x2 yup.

Its funny when i here my co-worker complain about fixing there 5 or 10yo cars and how much things cost to repairs... and i start to Giggle..

Im like iv saved like 5,000 prob already in the 5 years iv been driving by doing all the work my self

One thing everyone is forgetting to mention is the interest you pay on a new car loan. If you keep the car longer, that defers the new car note. That'* thousands saved!

I used to do it that way back in high school and college, but that was like Russian Roulette...I found such cars to typically last only about a year on average. Granted, that WAS the days before carfax (so research was a crapshoot), and back when I was looking at mid-late '70'* / early '80'* vintages (when every car in my price-range--American or foreign--was either a POS, a deathtrap, or both ).
Also, I suspect I'm a bit less auto-abusive and a bit more maintenance-minded now then when I was a teen.
Of course, $2000 today was like $500 then

Now I prefer to buy a newer used car, preferably one-owner only (little old lady, if possible...yeah, Buick! ). Sure, I'll spend $10-12k, but I'll fully expect to get at least 5-10 years out of the car, have far fewer road-side breakdowns, and still be able to either sell the thing or give it to one of my kids or nephews/nieces.

Interesting little side note. Despite the bad list haveing only 9 cars listed, while the good list has 10, the 9 cars in the bad list make far more power than the ones on the good list.

Good list = 10 cars = 2161 combined HP (216.1hp average per car)

Bad List = 9 cars = 2816 Combined HP (312.8hp average per car)

... just sayin...

(based on new base models of all cars listed, using mostly links they provided)

just another reason to love our Bonne'*!

x2