Later I paid $120 for used tires with 30,000 miles on them vs $400 for a new set

Gotta hustle at any pay grade !

Any of the extras for automatic this, luxury that, power this other thing, high end anything — no thanks. Why? I don’t want to pay for it when I buy the car and, mostly, don’t want to put up with the extra stuff to go wrong, and especially don’t want to put up with the time, effort, and expense of getting repairs.

E.g., no sunroofs, no power tailgates, no remote control side view mirrors, no anti-lock brakes, no active suspensions, no limited slip differentials, no automatic four wheel drive, no full time four wheel drive, no consumer electronics, no electrical engagement of four wheel drive, no power seats with ‘memory’, no power seats at all, etc. That is, say “No” to lots of stuff that costs more, can go wrong, needs maintenance, and where the maintenance takes time, money, and effort.

Really bad: When that optional luxury stuff fails and leaves the car unusable so that have to fix it. E.g., a window is down, the switch for the power windows quits, I have no way to get the window up, I need to get some place, and it rains. Bummer. It happened. Luckly, the power window switch was easy to replace, and a junk yard had one for just $5.

Driving in a luxury car with the windows down in the rain is no luxury.

So, right, it’s Chevy or Ford. And it’s a truck or and SUV built like a truck.

Nearly every car ad I see is 99 44/100% full of stuff that turns me off on the car — style, fancy this, luxury that, don’t want it. I want rugged, durable, easy to repair, etc.

Impress me? Talk about the stainless steel exhaust system. That I won’t have to cough up $1000 to replace an electrical pump with a filter inside the gas tank. Tell me that the suspension joints and bushings can go 1 million miles with no problems. Explain that have no spring steel on the springs and, instead, have fiberglass springs with at least 10 times the fatigue life. So, no coil springs in the suspension. No suspension softie bushings for a luxury ride — want hard plastic. Want super tough shocks, super stiff, no bouncing — I don’t care about the ride quality. Bumpers? I want bumpers, good, solid, rugged bumpers. Glass and plastic near the bumpers? Hell no. Headlights? I like the old, sealed beam, cheap, readily available, reliable, easy to replace kind.

Talk to me about corrosion, that is, that your car doesn’t have any, not in the exhaust, the radiator, the body panels, around the windows, at the bottoms of the doors, in the bumpers, in the gas lines, in the brake lines, in the frame, in the brake backing plates, in the gas tank, inside where condensation runs down on the insides of the windows, where condensation runs down inside the trunk lid, inside lamp sockets, etc.

Tell me about lug nuts: E.g., for a while, GM used lug nuts covered with a layer of sheet metal. Bummer. Too soon the sheet metal got mangled, and to get a wheel off had to drill out the studs. Bummer. I replaced the originals with after-market solid pieces. Little things like that PISS ME OFF. Lug nuts? Must be what is between the ears of those GM people who decided to use the sheet steel covered lug nuts.

Lights in the instrument panel? In time, right, they burn out. So, replace them? Nope: We’re talking $1000 to R&R the whole instrument panel. Bummer.

Flimsy stuff? Hate that: So, closed the driver’s side door normally, and the guts and glass mirror of the driver’s side rear view mirror fell out, hit the pavement, and broke the glass. It was a bad spot weld. Gee, can’t make a solid rear view mirror. Bummer. Well, with a lot of shopping, got a new part for about $15. Okay. Put it on? That took a while, a special Torx driver, etc. The maintenance manuals didn’t explain the tricky parts.

Latch on the driver’s side door? It corroded out. Bummer. Couldn’t close the door; drove that way for a while. How to replace it? Super tricky — I’ve done and published original research for less work. Super bad design — it should not have rusted out, and should be easy to replace.

Maintenance, guys, ease of maintenance!

And ruggedness, durability, simplicity.

A car is not some rich woman’s fashion frock to wear no more than three times and then throw away. Instead, a car is a mechanical tool, like my circle saw, socket wrenches, taps and dies, grinding wheels, lawn mower, weed whacker, channel locks, vice grips, clamps, collection of epoxy glues, etc. A mechanical tool. You even hint one drop of style, fashion, or luxury, and I’m, OUT’A there.

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Let me admit up front that I was a BMW/Mercedes/Volvo (favorite car ever 1984 MB 500 SEL the same size as an aircraft carrier and the best road trip car ever — kids used to sleep full length in the back seat) guy for a lot of years.

Now, I drive Blackie, the Big Red Car, and a pickup truck.

I don’t get Porches, Maseratis — I think they are sings of “inadequacy.”

I am thinking about getting a Prius for my wife because of the mileage. I rented one in ATL for a long visit in Athens (kids went to UGA) and when I refilled it after a week of driving, it took 6 gallons.

The one I drove was plenty nice on the inside. But the fillup was a thing of beauty.

The best car? One that is fully paid for.

BRC
http://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com

One of my favorite activities is speeding in the left lane by the many Porsche and Maserati drivers here in Fairfield County, CT. True, the handling isn’t as nice, but I really know how to get those little gerbils spinning under the hood. I enjoy the expression of surprise on the faces of those I pass by.

It still gets 45 MPG and has been on many road trips around the the old U.S. of A. I have never had anything go wrong with it. The most I have spent is on new tires. Also, if you run out of gas, you can just shift it into battery mode and keep going. That has happened to me several times because it goes so long before it needs gas that you sort of forget about going to the gas station.

Meets my inner frugal nature beautifully. I really appreciate people who keep on driving their old vehicles rather than having to get the latest. It definitely is character defining.

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Great example — timing belts.

The Lexus manual says to replace the timing belt on a SUV at 100,000 miles. Costs like $2,000. I passed on that.

I asked the service manager how many repairs he’d done on timing belts and he said, “None.”

Now, in fairness, maybe that was because a lot of folks got them routinely replaced. So, I asked a foreign car maintenance guy and he said the same thing.

Had a similar problem with a GPS and the dealership wanted $2,500. It was taken out, sent to a place in California, repaired for $200.

BRC
http://www.themusingsoftheibigredcar.com

A startup CEO needs to be frugal. Are you?

http://themusingsofthebigredcar.com/frugal-are-you-frugal/

Read about it here.

BRC
http://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com