The Debt-Free Car Project Chapter 5

Edmunds.com

The Debt-Free Car Project Chapter 5

Can a 16-year-old car reliably make a round-trip cross-country journey in 16 days? Our Debt-Free Car did, and here's what we learned about this 1996 Lexus ES 300.

Read the full story here

omnius

I have been following this series with interest. At first, it seemed like a smart play, and I was actually envious that you seemed to have found the ideal car - a cheap Lexus - and what with all your vetting in advance surely out of all the lemons it was *the one* which would be in mint condition despite its mileage.

Skip ahead to article 5 in the series, and not only are you spending hundreds of dollars on repairs routinely, but the car is in a perpetual state of "is it going to die right here?"-ness.

This is despite the absurd level of automobile savvy you (and apparently everyone in your life) exhibit. Your dad has a car code reader handy? You've been fixing things yourself? Your friend knew how to diagnose that heater thing? I'd say you've saved lots of money and heartache by being in-the-know about these things.

Which isn't a problem, really, it just skews the "Debt-Free Car" experience vs the rest of us.

Bottom line is, despite your experience and circle of support, and despite the careful shopping and preparation, this car is costing you on a month-to-month basis more than a new car - except this car has the added benefit of threatening to stop driving at any time.

Don't let me get you down though! Like I said this is a very interesting read. Especially for those of us who would like to follow the Gordon Ramsey method of making payments to ourselves and own just really old "great cars" because, after all, those new (or lightly used) cars are simply overpriced, right? Right?

omnius

I love the fact that Edmunds removes all paragraph breaks from comments. Just to make all readers appear less literate; thanks, Edmunds!