I’ve tracked all of my cars to answer the question of true cost of ownership, comparing relatively new cars vs sub-$1,000 cars with high mileage. I do all my repairs myself, and I might add, I make all repairs required (people who swear they haven’t put in a penny’s worth of maintenance are rolling the dice, with their safety and the longevity of the car.
The most cost effective cars (at the gas prices in effect when I owned them) were the perennial bad-boys, rear-wheel drive V8 American cars, purchased with about 50-60k miles. Parts are cheap when needed, value doesn’t change significantly from purchase to sale, and frankly I enjoyed them much more than econo-boxes. Now that gas has goine up, they are not likely to still be lowest, but likewise their purchase prices have plummeted.
The absolute worst cars? VW and BMW. Mediocre gas mileage, sky-high parts prices, and extremely poor reliability.
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