I remember reading about "The Crasher Philosophy". It was what college students did to be able to drive really cheap cars in the 1970s. A posting on Craigslist put some detail into it, and the author provides permission to post his complete story:
First, a Craigslist Frugal Forum over-posting troll claims "It is not frugal to keep a car more than 6 or 7 years and chance it with expensive (sometimes very) repair bills. Instead, just keep a car a year or two and then trade it in and roll whatever you still owe onto the new loan."
To which, our protagonist replies, and then sends a more detailed reply to us, which we post here:
"Oh, maybe, 30-32 years ago, Car and Driver published a halfway humorous article entitled "The Crasher Philosophy".
The idea was this: you picked a car that was so cheap that if it only lasted for a few months, you "got your money's worth". Today's average car loan is $400 a month, so a half year's worth of car is $2400. LOTS of cars on Craigslist cost that much or less, today anyway.
You were supposed to pick a car that had some element of "fun to drive". An old GM thing with a stick-shift and gross V8 engine, perhaps, or maybe one of those little Honda Civics with the 4-wheel wishbone suspension and a 5-speed. This is not the time for an Oldsmobile or Buick!
The new idea (at least for me) was this: since you paid so little for your car, if it ever "needed" a repair, you had a very cool option: Just Say No. That's right. If the car needed a repair, you'd just not do it...throw the car away. A disposable car! Since you did not expect it to last, you also didn't do routine maintenance. You'd put gas in it, you'd make sure it didn't run out of oil (but you never changed the oil!), you might even check other fluids regularly. If the tires got bald or the brake pads too thin to be safe, you had a decision to make - pay the repair or get another crasher.
I thought it was funny, but didn't do anything about it....I was about to get my degree, earn Big Bucks, and I was going to buy a hot rod, probably a few years old, but I was not going to be driving a "crasher" that was for sure!
Fast forward about five years. I'd gotten out of college and screwed up my finances as many recent grads do, then got laid off. I made do by selling things, including my car. I was able to do grocery shopping and whatever on a bicycle.
When I finally did get a job, it had a SEVENTY mile commute...and I was not about to do that on a bicycle. Down to my last grand, I needed a car NOW. No time to fuss around with private owners, I had to find a car and buy it by writing a check. Cycle off to the nearest dealer.
They had a 1980 Honda Civic 2-door hatch with puny 1.3L engine for $1200. Needed a water pump. I didn't even drive it, the only criteria was that it was cheap enough that I could write a check for it. I talked them down to $800, and they made me promise to buy it right now. I said fine, but you also get the service dept to fix it right now, and they did. I wrote the check and drove out. My plan the whole time had been to go in and drive out with my bike in the back anyway, so their "pressure" tactic fed right in with my needs.
The car needed tires too, but I was able to hold off a month so that I had a paycheck in the bank. The odometer had just over 100,000 miles on it.
I did what Car & Driver had said...I never changed the oil, I just checked the level at every fillup. This little car had cheap 12" tires that only cost $90 for four, so I did buy new tires when it needed them. The front brakes started squealing at 130,000 miles. Darn, I only got 30,000 miles out of my $800 car (plus $90 for the first set of tires), and I figured that was going to be it. But just for fun I checked parts prices...$80 for new pads and rotors. Less than one month's car payment. I'd never tried this kind of work myself but a friend said it was easy. So I did it...no special tools required. And off I went.
At 160,000 miles, very suddenly, the car started spewing white smoke out the back and I figured it was a goner. I took it to a mechanic just to confirm that it was dead. They said maybe it's just a head gasket. $180 if that's all it is. $50 to open it up and find out. Well, OK...$180 was a bit over a car payment at the time, but not much. And that turned out to be the problem. So...off I went again.
Those little 12" tires wore out quickly, about every 25,000 miles. But they remained under $100 for all four, and the tire salesman convinced me I didn't need to balance them...and they never vibrated. So I just bought a set of tires before winter set in, so I always had good tread when I needed it. At the rate I was piling on miles, I went through two sets of tires per year.
I'm really fussy about windshield wipers and getting new blades is just something I end up doing every six months, no matter how old the car...I figure it's an ongoing cost like gasoline. So I put a lot of wiper blades on it. And I think I put one battery in, but the prices was laughably cheap like $20.
The car routinely got 50 miles per gallon, and when it started dropping and losing what little power it had (I had to drive in 3rd gear full-throttle up a lot of hills) I would change both the air and fuel filters...maybe $15 for both. I think I did that like 3 times. And I think I changed the spark plugs once because it started misfiring. Also cheap.
A knocking/rattling sound slowly developed in the front...changed with speed. A neighbor said it was a "CV joint" whatever that is and said "get the boots checked". All of the major muffler/brake chains will inspect for free, so I had it inspected. The boots were good, it was a "CV joint" wearing out. But they said the knocking/rattling has to get really loud before the part finally fails...and then it's really ugly when it fails. The repair cost would be $250 when it failed, and at that point, I figured I really would be done with the car. But...I didn't do anything, I just would wait to see how loud it got.
Also, the engine slowly started smoking. I think I noticed it first at 150,000 miles or so. By 200,000 miles, it started with a good-sized cloud and if I coasted downhill a long time, it would generate another cloud when I got on the gas pedal at the bottom of the hill.
I lived in a state with annual emissions tests. At just over 200,000 miles, it failed the test, by a little bit. The emissions guy looked it over and said, "if you give it clean oil and high-octane gas, I'll bet you can pass one more emissions test". So I gave it its FIRST oil change since I'd bought it over 100,000 miles earlier. The oil wasn't as bad as I figured...jet black, but it poured smoothly, no lumps...I had been, after all, adding oil as required, about every 1,000 miles at this age. It passed the emissions test this time, but the guy said it probably wouldn't in a year.
The body had collected a couple door dings while I had it and the paint was faded. The driver's seat fabric was worn and the stuffing just starting to show. The dashboard had cracks in it. The windshield had a crack down low, from one side to the other, but it had been there for years. I'd driven the car from just over 100,000 mile to about 230,000 miles, in a bit more than two years.
I drove this tired old car to a dealer. I looked over their inventory. I selected a VW Quantum 4-cyl 5-speed with 85,000 miles on it and paid the princely sum of $1250 for that car. The VW was the same number of years old as the Honda had been when I bought the Honda. I asked if the Honda had any trade-in value and the dealer said, "truthfully none, of course, but I can offer you a token $100 for it." So I took it.
And the VW became my second "crasher" Parts cost more, but the list of repairs was about the same...front brake pads and tires. No head gasket on this car. It didn't get quite the gas mileage of the Honda, but it was a lot quieter and more comfortable. It, too, experienced its final failure by flunking an emission test, but this one went to 280,000 miles
I have never, since then, purchased a car less than 8 years old, and I have never worn out a car before 200,000 miles, and I have never, ever, paid more than $500 for a single repair.
My most expensive vehicle to date has been $5,000 and that was for a mini-truck. It had 140,000 miles on it when we bought it, and it's a "work truck" used to move stuff needed for our hobby farm. It's now got 225,000 miles on it, and the most expensive repair it's needed in that time frame has been a $180 radiator.
So, the way to deal with expensive car repairs on a used car is "just say no". If they're cheap repairs...do them. If not...don't."
And we follow up with this: Don't forget cost of insurance and registration! Pick any vehicle model that has been around for 30 years...Chevy Malibu, Ford F150, Chrysler, Toyota Corolla, Honda Accord...and ask your insurance agent how much to insure a brand-new one, and how much to insure one that's ten years old. Now multiply by however many years it takes you to drive 150,000 miles. And then call your local DMV and ask the same question about registration.
Your blog host's vehicles are the same as when the blog was started...now 16 years old each and closing in on 480,000 miles total between the two of them. We are on the way to hitting 230,000 miles on one of them with nothing but tires, batteries, and brake pads!!! Cars are built so well these days.
Thanks, CL poster.
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