and suspension upgrades. The most fun daily I’ve owned and the most expensive per mile car since I had a car payment in my 20s. 30k of driving has not been cheap. 2003 Acura RSX type s. $4500 at 22 years old and I will be into it for 8-9k total once I get rust and paint done, but it’s mechanically a dream so far. Hope to get 15 years/150k as the next daily. Sense a pattern?

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Objective-Hotel6514@reddit

After totalling three cars 🙈 before 23, and at an age where my mother could not distribute punishment, I bought myself my "punishment" car. 1994 Suzuki sidekick with a giant crack in the windshield, more ashtrays than cupholders, purple tint, and fucked up power steering. Cost $800 and when the transmission blew 6 months later I sold it for $400. Couldn't have gotten a rental cheaper.

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i_got_a_rune_scimmy@reddit

85' camaro - left me stranded 4 hours from home in -30c weather with a dead clutch, spent a bunch of money replacing it, 2nd gear synchro went a couple months after and the car got sold to someone who just wanted it for parts. pontiac sunfire - bought for 1500$, lasted me 3 or 4 years. Left me stranded once once when the alternator went but otherwise a pretty solid beater. Sold it for 1500$ and saw it ripping around town for years after. Current beater is a toyota yaris, bought it 8 years ago for 3000$ and has never left me stranded. Honestly the best beater ever, still not rusty and in the 8 years I've owned it have only needed to replace the rear struts and an alternator. 350k on it now but it just keeps going.

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klde@reddit

Ive always had shit boxes. Four ford probe gt's had one throw a idler pulley in warfield va on a road trip. Made it to a gas station before the battery died had them call me a tow and just said take me to the closest parts store that was open on a Sunday. The store was chill and just handed me a pile of belts to find one the fit and bypassed the idler and ac compressor so I could get home. Bonus was more power and better mpg. Also recently I bought a cheap acura tsx after I had two cars totaled. Neither my fault BTW but I lost my job so lived off the insurance pay out and bought the beater. So one night I was bored on tinder a girl was down so went out to meet and the alternator went in a bad part of town on the way to her place. So I texted her and said hey my cars dieing I need to get back home asap can we reschedule. I called a friend to bring some jump packs out and while waiting on the side of the road a guy pulled up asking if I needed help. Ended up with a pistol to my ribs and he took everything on me. Including my nice winter coat

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Boa-in-a-bowl@reddit

>Bonus was more power and better mpg. I've been driving my 2007 Taurus rigged like that for years now and it gets unreasonably good gas mileage for it's model and feels faster than my 2001 Taurus, I wonder if that's why

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klde@reddit

It is less resistance from the accessory drives especially ac compressor takes a lot of power to spin so when you by pass it good times are had.

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FoundationTower@reddit

Currently, its my 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan. Ive having cooling issues with it since Ive bought it. First it was the thermostat housing. Decided to grenade it self & leak coolant. A few weeks later was the the Y pipe. 6 months later, oil pressure sensor. 1 year after, second thermostat replacement, now its the blend door actuator in the rear.

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ThirdBrakeLight@reddit

1992 dodge stealth non turbo r/T. sometimes would burn a whole quart of oil in 100 miles, sometimes even more. also it would go like 300 miles and not burn a drop. piston rings did what they wanted lol

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Amarathe_@reddit

$1500 for a bmw e36. Driving it home got pulled over for going to slow (cop was tailgating me so i kept slowing down. He hated that) $1800 for a bmw e46 wagon radiator started to leak so i limp home and replace it. Then the oil cooler bracket leaks so i tow it home with my $1800 tahoe and i replace that bracket and the o rings. Then the heater core hoses start leaking but i just top off the coolant and keep going only for the front diff to explode. Tow it home with the tahoe and replace the front diff and heater core hose o rings. Replacement diff leaks from the pinion seal and the lower radiator hose is leaking from the o ring. Ignore all that and take it for an alignment at the worst possible place because they tell me they couldnt adjust the right rear because it "takes a special tool" (i have the tool if they would have said something but also no ot doesnt you can adjust it with a pry bar) they charge me $100 anyway. Take it to the shop i usually go through when i cant do the work myself and they tell me they cant align it because its got 2 bad ball joints. Why didnt the other shop say that? Because theyre the worst and i knew that but i went there anyway because my shop has a 2-3 week back log and the dummies shop did it as soon as i walked in. $1800 tahoe? Replaced the tires after a while. CEL is on but i dont care. Tow my e46 on my $4000 car trailer with it all the time. Yes my car trailer cost me more than the car towing it and the car thats usually on it put together.

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Any_Program_2113@reddit

I'll share my brothers. He was a UPS driver and saw a Toyota Corolla sitting on a driveway on his route for at least 5 years. It was sitting under a tree and had 4 flat tires. He needed a commute car and inquired if the car was for sale. The owner said he'd sell it but doesn't know what was wrong with it. It just wouldn't start one day. My brother paid $500 for it and had it towed home. 1 battery, 4 new tires, and a starter was all it needed. He drove it for 10 years. The speedometer broke at 185,000. When his son got his license, he gave him the car. His son put the car through the wringer and was very hard on it. He drove it for 7 years until he was rear ended and totaled the car. The other driver's insurance company gave him $1200 for it. He estimated it had at least 250,000 miles and was still running strong when it was totaled.

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Hansdawgg@reddit

Man I ve got a 95 Toyota that has been an absolute trooper. Left me stranded once when I was literally driving on tires showing wire (I was 18, broke, and naive). There was a time I almost had ball joints snap on the interstate and knew something was wrong so I got a tow home and replaced them. Besides that I ve driven it tens of thousands of miles across multiple states and climates. It was also unfortunate enough to be my first car and I kind of ragged on it when I was 16-17. I think I ve owned that car for like 16 yrs and I ve got about $3,000 into it including the purchase price and not including oil, gas, and tires. I bought it when a hail storm totaled it for $500 cash and did a bit of work on it myself over the years. I ve got a much nicer much newer Lexus now but I just can’t bring myself to get rid of that Yota lol. I’m always shocked when someone’s car actually beats the cost per mile I had and the only ones I can think of off the bat that did were my buddies 600k T100 Toyota and a friend of mines 500k Honda accord.

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DJScaryTerry@reddit

I had a first gen neon with the DOHC motor. So I found out those cars loooove to puke all their oil out of a basically impossible to seal filter. Every time I turned the car off, lake of oil. Sold that thing quick, which is sad because I enjoyed it

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Ztd1020@reddit

Man I use to trade cars so much in high school they told me multiple times if I traded anymore in a certain amount of time id have to get a dealer tag etc. Ive bought cars for 2-$500 and driven them for months. Ive owned over 20 jeeps over 30 toyotas almost every car truck etc but ive never and listen to me very closely owned anything that said dodge on it hahaha. Also the best car I ever owned i bought around 2011 when I was still in high-school. I went to a police auction and with $550 bought an old crown vic. I went through so many tires in that car in a few months it was literally a little ridiculous. Like multiple times a day changing tires. The local tires guy just let me dig them from a pile outback. I drove that car giving it absolutely hell for almost a year. 150+ foot burnouts everywhere we went. Full pulls in the cop car 162 ish mph fastest I could get it to go. I ended up driving it home in reverse almost 15 miles down back roads to get home after doing donuts in front of a bar leaving double lines across 3 lanes for 100+ then I lost it in a field. Held it on the floor forward ,reverse,forward,reverse until no more forward but it came out in reverse luckily all the way around and back onto the road and back home. There was a guy who lived next to my friend loved to call the cops on us for doing burnouts etc. He was an old dude and really upset when he thought it was an actual cop doing burnouts. Good times good times

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Anothercoot@reddit

I left my headlights on in my accord. I was the last one at an event and had no phone or help. I walked to a construction site and found a piece of equiptment with the battery exposed then disconnected the battery with a piece of metal i found on the ground and carried it to my car and used more metal i found on the ground to bridge the terminals and jump the car then i brought the battery back.

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plasmamaniac@reddit

2002 ford supercab F150 with the 4.6 triton was my first vehicle, had a radiator leak in it for a while so I had to put water in it every time I drove and always kept some water in the bed. Ended up replacing the entire radiator by myself in a day and a half. The annoying thing about this is an oil change on my new truck is a pain in the ass, had to get help from a mechanic the first time and it still took 3 hours after he showed up. Oh also you had to bodyslam a specific spot on the tailgate to open it, and the rear doors didn't open

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Efficient-Guest-8702@reddit

>buying a car for $250 then driving it for 15 years, You are watching too many movies, bro. LMAO

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jules083@reddit (OP)

I'm 42. That definitely used to be a thing My personal best was a beat up Lincoln Town Car I bought for $500. It lasted about 9 years before my wife totaled it.

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Efficient-Guest-8702@reddit

Bruh. $250 gets you a tank of gas and a few Taco Bell meals maybe, not a car, let alone a working car. LMAO

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jules083@reddit (OP)

$250 today, you're right. $250 20 years ago bought you a working car. There's a lot of people here that have driven a 250 car. The cheapest car I ever drove home was a 1989 Mazda MX6 I paid $100 for. Sold it to a buddy and he drove it for like 3 years before the motor quit. There are drivable $800 cars out there right now. Plenty of them. They're incredibly ugly and probably won't run for much longer but they run.

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Cernly@reddit

Yeah this was definitely a thing. I’ve had so many cars like that

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SignalMaster5561@reddit

I had a crx delivered to me for $250 haha And yes it was an si 5 spd. It needed rear brakes and a drivers rear hub bearing Drove it for a few years then gave it to my bro in college also for a few years

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hightweaks@reddit

Coming from a 18 year old. We bought a running dodge neon for 1 dollar on marketplace and literally beat the piss out of it everyday. It was the thing man. We have the backseat full and a car following us and we just be beating the absolute fuck out of that thing. What’s funny is we drove it for 2 years and it still ran perfectly. Idk how many miles over 300k that’s for sure. There still cars out there like that. You just hav wit find a drugie junkies to sell ya one so they can go get there 4 day high

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Flaky_Virus218@reddit

My first car in 2010 was a $500 ford focus. Not $250, but not far off. Drove it for a month until the timing belt broke and got paid $350 for it and they towed it away.

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dotdedo@reddit

Drove a ford focus 2013 for the last 9 years. I hated that car but haven't had many to compare. 1. Radio and horn did not work 2. Transmission issues out the ass. Had a rebuilt transmission 2 years ago. The dealership had to wait for some parts and it was only half fixed for like a month and I couldn't go over 50mph until it was fully fixed. 3. Even after all that check engine light was on and no one could figure it out. 4. Mice nested in it multiple times. Never had a car get mice in it. That thing basically exploded a month ago when I hit a deer.

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Carolina_Hurricane@reddit

Ford Rangers from the 1990’s are everywhere to be found. Evidently those were phenomenally made trucks.

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jules083@reddit (OP)

Get a Ford Ranger from anywhere between the mid 80's to 2012 with a 4 cylinder and a manual transmission. You'll probably never live long enough to wear one out. I've had a few of them, they were all killed by rust. I have a 96 Ranger now, the odometer broke with 280,000 miles and I probably put another 30k or 40k on it. Only quit driving it because it got so rusty it wasn't safe to drive anymore. At that point the radiator was screwed into a block of wood because the brackets had fallen off, 4 out of the 6 cab mounts where completely gone and the back of the cab was sitting on a few scraps of metal I welded in, the frame had patches over the rust holes where it tried to break in half. 3rd set of brake lines were looking rough. Gas tank mounts rusted through and I made new ones. Back bumper fell off like 6 years before I parked it. Tailgate didn't work. Bed was for show, the floor was full of holes and I just threw a rubber mat in it. Floors were always wet because there was rust holes under the carpet and the tires threw water inside. Mechanically it was nearly perfect. Didn't burn any oil, clutch still worked fine. Transmission was getting a little hard to get in second gear but it wasn't bad once you got used to it.

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muchgass@reddit

Had a clean Bonneville SSEI as my daily, started a job at a body shop and one of the techs backed into it the day I started 🤣 Few months later I hit a deer, and a month after than the car was hit with 2inch hail. Never fixed any of the parts since I was focused on my other cars and my house. Drove the piss out of that beat up thing. Also, had a procharger sitting in the garage ready for install on my mustang. Had a buddy back into my car and dent it the same weekend. We spent all night trying to fix the dent and buff the fender. Went home with no sleep and fell asleep at the wheel, went through one pole, woke up and smacked another. Was in the middle of nowhere country fields luckily. Car totaled and I sent my buddy a picture of it in the ditch and said hey don't worry about the dent now 🤣

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Carolina_Hurricane@reddit

Bought a 1989 Honda Accord in 2000 with 133k miles. Sellers were a couple recently out of grad school who I suspect never changed the oil. After a couple years it blew the head gasket and lost a cylinder at same time. Repaired the head gasket and discovered Restore oil additive to bandage the cylinder. Car limped along another 10k miles before cylinder was shot at 188k miles.

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sleezyrydr@reddit

In 1962 my main hotrod ‘55 Pontiac had been stolen and stripped, so it was out of commission for a few months, so I bought a 1948 Chrysler for $69. It had an oil leak so l carried with me a $1 dollar gallon can of reclaimed 50 weight oil to put in some every time I put in gas. It worked OK until I challenged my friend to a drag race with his Austin Healey Sprite. It was dead even until I did a speed shift into second and blew the transmission. That was the end, I sold it for $15

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jules083@reddit (OP)

Awesome story, thanks for sharing it. I love hearing the old ones. To go back in time a bit my great uncle missed WWII for health reasons. Worked on steam engines at the roundhouse, had about a 12 mile each way commute. From around 1943 or so until the mid 50's he drove a Ford Model T. He said it went better in the snow than most of the new cars because the front end was light and the skinny tires would dig through the snow and get traction on the gravel roads.

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ApprehensiveClub6969@reddit

My mom has a story of owning a '57 Chevy in the early '70's that she bought for like $75. Drove it all over California during her hippy era until one day the rear differential completely locked up crossing the SF bay bridge. She didn't have any money for a tow and those cars weren't worth anything back then so she just left it right there and hitchhiked home to LA. 😂

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Main_Paramedic_292@reddit

1996 Pathfinder. Got it for $400 owed in rent. 10 years and 100k miles later, it's at 300k miles. It's the definition of a beater. 4x4 still works.

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Chronixx780@reddit

Im from ghetto homie . I was raised on bread and bolgna

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graytotoro@reddit

I overpaid for a junker because I thought it was fun to learn how to work on cars. Paid an aging hipster $2000 for an old Volvo turbo. I learned the importance of vacuum lines when the one on the brake booster gave out at 45 mph and I had to stand on the brakes...that thing was built so strong I was scared for other people on the road. As a prime example of the sunk cost fallacy, I dumped another $1500-2000 over the next 8 years working on it. I think I only got it running long enough to drive 200 miles. Sold it for $2100 later along with my trove of parts to someone who got it back on the road. There's a lesson in here somewhere but I don't think I've learned it.

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PurpleSausage77@reddit

Love cars and DIY most of my stuff. Started with a $1 car in 2010, now have a basically free 75k mile 2014 Model S with how cheap I bought it and it has free internet/supercharging for life. Also have a $10k usd FRS/GT86 with only 17k miles. Sticking to these forever, best frugal combination I could’ve ended up with.

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ConclusionFlat1843@reddit

I've spent most of my driving years with junkers. I felt a sort of personal accomplishment getting a crazy deal on a car and squeezing every mile I could out of it. Of course, I'd make sure my wife had a decent vehicle, but for me it was the beaters. I'd track the price I spent, the amount of repairs I did (usually myself) and their cost, and the value at the time of sale. Take that amount and divide by the number of miles. My goal was to keep it under 10 cents per mile, which I usually achieved. Some vehicles were as low as 3 cents per mile, and a couple were negative (meaning I sold the car for more than I had in it). I'd typically drive them for 3-5 years. My best was a $470 minivan I got at an estate sale that smelled like dead animals had been stored in it. After a good shampooing, it gave us three years of trouble-free service before I upgraded. I sold it for $600. If the family had just cleaned it before the auction they could have sold it for $3k+. I got a four year old Geo Metro for $600 because the owner thought it was about to throw a rod. It turns out it just needed new sparkplug wires. It was small, but it got 49 MPG. Not bad back in the 90s.

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jules083@reddit (OP)

I have similar math. I like to get 10k miles for every 1k price. Whatever the price of the vehicle is I do that quick math and see if it has a chance of making it

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racerx509@reddit

1. 2008. B6 vw Passat. $1200. Was considered inoperable due to multiple misfires from intake valve carbon. One carbon cleaning, intake manifold and rear main seal later we put 100,000 miles on the car so far. 2. Volvo s60 $700. 120k miles. Got the car due to a slipping trans. I put a valve body, trans cooler, throttle body harness and change the trans oil religiously. Put 50k miles on it, sold out for 3x what I paid. 3. 2013 kia soul. $1400. Installed crank sensor, headlight bulb, drove it a month , sold it for $5000 4. 2016 kia soul. Needs crank sensor. Will drive awhile and sell it 5. 2006 Toyota tundra 175k miles when purchased . $4000. Replaced struts, ball joints, fluids and starter. Put 70k miles on it. It's for a few dents but it's a good work truck. 6. 2002 Lexus sc430. $5000 150k miles. Top had two bad limit switches and a bad latch switch. Changed fluids, fuel pump and valve cover gaskets. Great fun in the sun car. 7. Volvo s60r. $1300. Valve body solenoids, trans cooler, external trans cooler. Rinse and repeat. These are quite a bit different than the other Volvos. The electronic suspension is really expensive but it's kinda fun to drive. Got it with 85k miles and have put 50k miles on it so far. If you can turn a wrench there are still deals.

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Lower_Kick268@reddit

Back in the late 2000s when I was super young my dad bought a really shitty 1999 econololine from an auction for $400. Rusty, didn't pass inspection because of bad cats, 290k miles, ran and drove. He drove that thing for 3 years, then we junked it when we moved and he got $500 for it.

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Minimum_Researcher30@reddit

2005 pontiac vibe. Standard. Never knew how to drive standard, bunny hopped it off the lot while the salesman gave me the thumbs up and said "you got this kid", the mechanic was beside him cursing. Nailed a rabbit on thw transcanada in january deatroyed the wheel well plastic. Used sprayfoam and held it together. Currently driving it, engine and everything is still good im at 405 000km probably get it past 700k before i really decide to buy something else.

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NetLumpy1818@reddit

4 friends living in a small house in Ottawa for university. 1993. We all chipped in and bought a 79 Rabbit Diesel. Slow as shit and would overheat constantly. We each had multiple situations where it’d just die and a couple days later we’d recover it from somewhere in the city and I’d just work again. The Cd player got stuck so we listened to 40oz to Freedom for a whole semester. Had a lot of fantastic memories in that car and I’m really struggling to recall what happened to it. Lost in the ether of the mid 90s lol.

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Captkarate42@reddit

I bought a 91 Ford Festiva for $300 and fixed it up. Rebuilt the brakes, replaced a cam seal, changed all the fluids, went to the tire store to discover that the only tires that fit the stock wheels were trailer tires, and I didn't have the money to buy different wheels at the time, so I got a set of 4 trailer tires mounted and balanced for like $250. I had a commute to work that was a little over an hour and I had to be on the clock at 6am, so I typically left around 4:45am. I was about half way to work when I heard a snap and clang noise and saw my lights start to dim, but the car was still running. I assumed my v-belt had broken and that the car would die, so I shut the lights and radio off and kept going. It was a busy urban area, so the highways are really well lit and I thought if I could just limp it to work without the battery dying, I could find some kind of solution before heading back home after work. I made it off the highway and got pulled over for not having my lights on, because of course I did, and the car stalled while I was waiting for the cop to run my plates/insurance etc. He agreed to let me go, as I explained the situation to him, told him I couldn't start the car again because the belt had come off the alternator, and that I needed a push to get it bump. He laughed and said he was not going to push my car for me, but I told him I didn't care about it and he could use the bull bar on the front of his crown vic to push me enough to dump the clutch and get going. He thought that was pretty funny and agreed to it. He gets to pushing my car up to maybe 15mph, I dump the clutch, it sputters to life and takes off from the front of him, and then dies again, and he had apparently continued accelerating after I got off his bumper, and rear ended the shit out of me. I dumped the clutch again on the momentum and it stayed going until I got to work which was about a mile and a half away at that point. I opened the hood when I got into the lot and discovered that the belt was perfectly intact, but the bolts that held the crank pulley on had broken. On my lunch brake, I set the pulley back on there and welded it in place, put the belt back on and went on with my life. Awfully shit car that was, but the crank pulley never came off again and likely never will.

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jules083@reddit (OP)

That's awesome. I had one of those cars too. Damn thing would start cutting out when it got below 1/2 tank. Bought it for $400. Figured that's an easy fix, it was not. Changed the fuel pump, nothing. Went to a junkyard and got a whole fuel pump assembly, pickup tube and all, still nothing. Finally sold it to a coworker. He changed the pump assembly again from a junkyard, he didn't believe me that it wasn't the problem. Still never fixed it. He drove it for a while longer then sold it as a parts car

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Captkarate42@reddit

Possibly just a weird amount of sediment buildup in the tank when the pump started drawing from lower down? Did yoy try cleaning the tank out? But yeah they are fun little cars except that they are junk lol.

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jules083@reddit (OP)

Nope, tank was clean.

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Captkarate42@reddit

Very bizarre, was it a carb or fi car?

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jules083@reddit (OP)

Fuel injected. Gauge worked too. I'd just drive until it started cutting out then go get gas, and it would only take like 4 or 5 gallons before the pump kicked off. It would never fully quit running below half, just had a real bad miss to it. Almost like the fuel hose was breaking down on the inside and the suction was pulling it closed. That particular part was changed twice, no improvement, but to be fair it was junkyard parts both times. I had that fuel pump in and out of that thing 3 or 4 times trying to figure it out. Then my coworker did it 2 more times.

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AccomplishedParty100@reddit

Years ago my company took away my company vehicle, we had four kids at the time and absolutely no money. I found a White Ford Escort Wagon for $200. My kids called it the “Poop mobile”😂. I drove it for 2 years until my company got embarrassed by what I was driving and reinstated company car🤣. Sold the car for $500… ends up it was the best financial car deal I have ever made😂😂😂

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jules083@reddit (OP)

When I was younger my friends dad had this rusty old white car, no clue what it was but it looked similar to a late 70's Oldsmobile delta 88. I know it had a V8, the exhaust rusted off so it was loud, there was rust holes all through it. Friend's dad called it the 'White Trash Mobile'. 😂 Dude had long curly hair and always wore a t shirt, denim bibs, this black floppy Australian Bush Hat looking thing, and chuck taylors. Drank a 30 rack of Miller High Life every day on the weekends, and half a case per day on work nights. So he absolutely looked the part despite having a pretty well paying job. When it finally quit he bought an 80's Dodge Caravan that had a 2.2 turbo and a 5 speed manual transmission for a few hundred bucks. This was in like 2002 mind you. I didn't even know Dodge made those things until I saw his.

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FwenchFwies_911@reddit

On paper I can afford a nicer car, I just prioritize different things. Want compound interest working in my favor whenever possible. Hopefully one day I can peace out from the corporate life and drive away from the office in my junker to do things I want to do.

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affinics@reddit

1986 Afl Romeo Spider I was daily driving around 2012. The fuel pump died as I was approaching the Golden Gate Bridge in rush hour traffic. Same car. Tried to drive it up to Oregon on a 100 degree day. The distributor cap melted and it had to be towed. Same car. Lost second gear suddenly while on my way to work. Needed a transmission rebuild. And I still loved that car and kept it for years before finally giving it up.

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Ancient-Educator-186@reddit

Im poor.

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firm_hand-shakes@reddit

My car (2010 Mazda 3) had a plastic coolant manifold thing break in the middle of nowhere. Car started to overheat. No cell signal or anything. The only fluid I had in the car was a bottle of wiper fluid. Dumped that in the radiator and let the car cool some. Took off and drove about 20 miles to the first gas station I came to. Temp was reading at 275. I’d coast as much as possible but this was in the mountains. When I got to the gas station, I bought a case of bottled water and the cheapest antifreeze jug they had. Filled it up and started home (about another 40 miles) Had to fill everything up again halfway due to over heating. Made it home and fixed the part. It’s got 100k miles on it since that and doesn’t leak or burn a drop of oil or coolant. Thought for sure that would be the end of that motor.

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Final-Inspection9960@reddit

I’m currently driving a 2005 Prius with 250k on it. Bought it because it was cheap $2700 after selling my old 92 crown Vic. Needed something better on gas and came upon this. Car runs fine besides the oil it burns every couple weeks. Does great on gas too it’s just a noisy car. Currently trying to refinance my house so I’m holding on to this to avoid a Car note

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bugeyetex@reddit

I got one for ya. 1976 Dodge Aspen station wagon, brown on brown with the slant 6. Bought from a worm farmer for $225 back in 99-00. Drove it for 2 or 3 years till the transmission said no more. Wrote the title off to the junkyard.

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badpuffthaikitty@reddit

I was a union tradesman. There were 3 different kinds of vehicles in the parking lot. Some people drove new, nice cars. Other people drove a 5 year old car because the wife got a new car. Then there were people like me. I had my nice car at home and drove my old car to work. 10 year old VW Jetta TDi. At the end it1 door worked, the body was rotten, but the engine didn’t blow black smoke even with over 300,000 km driven.

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jules083@reddit (OP)

Yeah, I'm a Union Pipefitter. You're absolutely right. I always joke that every first year apprentice drives a shitbox, every third year has a brand new truck, then every 15 year journeyman has reverted back to driving a shitbox. I have 19 years in the trade and have seen this play out time and time again. Kid I'm working with is a second year, just traded in a Toyota car on a 2 year old F150. Even rolled over like $6k in negative equity to get it. He's 21, married, and in the process of buying a house. He's speed running his way to his first divorce and car repo. Lmao

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Constant_Bluebird182@reddit

My mother and brother were Francophiles, lovers of all things French. So as a second car we had a Renault 12. One night in high school I was out cross country skiing. It was late afternoon and getting dark. I was crossing a major intersection in first gear. I shifted to second, or tried to, and found the gear would not engage. I glided to the curb. I tried first gear again, second again, and each forward gear. Nothing was engaging. But I discovered reverse would engage. So I backed up, backed down an alley, and drove home backwards on a side street about 14 blocks in reverse.

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hemibearcuda@reddit

I saved money for years to buy a 1971 barracuda in high school back in 1990. She was in rough shape but within my $2000.00 budget. Most guys like me have learned the hard way there's a process to testing an old car when it's new to you. No matter how much work you do, something is going to have to break for you to know it needs fixed. The only way to do that is drive it and discover the gremlins. One night, my throttle cable to my 650 double pumper snapped while showing off at a red light next to a grand national. I coast to the side of the road to fix it. I removed the primary wire powering my sub amp in the trunk, tied to my carb linkage and ran it through the firewall. I held it with my left hand, and pulled the wire as my throttle cable to get home. So with one hand I'm operating the gas, the other hand is steering and shifting the manual valve body tranny. I was 16 going on 17 and It was terrifying. Also, I learned the hard way how brake fade works on 1971 4 wheel drum brake technology when trying to stop from 120mph. Not recommended.

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Rare-Bet-870@reddit

Had a somewhat older Nissan that would die after a bump. Every. Single. Bump.

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JessieJane17@reddit

2018 Prius C. Not old in principle but has 140k on it. Back and forth between Arizona and California tons of times. Got up to 115mph once just to try. Now it complains if I try to motor down the freeway (runs too high and I can feel it in my foot, but no RPM gauge to confirm.) No mechanic has figured out why, and it’s never thrown a light or code. So I just say he’s arthritic and we’re both getting old and tired so we don’t go over 75 anymore. Still getting 40-50mpg, can haul a few things in the back. Minus the attempts to diagnose the “fatigue” feeling, it’s just been oil changes, transmission flush at 100k, tires. Sometimes the Bluetooth skips. I fucking LOVE that car and will likely keep him til he stops running.

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This-Permission-2618@reddit

92 stickshift volvo 240 wagon. overheated in death valley in rhe summer. waited until the block had completely cooled down and then put the remainder of my drinking water in the radiator, got out of there. by the time we made it to the redwoods, it wouldnt go into reverse anymore. left in cali as the muffler eventually fell off at around 450k on the odometer

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IKnewThisYearsAgo@reddit

Driving my Datsun pickup on a remote and untraveled road, it began to overheat. We pulled over, opened the hood, and a small coolant hose had failed and was spraying coolant. Screwed, we were. We weren't sitting there for more than 10 minutes when a guy in a classic convertible muscle car rolls up, takes a look at the situation, pops his trunk and pulls out a roll of heater hose and some hose clamps. He fixes it in a couple of minutes, we refill the radiator with our water bottles and off we go. That repair held until I sold the truck a couple of years later.

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Tuques@reddit

2013 jetta. Second worst car I've ever driven. But it works and is decent on gas. I feel ashamed and embarrassed to drive it, but I simply dont have enough money to replace it

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Mysterious_Coach1100@reddit

Had an old Chevrolet Malibu that would randomly kill the power steering mid-drive and throw warning lights, felt like wrestling the wheel out of nowhere 😅. Every time I’d just pull over, restart it, and it was like nothing happened. Kept telling myself I’d fix it “soon”… ended up driving it like that way longer than I should’ve.

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nightmareFluffy@reddit

At one point, I was thinking about making a YouTube channel where I review the most broken cars in existence that still drive. Like, clunkers that are literally held together by duct tape. It would be like the opposite of Doug Demuro. Hoovie's Garage and some mechanic channels do this to an extent, but they don't actively seek out the worst of the worst. I did one video and gave up. It was so much more work than I anticipated. Tracking down such a car, scheduling, actually going through the car to find the faults, etc. During editing, I realized I misspoke some lines and the camera work sucked, and I didn't have access to that car anymore. But that was a real shitbox. Sometimes, you had to bang the starter with a wrench so it started. Dents on the outside, hanging wires on the inside, and nothing worked. I wish I was better at making videos so I could've shown that to the world. The weird thing is that the car drove fine, besides the wheel alignment. It was the rest of it that sucked. This idea is out there if anyone wants to do it.

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SameAd2686@reddit

I drove 50 miles round trip to work for years in Fords. I worked in the medical field & had patients scheduled. I broke down on freeway with my Tempo…blew radiator hose in rural area. I had nurses uniform on….18 wheeler stopped & said he would drive me to work which was 15 miles away because he wasn’t paying for the gas…company was. I looked in his cab & he had 10 year old in there. Thought of serial killers ran thru my mind but I knew my boss would be pissed…. I hitched that ride. I was traveling from Florida to Kentucky for family reunion alone in 1981 Ford EXP that had seen better days. I started talking to 18 wheeler in Northern FL. I followed him around Atlanta because of huge accident. I drove until I was sleepy & pulled off to get hotel room for few hours. He pulled his 18 wheeler by hotel driveway & said to wake him up when I left in the morning. I banged on his door & offered my hotel room which he turned down. We stopped at restaurant & I called my family who said I would be killed….We left & I followed him thru Kentucky & thanked him & he said if I hadn’t traveled with him he would’ve done “drugs” & I was same age as his daughter & had hoped someone would treat her the same. I have other road stories & realize how lucky I was ….

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ProfileTime2274@reddit

So I have 92 Ford explorer the I use for work in the city . No one messes with it and they're certainly not going to see steal it.

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WorkerEquivalent4278@reddit

Bought a 1969 impala in 1999 for $900. Had 3 offers to sell it the next 2 days. Drove it 3 years, then gave to my neighbors when their Acura grenaded the engine. They drove 1.5 more years until their moron cousin ran it too low on oil. Sold to someone on the rez because it couldn’t pass smog running on 6 cylinders. Bought a 1978 Mercedes 300d diesel with 350k miles in 2001 for $1100. Fixed tie rod bushing and busted power brake booster for $450. Drove about 80k miles then sold for $1500.

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Quirky-Airline7578@reddit

$900 car ive driven 80 thousand miles. Its fun todrive, cheap, reliable and easy to fix. i save my money for other things.

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NextIron1792@reddit

Personal wealth. i drive a banged uo honda pilot with 200k on it because: no car payment. i also consider it somewhat green

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honkyslonky@reddit

Blew up a 70k mile 2001 toyota corolla when I was 17. Mom bought me a rust bucket 1999 Grand Marquis to get me by. I did barely anything to it and it ended up lasting me over a decade before the rust got too bad.

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hello_ambro@reddit

i’ve been driving the same ancient 2004 subaru forester since 2019 (my first car). at some point in there had to get the engine swapped out (got a good deal), the driveshaft rebuilt (it rusted and collapsed after i drive it through a salt-water flooded road), stereo doesn’t work, smells like millions of cigarettes, and leaks basically every type of fluid it consumes at this point. it’s still gets me around town and i plan on driving it until the wheels fall off.

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leeno24@reddit

I had a '89 Chevy g20 camper van that I really shouldn't have driven from thunder rbay to Ottawa, on the way I lost park and reverse gears. Noticed when I parked at a gas pump and it was rolling away. Decided I could try and drive it back home, noticed smoke when filling up in arnprior. Hit redline on temp gauge near the Renfrew turn off pulled in there engine died and I came to a rolling stop across from an old school mechanic shop where I lit a cigar off the engine fire and watched it burn with the 2 old guys that were sitting having coffee outside the shop lol. Still one of my favourite vehicle memories

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Neat_Telephone_2525@reddit

At 21 years old I burned my 2011 srt challenger to the ground from a wiring issue with the nitrous. It was only a year old. I was so upset.

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neverfakemaplesyrup@reddit

Always only been able to buy shitboxes and half the reason I lurk here is because I've realized at 27, I should've been a car guy in high school, not a nerd. At least a car guy can fix up his shitbox. The best moment from a '13 outback I had was driving it from Denver back to Rochester NY, having to fill it with oil every three hours and occasionally just letting it cool down. It once also sparked up weirdly and the whole dash turned into a Christmas light, I somehow was able to drive it to an uncle. We spent an hour trying to figure out WTF was going on, checking all fuses, etc, until he happened to stand outside it when the hood was open and realized the battery I installed had gotten loose after softroading it, and there was now an arc everytime I started the car, causing the electrical issues. A year later it started making clunking sounds. Like a broken tire axle or something. Get it to a discount tire shop... Get an angry call: "We can't fix this, and we can't let you drive this. Get a tow." Whole subframe was swiss-cheese. Essentially my turning issues and clunking sounds? There was nothing the steering assemblage in the front left area to mount to. The subframe was just holes at that point. I couldn't find any new subframes and any in the junkyards were swisscheesed and about $3k. With the engine being toast, I uh, just bought a different clunker.

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SailingSpark@reddit

I had many cars that looked like shit, but I kept all of them in mechanical tip top shape. Even now, my newest car is 14 years old. A 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth. It still looks great and only has 31,000 miles on it.

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robbo12347@reddit

I bought a 2013 VW Golf brand new. Still driving it and done 24,000 miles. It's still going strong. Only needed new tyres and front brake discs and pads. Will keep it another 39 years if I can

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robbo12347@reddit

I bought a 2013 VW Golf brand new. Still driving it and done 24,000 miles. It's still going strong. Only needed new tyres and front brake discs and pads. Will keep it another 39 years of I can

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SensitiveGuidance685@reddit

My first car was a 1988 Volvo 240 that I got for $300. The odometer stopped at 180k miles. Had to keep a screwdriver in the glovebox to tap the fuel pump relay when it got stuck. Drove it through college and gave it to my brother who drove it another 5 years. The thing was indestructible.

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NotA-Spy@reddit

I had my Polo for 5 months and all it did was drink fuel and eat oil. It wasn’t a pretty car and the radio was super finicky. Ontop of that it always sounded like a tractor, whether it was low on oil or not. I traded it in for my current car which hasn’t had its oil light light up once.

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JebediahKermannn@reddit

I have a Polo at the moment. Also chugs oil, but is decent on fuel. It has an aftermarket radio with miniscule buttons which likes to switch itself off if you adjust the volume too quickly. Even though it's a petrol, it still sounds like a tractor sometimes.

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Clean-Entry-262@reddit

1- I’m an auto mechanic, so breakdowns aren’t gonna worry me (and I make them 100% roadworthy on the cheap first), 2- I buy them cheap, 3- they’re cheap to insure (Liability only), 4- No Fucks Given in traffic (go ahead, TRY to cut me off, or TRY to block me at a merge…because I’ll kill us both)

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Aaarrrgghh1@reddit

It’s paid for. What could be better. Until it dies it’s my ride

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DickWhittingtonsCat@reddit

I’m only on my third car in 30 years. These weren’t junkers initially. But a 15 year old car in the midwest driving across moonscapes averaging 20mph for 200k miles and commuting takes a toll. — It wasn’t a junker but my Harvard Blue, 4-door 1993 Civic DX was my first car and I got it with 20k miles and drove it past 200K in 16 years. bought from my dad, it had steelies, no passenger mirror front passenger gas station floor mats and no radio. I got a new 10 disc alpine trunk changer immediately (of course that thing hated CDRs so I needed a new head unit by 2000) But unlike its replacement Civic- an 09 DXVP I bought new- it did not age as gracefully (the 09 DXVP had 230k miles and had never thrown a code when the idiot hit her). Instead, the D15B7 1993 Civic started to develop headgasket issues around 150k miles. Only I was poor. So I’d keep prestone in the trunk, top off the heater and every month or so when the temp gauge started to tip up I’d blast the heat- even in the summer in a car with no air- until I could safely stop, let it cool, and add more coolant. The not having air was already a smidge rough and It carried on like this for a year. By then you could actually smell the coolant in the exhaust. Eventually it was a fill per leg of my commute. So I had to fix it- which luckily I needed the 80k interference timing belt/water pump so it was expensive but not a catastrophe, as I’d been budgeting for both. But 3 years later, that patch of rust by the rear bumper- which was now attached by a bolt in the rear wheel well spread. On the way to work one day, the right front wheel just collapsed. Got a tow, mechanic- you need a good jalopy mechanic- said he could improvise a fix and she was done. the car wasn’t safe. Ironically, the paint on that thing had way better solvents than older and newer generation autos- so it didn’t look that bad. When I took it to dealer when getting my new car- they agreed to 1000 because it was the recession in spring 2009 and were absolutely aghast what the midwest moonscape, salt and probably a lack of undercarriage rinses, had done to her. Not a bad car and the auto trans was not slipping at all and the head gasket fix was way more robust than original from the TSB. But when the wheel fell off a couple years after she was blowing prestone straight out the econobox rusty tailpipe, that was a junker. —— Now the Atomic Blue 2009 R18 Civic DX Slushbox Civic was perfect and the worlds greatest and toughest car. If I could have replaced her with a freshly minted one- I’d hope with a bit more sound deadening- I’d have skipped the blue ST Hybrid I ended up getting (the new LX CVT Miser Edition Civic is the spiritual heir but I just wasn’t feeling it because I hadn’t planned on getting a new car but instead an idiot hit my car when parked, so in a moment of weakness the family convinced me to go full midlife crisis and get a car with leather seats) The 2009 Civic actually had a much harder life than the 93. It wasn’t going on teenage jaunts to follow drug bands and visit friends at KU and IU. It was never more than 150 miles from home- and that just twice (drug band reunions at Deer Creek and Alpine in 2020s). That was all commuting miles. 25k miles a year from 2010-2018. Not much better and a much slower average speed after that. For years it was 45 minutes averaging less than 10mph and 10 miles averaging 85mph- each way. The last couple years before covid it was just a 14 mile traffic jam. Averaged less than 20mph for her long and storied life. Never threw a code. Did need an AC repair- my first civic didn’t have AC, she was pure luxury. And needed a starter after being left unusued during start of covid (starter was already going). But when that 09 was brought to mechanic for starter, she was looking bad. She was full of junk, dirty as fuck, unmoved for a rainy month on the street. And the mechanic thought I was totally destitute and the car was trashed. Oh, and the paint on that thing was shit and had been touched up with the correct atomic blue but poorly by me. Once he tried to start her- and she was purring instantly- he was stunned how well she ran but assumed I was poor- he was like “I have some real bad news, it’s not the battery it’s a starter and it’s a huge repair!” I’m like, shit. Then he says It’s going to $350. (i don’t remember exact amount, maybe $450?) I was like- that’s great! When I went to pick up the car, he scolded me- “This is a great car But it’s too old to sit like that again. It had spiders in the wheels!”

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NoodlesRomanoff@reddit

A $400 MG Midget with knockoff wire wheels, stripped spline drive on both rear wheels. Had to tighten the axle nut weekly, and accelerate very slowly. Two dashboard fires, electrical failures, constant overheating, sold it when I wasn’t able to get it into reverse. Free 65 Ford Falcon station wagon used 1 quart of oil every 50 miles. Transmission blew up in the middle of nowhere. Sold it where it died for $75. $275 Pontiac Catalina. Paint was shot, entire front and all of the right side was damaged in separate accidents. Replaced passenger door and window with one from a junkyard for $45 and kept going. Drove around for two years on a badly cut tire. Traded it with my dad for an Opel 1900 that was missing the entire right side rocker panel, which completely rusted away and fell off. Replaced most of it with sheet aluminum and pop rivets.

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PolybiusChampion@reddit

> Two dashboard fires, electrical failures Do you know why the British drink warm beer? They all have Lucas refrigerators.

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RackingUpTheMiles@reddit

1995 Ford F150- I got it from my dad when I was 17. It was rotted out and the power steering didn't work. I ended up having to sell it because of the frame was ready to break. I got $1000 for it. 1993 Ford Taurus Wagon- it replaced the F150 and was $900. I drove it for 2 years and it was actually very reliable. However, I got about 8 MPG. I had my mechanic look at it and he discovered the subframe was ready to separate from the body. It sat behind the shop and I sold it to my friend 2 years later for a derby car. It never left me stranded but it died in the derby. 2001 Mercury Grand Marquis- I got it to replace the Taurus Wagon. It was one owner, rust free, and $1500. I put tires on it, new radio and fixed the A/C except it would only blow out of the defrost so the windshield would get icy at night. It was clean inside and out other than a dent in the right fender. It developed an engine light for a fuel level sensor. It would also randomly not start or crank. Turned out it had a remote start and it was trying to engage when I'd turn the key. I left it so many places only to come back the next day and it would start with no problem. It did this more when it was raining. If I had to go far in the rain, I'd go drive my grampa's Ford Ranger. We tried a new fuel pump and sending unit for the fuel level sensor but nothing. It'd randomly crank for a while before actually starting. It took 2 years to sell it because nobody wanted it. I took $400 after discovering the frame on the passenger side rotted out due to the A/C drain tube running through that spot, so I had to sell it cheap or junk it. The dude that bought it stripped it and ran it in an off road race. 2008 Ford Taurus Limited- I got it to replace the Mercury since I wanted something more fuel efficient because I was driving an hour to work. It was better than the Mercury in every way. It was nice. I paid $4450 and I only had 2 problems with it. Coil packs, which make it feel like the transmission is going, and the gauges went very out of alignment. Oh and I had to replace the amp for the Sony audio system. My mechanic said I needed to think about a new car because it was getting rusty. I replaced it and I saw it still driving around 6 years later. I only know it was mine because of the damage to the lower front bumper from when I slid off a highway exit and ran over a sign. 2012 Ford Taurus SEL- The absolute worst car I ever had. It was my first nicer, newer car. I got it for $11K with 68K on it. It was a great car until about 100K miles. The trunk started leaking and got moldy, the entire power steering system went at 105K, and the last straw was when a ball joint went with zero warning. It was weird because it never made any noise until it was hanging on by a thread. A different shop had zero idea how I drove it there from work, 60 miles away. I ended up just trading it in because I was sick of throwing money at it. 1996 Ford Explorer- I got it for $1200 in very good shape and the previous owner said it just needed injectors. I had it alongside the Taurus as I needed something to haul my gear around. The A/C was colder than anything else I've ever driven. I still had the keyless entry remote and rust was minimal. I have no clue how many miles it had since the odometer stopped working shortly after I got it. Someone tried to work on the spark plugs before I got it and cut the wires and they'd arc against the block. Did all that and it still ran lean. Every mechanic ended up telling me to just run premium gas and drive it and it might clear it up. It was actually very reliable. I got 2 years and many miles out of it. I drove it more than the Taurus since it was more reliable. I ended up having to start taking it to work. It couldn't handle that and started to really go. By the end I had to rig up the driver's interior door handle and the windows and 4WD were no longer working. I had no choice but to trade it in because it wasn't gonna make it home because I was losing the transmission. 2012 Toyota Rav4 Limited- I replaced both the Taurus and Explorer with this. It was overpriced as I got it at a weird time. Right in 2022. It was around $15K with 100K on it. It's been the best car I've had. I've only had to do about $700 in repairs over the past 4 years and I'm coming up on 200K. I've put a few bucks into a new radio with satellite radio, speakers, fog lights and headlight retrofits. I need tires right now but it's good otherwise. I occasionally have a problem where every warning light will come on and the gauges stop working, but it goes away if I turn it off and then back on. It wasn't really the car I wanted, but it's been a great buy.

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PolybiusChampion@reddit

When I was in college in the late 1980’s I bought a 1978 Corolla that had almost 100K miles on it off a buddy’s mom for $1200. Those were high miles for the day. I drove it for 2 years then my sister drove it for 3 years then I kept it as an extra car for another year or so and finally sold it for $1200 with a bit over 150K miles on it. In heavy traffic you did have to run the heater to help the motor stay cool for a while intill I replaced the water pump and radiator.

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Brainfewd@reddit

I haven’t had any super catastrophic things with my beaters, although I did have a shackle break off the worlds sketchiest car hauler that I then dragged another 30 miles in a gnarly snow storm so I could leave it somewhere. BUT My buddy and I were in his Saturn SC2 coming back from a hiking trip, chasing a sunset trying to get to this park with a beautiful view for it. We do, hike a little and enjoy the view. Going to leave, it’s a huge dirt parking lot with no one around. My buddy starts ripping reverse donuts in the car, we’re having a blast. Pulls out of the lot, and a half mile down the road, POP clack clack clack… spun bearing. We check the dipstick, zero oil on it. Decide to just send it as far as we can. Made it about 20 miles to a gas station, put the heaviest weight oil we could in it, kept driving. Made it about another ten miles before we got pulled over by a State Police officer because it was so loud. Tried to explain we were doing our best to limp it home, guy still wrote him an inspection ticket. We go to leave, car starts for about 5 seconds and then finally just locks up. Buddy doesn’t know what to do, we’re on some random side farm road. I ask the officer if there’s a spot to leave it close by, he says “there’s a parking lot up over the hill” I look at my buddy, I look at the hill (1/2 mile decent grade) and I look at the officer sitting in a Tahoe with a bull bar. “Would you push us over the hill?” “Uhhhhhh… yeah I guess so?” He pushed us up to the lot. We had already called a buddy with a trailer who was driving toward us because we knew we’d never make it all the way home. It was around 7-8pm at this point. He picks us up, we run out to my first buddy’s dad’s farm where they have three other wrecked SC2’s. Pull a motor, drive it back to his place, pull an all nighter and swap the motor and he went to work in the morning in that same car. Three months later give or take, that car was making the worst bad wheel bearing noise I’ve ever heard. We were doing like 75 on the thruway. Super loud pop, heard all the bearings scatter off the bottom of the car, and then it went dead quiet. Finished the last 15 miles home lol.

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motorboather@reddit

I drove a civic into the ground. Bought for $1800 drove it for 5 years as a daily. One day headed to work it lost all power and I coasted to the side of the road. Could tell it had lost compression when I tried to restart. Called my brother to pick me up, cleaned out the car, and left it on the side of the road with the keys in it. Got home, hoped in the truck, drove to work. Called the junkyard and told them where it was and to come pick it up. They gave me $100 for it and I found a new beater on marketplace that night.

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Thisisnotgoodforyou@reddit

Passat on 3 cylinders. I was young. My electrician buddy decided to help me check spark. He took off a lead with the engine running (on 3 remember). No plug in the lead. It arced across the block, dancing around and it crossed an injector lead for a different cylinder which blew the ECU switch for that injector. It was wide open. Exhaust smelled ridiculous. Anyway the root cause of it was a corroded spark plug lead and the result was the car sold on a trailer from eBay with no reserve. I drove it around for a little bit on two cylinders, the vibration was insane. I have many more stories. I had a 1999 San Diego cop car impounded because it had a pink pig and "swee swee" painted on it so it got towed. I let them keep it because my name had a typo on the registration so they couldn't get me for it. I still have the book and the key. My friend is worse, he bought a Nissan Primera for 150 and the rear brake welded itself so we literally hammered those brakes off the car and he drove it around with none. Then he got a different Primera with good brakes and a bad turbo. He tried to take the turbo out of the other one instead of moving the brakes over. That didn't work out so then he got a free Maxima with no starter. So he used the Nissan with a bad turbo to start the Nissan each morning with a tow rope. One of the pulleys came off the Maxima fan belt so he replaced it with a tractor one, he put 3 in 1 oil on it to stop it sparking (there was no bearing). So his procedure was tow it to start it then a few drops of oil to stop the squealing/smoke/sparks then off he went.

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Moreofyoulessofme@reddit

My daily was a 2001 Dodge Ram for years. Simply put, I was content with it. It never gave me too much trouble. In trying to consolidate cars, I needed a crew cab for family and I did buy a f150 platinum late last year. Part of me still likes the Dodge more. It’s objectively a worse vehicle in every way but it was just more humble. Reminded me of where I came from vs where I am now. I’ve tried the sports car thing. Owned a ZL1 Camaro, regular Camaro convertible, a couple of Porsche 911s as toys. I always ended up selling them because they didn’t bring joy after the first few months and then they just sat in the garage. At this point, I’m convinced that happiness comes from less, not more.

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JCDU@reddit

I always drive cheap cars, most I've paid is about 3k, cheapest was about 250 quid from the scrapyard, all of them have been great because I maintain them - none have really died, either I got bored, a better one came along at a good price, or there was a fault that I couldn't be bothered to fix and sold them on as a running project.

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FortifyStamina@reddit

02 impreza bought in 2020 for $3500, slapped some MLS head gaskets and a Aisin timing kit and she's been my daily for 6yrs now. Learned how to wrench with this car, and although it's held together with zipties, she's my baby and I'll drive her til she rusts out. My best story is she had a super old fuel hose that burst and my fuel gauge just started dropping fast, pulled over at a nearby parts store (thankfully), bought $2 of hose and ziptied it over the fuel lines. It's been like that for 2yrs now

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totaltimeontask@reddit

Nothing more permanent than a temporary solution that works.

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Then-Relief9957@reddit

Went from a work from home role to in office at a warehouse, as such we decided on a 2nd car but didn’t want to spend much money. We have a RAV4 paid off and didn’t want anything costly. My father in law and I are close, he offered up a 2002 Ford Explorer he had sitting, needed front breaks, tie rods, and had a starter issue, was otherwise in decent shape. I turned my nose up at it but he offered to split the cost of the work, and we know a guy that does good work for 1/3 the cost of a garage. My FIL ended up paying it all as a kind of gift to me, so I ended up with a free vehicle that gets me to work and back, and I’ve actually come to like it. I’d never buy one, but it fits a need and until we decide to actually buy something, it’s perfect for what we need. And my FIL gets to go around telling people he gave me a vehicle LOL

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RagingLeonard@reddit

I has a 77 Thunderbird in high school. It was a total hooptie, peak Detroit malaise. Mt starter solenoid went out, so I had to bypass it eith crossed screwdrivers while my friend ctanked it. It was a rwo-person job just to start it. But it was mint green and got 12 MPG, so that was nice.

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Manny_Deeprest@reddit

Want the name of the street i grew up on and my mother's maiden name too?

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MiddleOutrageous1083@reddit

I've had several high mileage cars over the years, but only a few of them were "Junkers" Bought a 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass "442" when I turned 16 in 2000, the floor and exhaust were rusted out in the same place so you got a little sleepy while driving and it backfired for like a minute straight after you floored it (I guess that's in now), I had to put a space heater under the engine to get it started in the winter, then end of it was when my friend drove it into a ditch because the brakes went out. 1990 Taurus SHO with 220k when I bought it in 2000 after the 442 died. I wish I still had this car. The previous owner had done a bunch of performance mods to it. Manual transmission that never wanted to go into reverse, had to jam it into second and then slam it into reverse to get it to go, the wiring harness for the stereo was melted together so i never had music, but that Yamaha V6 and dynomax exhaust kept my ears happy. Insane torque steer, but surprised a lot of people off the line. 1992 F250 plow truck that was so rusted that most things couldn't be fixed when they went bad. It was parked at my great aunts house over the summer and my uncle loaded it up with logs after her cut down a tree with a plan to take them back to his house, but he couldn't get it started so he just left them in the bed, which came in handy the next winter when the 4x4 went out, with all that weight I was still able to plow with only 2wd. It is in Valhalla now, its final night plowing it had almost no brakes but I had a big lot to finish and almost no brakes so I would stop it by letting off the gas and just driving into the snow pile and when I needed to stop in reverse I would just jam it into drive... it died doing what it loved 1999 Acura TL with over 200k drove for a few years around 2008 amazing car. I let my dad borrow it to go out of town on a business trip and the axle broke and tore up the trans case. I borrowed a trailer and drove my truck 6+ hours in a blizzard to pick him and the car up and drove another 6+ hours home in the middle of the night in the same blizzard. Got the trans rebuilt and axle fixed and drove for another 3 years fairly problem free other than when the alternator went out on the 290 Harlem off ramp partially blocking traffic. I called my buddy to jump it so I could get it off the ramp, while I was waiting I heard someone yell "YOU CAN'T PARK THERE" I almost went off on them before realizing it was my buddy... dickhead Isuzu Trooper that was pretty old when I got it and I couldn't find most of the parts that I needed to fix it correctly. Gas tank rusted out on top and would spray gas all over the back of the car (and presumably any car behind me) when driving on the highway... I had to patch the tank. The front hubs wouldn't engage so I rigged up a hand vacuum pump that kept in the cab so I could get the hubs to engage and have 4x4. 1998 Isuzu Rodeo no complaints about this car. It only had 38k when I bought it in 2020. When I first got it it felt pretty bouncy, I checked the date code on the tires and they were original, drove much better after they were replaced. Got in a roll over accident after a Semi basically did a pit maneuver on me and sent me off the side highway down a grassy hill going about 85mph, just barely missed hitting a tree and walked away with just a few cuts and bruises. 2002 Mustang GT bought brand new when I was in high school (working nonstop to pay for a new car instead of doing homework and studying not the best idea in hindsight), later put a supercharger on it and something went wrong with the float when I installed the fuel pump and the gas gauge didn't work, ran that thing out of gas way too many times before I was able to drop the tank and fix the pump.

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curi0us_carniv0re@reddit

I've always kept a beater because I was paranoid of my good cars getting hit and vandalized out in the street. I've always had pretty good luck too and none of them have ever really left me stranded. Best vehicles I ever owned were a 92 Explorer 4.0 that I picked up for $1000. It was a tank and unstoppable. I had that for 6 or 7 years and only got rid of it because my job at the time gave me a work car to drive so I didn't need it anymore. Currently daily an 02 Volvo. Bought 10 years ago for $2500 with 200k miles. Now has over 300k miles. Though now that I'm making more money I'm thinking about just getting a new car to daily.

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Jobrated@reddit

400 dollar volvo 740 drove it for 8 years. Did a timing belt etc… but car was a great! The key to having a beater is to have two beaters!

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Dedward5@reddit

Iv been driving an Audi A2 for 5 years I bought for £240. I have done all the required maintenance and it did need a new clutch, but all in its probably under a grand. I just bought another one for £220 for my daughter and am going through the issues on that. I have other cars like my LR3 and My Lotus Elsie, but I do love an A2.

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AdBrave368@reddit

Had an 07 scion tc for 2 yrs, loved that car but it burned oil like crazy due to faulty piston rings from the factory. Toyota never issued a recall because their excuse was “you should check your fluids regularly anyway” when I sold it, it was burning through 4 qts every 800-1000 miles,

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ForeverMore420@reddit

1998 Chevy 1500 W/T. The drivers door handle broke and I’d have to roll the window down to open it from the outside. Sometimes the window was frozen and I’d have to slide over to the passenger side to exit the vehicle. It never liked starting in the rain. I tried replacing the spark plug wires and distributor cap. It helped but not perfect. After heavy rains snow melt the water would leak into the blower motor. There’d be a puddle on the passenger side. You can imagine what happens after a thaw/freeze cycle. Blower motor was frozen and I forgot to turn fans off when warming up the truck. Went back out and when I opened the door smoke billowed out of the door from the coil windings burning. Lastly the shifter cable was stretched. I couldn’t find a new one anywhere. I could only put it from Drive to Neutral. No reverse or park. That was the last straw. It sat and my friend ended up buying it for $200. He Fixed it up from other parts trucks and put a camper on the back of the bed. I miss that truck with all my heart. Everyone hated that a drove it. I make good money but I just loved that thing. Now I have a new truck that I’m always worried about getting nicks and dings.

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daleming69@reddit

I work on cars so my friends always call me with some random deals/situations and I sometimes hop on it. One night 3 years ago me and some buddies go out for another friend’s bday and while catching up I tell them about my current projects and am having a hard time finding a spare motor for an s2k etc. A few weeks later one of them calls me with a lead to a totaled s2k that his friend has rotting away in his backyard. My friend’s friend loaned it out to another friend and that person drove it like a douche who eventually crashed it. The original owner took it back but couldn’t decide whether to fix it or junk it so he moved on with life as this thing sat outside for a few years with a damaged soft top and mangled up chassis. I drive 6hrs 1 way to check it out and it’s totally clapped, front and rear were caved in and virtually everything was broken. water got in several places it shouldn’t: floor board had 5” of water, mold covered the interior, fuseboxes were uncovered, rodents got in wherever they could, mud was flung all over the underside and the shit had seized brakes from sitting so long. Guy accepts my insane offer of $500 and I took the car home with hopes for a miracle. After a few days of inspecting I realize all the damage was reversible and fixed a few minor things to start up and drive the car. $1000 later I replace a few things and banged out some busted panels and decided to make it road legal instead of parting it out. I’m only in this car $1500~ and functions as my junker/beater because it’s so banged up and ugly but it runs smooth and drives straight… even has heat and AC. it’s the best beater I’ve had in a LONG time…. Besides my Geo metro which I have another story about.

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the-human-wrench@reddit

I drove a Civic sedan in high school as my second car. I had a Jeep before that and didnt want to give up some of that lifestyle I guess. Started taking the Civic offroading where it never should have gone. One time, out in BFE at like 11pm, couple friends in the car. We find a paved road. Really weird cause we thought we were on BLM land. We rip along this road with all the might of 100 hamster power. Find a little gravel lot, start doing cookies. I slide the car into something soft. It stinks. It's a pile of shit taller than the car that I couldn't see in the dark going sideways. The windows were down, ew. So my next idea is truly genius. I'll drive the car through some puddles to wash it off. Not only does it do absolutely nothing, but I get us stuck in the puddle and now have to get in the water to try to push the car out. Which now has shit in it. Had to call someone with a truck to pull us out. 3 car washes do nothing. I had to go to my dad's place, borrow his pressure washer, and worst of all explain this totally unforgettable story. I thought he was gonna die laughing at me.

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Civil-Independence45@reddit

My last car I inherited from my father, we live in a New England state and it has been rusting out from underneath. I was told a few years ago that it wouldn't pass inspection and this year it finally did not. For the first time in a decade a baby deer ran out in front of me in the road a day or two after that. The deer got right up and ran away. It seemed like it only damaged the bumper and headlight but insurance totaled the car and gave me a check.

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210poyo@reddit

My first vehicle was a 1967 Ford fairlane 500xl , total shit box. Had the battery slide into the fan, JB welded the battery case back together. Transmission had a horrendous leak, I'd top it off with oil and transmission fluid occasionally. The front and rear main seals leaked hella bad I'd just top it off as I drove it with cheap golden state oil, it eventually developed a knock and I'd put lucas 90w in it. It had manual drum brakes in the rain if you went to stop quickly it would lock the right front and left rear brakes up and you'd come sliding in like an action hero in a made for tv movie. The front end was so fucking bad it would damn near wonder lane to lane. When the motor went out, It didn't throw a rod or go out with a bang it just lost all compression lol. I put a little 5.0 out of a mustang in it, a rebuilt C4 transmission. I rebuilt the front end, got disc brakes for it. It was a fun little car, I regret selling it.

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Ill-Work7770@reddit

J'ai une 205 de 1988 . Je l'ai depuis 2003 . Achetée a l'époque 1500 euro . Je peux la vendre dix fois son prix d'achat maintenant. Mais je garde ma 205 gti 1.9 🙂

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Both-Ad1801@reddit

My 2006 Grand Marquis got totaled and all I had was $1500 to spend on another one. Got a grimy clapped out 2005. Broken heater control, none of the power windows worked, parasitic battery drain, bad tires... transmission wound up going out. Only got 2 months of use out of it where the previous one I owned for 2 years and put 75000 on.

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27ce@reddit

poor

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BlackRabbit_66@reddit

I've got two. 1996 firebird i got for way too much money that ended up being a disaster that constantly breaks down. After I drove it 6 hours home I found out the battery terminals had been stripped and were held in with tinfoil, and I had my transmission decide to die within five minutes of being back in my hometown after a long trip six months later. Sold it for pennies then ended up buying it back the next year and now its at the shop getting unfucked cause the guy I sold it to was a moron. Didn't learn my lesson and got a 1995 del sol for free that had been flooded and sitting for three years, threw a new ecu and some sparkplugs in it and it's been my daily since I got it. Most dramatic thing thats happened with that so far is a flat tire lmao

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