My first car was pretty crappy. How about yours? I firmly believing owning a cheap car is one of the best decisions you can ever make to achieve financial freedom. And I'm saying this as someone who helped start the FIRE movement in 2009.
After getting my driver's license at 17, I talked to my parents about finally getting a car. I don't remember why I didn't get my license at 16, but perhaps it was because I had such a spiffy bicycle the ladies loved. *Ring a ding a ling * was the sound of my bell every time I rode by a hot girl.
It always felt odd that I had to walk or ride my bike to school when other kids got to drive their new Ford Explorer SUVs, and VW Jettas. Even my parents drove an 8 year old car at the time. Oh well, I thought to myself. Perhaps one day.
The Hidden Car Gem That Wasn't A Gem At All
The day I got my driver's license was one of the most memorable days. One, because I failed the written test the first time, and my mom wasn't too happy. Two, because my parents took me to “Fresh Choice”, an all you can eat buffet restaurant to celebrate.
I had dreams of rumbling in a 5.0 liter Mustang for my first car. Nothing sounds so beautiful. In fact, I actually test drove one of my classmates because he was selling it to buy an Acura NSX! “$9,000 and it's yours Sam!” Yeah right. All I have is like $900 bucks, but I sure am glad I got to test drive!
My parents gave me a $2,000 budget, so I searched the Auto For Sale section of the papers gleefully to find my dream vehicle. Damn, even in those days $2,000 wasn't too much money. There was no internet at the time mind you so all I could do was base my impression on some text in a paper.
Bought A Cheap Old Car
I finally stumbled upon one ad that just sung to me, “Excellent condition 1987 Nissan Sentra with only 135,000! Seller is running for District Supervisor. Only $1,699!” $1,699 was $500 cheaper than all the other comparables and I thought I had a deal.
We drove out to the aspiring District Supervisor's shoddy apartment and took a look. What a junker! The car had a faded yellowish color, with a newly painted driver's door, because obviously someone bashed into it. Even still, we took it for a ride, and I just loved it. We paid cash on the spot and drove it home.
With all the scrubbers and cleaning chemicals I bought from the auto store, I got to work detailing every single inch of my new baby. I even got one of those scented pine cone car fresheners to hang from my rear view mirror. It was a dream come true. My very first car to drive to school in!
Fizzle Pop My Car Broke Down
Too bad only a month had past when * boom * my clutch broke down and my car no longer could shift gears and move. No wonder it was $500 cheaper than all the other cars in the paper.
I had to replace all of the CV boots as well. $1,100 later, the car was as good as new. Curses to you District Supervisor! Now I remember why I don't trust politicians. It all started at age 17. I'm glad I started with a piece of crap, because nothing could have been worse!
Related: The 1/10th Rule For Car Buying Everyone Must Follow
Be More Financially Responsible With Your Car Spending
You want to follow my House-To-Car Ratio guide for fiscal responsibility. If you want to eventually reach financial freedom, you should have a house-to-car ratio of at least 50. Cars are guaranteed to depreciate in value, houses tend to appreciate in value.
Buy Real Estate Instead Of An Expensive Car
Keep your car expenses to a minimum. Instead of buying a fancy new car, use the money to invest in real estate instead. This way, you can build more wealth and achieve financial freedom, which provides way more value than driving a nice car.
To invest in real estate without all the hassle and unexpected costs, check out Fundrise. Fundrise offers funds that mainly invest in residential and industrial properties in the Sunbelt, where valuations are lower and yields are higher. The firm manages over $3.5 billion in assets for over 500,000 investors looking to diversify and earn more passive income. The minimum investment amount is only $10.
Another great private real estate investing platform is Crowdstreet. Crowdstreet offers accredited investors individual deals run by sponsors that have been pre-vetted for strong track records. Many of their deals are in 18-hour cities where there is potentially greater upside due to higher growth rates. You can build your own select real estate portfolio with Fundrise.
I've personally invested $954,000 in private real estate since 2016 to diversify my holdings, take advantage of demographic shifts toward lower-cost areas of the country, and earn more passive income. We're in a multi-decade trend of relocating to the Sunbelt region thanks to technology.
I appreciate your effort in writing such a detailed content. Your post covers each and every aspect or essential topics require for it. Love to read it. People are using old cars and spending money on the fixing and maintenance of the old junks car. If you’re in that condition, or maybe you have an old junk car, SUV, or truck that doesn’t run any longer.
Thanks for sharing
When I was 17 drove a 2013 vw passat
18 drove 2003 accord
19 2008 accord v6 exl and 2000 limited 4runner
Goal at 20 2008 silverado ext cab 4×4
Well my first was a 99 ford explorer 4×4 black i got it off my sister for 450.00 and that’s where the nightmare begun.It did not have a front grill and half the bumper was missing and it also had a big dent in the hood.That was all do to her husband hitting a deer and of course the fun did not stop there.Half of the rear panel was caved in all the way from top to bottom. The sun roof leaks and so does the back window.Spent 800 bucks buying new rotors and brake pads along with other things one rotor was so thin and rusted that it broke off in my hand .Spent 6 months fixing the body and a friend got me a different grill and bumper it was starting to shape up until the the ball joints went out had to get those replaced and new shocks. all of the tires was bad so i got them replaced.Let me see what’s next then going down the road heard and felt a jolt from the rear end and then the cruise control went out and then my abs light came on got those fixed finally.And now my uncle decided to repaint my hood with out my knowledge because the clear coat was coming up.Well that was a disaster he sanded the hood got primer and paint and he just got done shooting the paint his friend showed up.He decided to pick up shop mate that was full of dust to get it out of the way when he laid it back down he dropped it and it threw dust and dirt into the fan and it blew it all over the new paint.My uncle tried to fix it but got mad and left a HUGE pile of paint in the corner of the hood he flooded it.I am just wondering what’s next still have yet to enjoy it cause i am always working on it and sad to report that i still have it drives and shifts good but it has me gun shy as to what’s in store i have wayyyy more money into it then what it was worth
“I’m glad I started with a piece of junk because nothing could have been worse!” Sounds like my first job (which I still have). I have my first car and it’s amazing, albeit modest. Never breaks down.
I still can’t afford an NSX and it’s been discontinued since 2005! Envious of your friend!
My first car was a 1992 VW Jetta. If I hadn’t fought a cadillac and lost, I’d still drive it to this day; when I see a 90-92 Jetta driving down the street I get a little misty. One of the best things was there wasn’t a lot to break on them. Crank windows, crank sunroof, vacuum locks. A truly great car that I miss.
Everyone needs to own a piece of junk as their first car so they can experience how they don’t live the rest of their lives.
Love this post! Brings back memories of my first car: a $500 Mitsubishi Gallant. It was a horrible car but I loved it and I was really proud of it. Didn’t embarrass me at all. In retrospect, even though the safety might have been below par, I thought it was great for a first car because it made me understand exactly how to treat a car. If I ever hit the breaks too hard, the car would shut off. If I jammed the acceleration too hard, the car would take a long time to respond. It made me understand how a car works. I think it’s a great way to have your kids appreciate their car and understand how to treat it. Mine was awesome until the engine fell out when I went over a bump! At that point, it wasn’t worth it to repair it given that it only cost $500 in the first place!
My first car was just like yours but the only difference is that I know how to check the engines. I didn’t go with nice body cars as something tells me the owner is hiding something from the buyer. I went to a car that has a good engine but has some things to fix on the body. It was good that you had learned the ropes early on with cars.
my first was a limited jeep grand cherokee i bought from a student on campus who had filthy rich parents. the jeep had 60k miles, was perfect and had all kinds of bells and whistles. it was valued over 16k by KBB and paid 9k cash for it (she was asking 12+) – i had negotiated down and literally paid all cash earned from part time jobs i held on campus. it was my first large purchase and still very treasured to date. there is no better feeling than making a DARN GOOD buy with your first hard earned money. the jeep lasted with me several years, and i took good care of it like i do of all my belongings. it had well over 160k miles when i decided to buy a new vehicle and turn this one loose. yes, it was time (sadly). when I finally decided to let go, my family took pictures standing by it (since everyone had their fair share of fun in it). it was our fairwell to it. my friends still remember it and the memories we had in it.
My first car was an old Monte Carlo. It was a beater with a value of about $1,000. I remember wrecking that car in my first few months of driving. Parents should buy kids cheap safe cars because they are likely to have minor accidents. Kids are known to bump curbs, tap cars, and run into all sorts of things.
My first car was a 1987 Nissan Stanza. I bought it in 1990 with money saved up from mowing lawns through high school, it was a manual shift (which I didn’t know how to drive) and had no air conditioning, no power windows, no power locks, no power braking!. The car had 93,000 miles on it which was a huge number for only being 3 years old. It had one owner who took it cross country a few times.
The owner wanted $3000 but settled on selling it for $2800. I learned how to drive stick shift on the car and put in some minor maintenance work worth a few hundred dollars and then sold it in 1993 for $3100 when in college, with 120,000 miles on the car.
It was the first and only time I’ve ever made money over the time I’ve had the car. What a great deal that was.
Now I’d never even think of a car without A/C!
-Mike
You’re pretty darn lucky to buy a 3 year old car though! That’s big balling!
I drove an old Honda Civic, owned my parents, that had no power steering or power windows. It was the first car I drove while a high school kid, and eventually took it to college. At the time, I actually felt fortunate, as I knew other people that had total piles of junk to drive – if anything.
One of my buddies had this big green station wagon we called the “Green Monster”, the same name as the venerable left field wall at Fenway but this car was not a cool classic. I think it was from the mid-1970’s. Once, while driving, his foot went through the floor. It was that bad. Nobody wanted to get in that car.
I STILL Love my first car and keep threatening The Wife that I am going to bring one home. It was a 1993 Green Nissan 240sx Special Edition. I used it my senior year in HS, 4 years of college and 3 years of law school. It finally died on a sad November morning. By the end of her life, she had trouble shfiting gears, and was actually ran over by a truck BUT SURVIVED.
The odometer stopped working at 169K. Damn it this post brought a tear to my eyes!
What a great story Sam. I wish I had a junker in high school. I didn’t have anything except my two feet. Luckily I was able to bum rides from friends after school a couple times a week. On the other days I used to cut through a park (rather a sketchy park now that I think about it) in order to avoid having to walk home past all the seniors in their cars. Ah the agonizing days of high school – boy am I glad they are over. I still have never owned a car so I’ve learned to be pretty savvy with public transportation.
As for what I’d do for my kids…hmm I think it’d depend where we were living. If we were in a big city I probably would have them stick to buses and trains. If we were in the suburbs I’d probably go for something a little lower than economy rental car grade, definitely used. Ah it’s too crazy thinking about having a 16 year old. Mad props to all the parents with teens out there – I don’t know how you do it.
My first car was a 1981 BMW 320i. It had my age and I bought it BEFORE I get my driving liscence (about 5 months before ;-) ). My parents wanted me to buy my first car alone so I had worked from 14 to 16 and paid it cash ($2,300 at that time).
The car was in mint conditions since it was owned from the beginning by a lady in her 50’s (at the time of the sale). She was using it to go to the office and get back home (about 100,000 miles after 16 years!).
I had so much fun with this car since it looked awesome from the outside (while it was hard to start and completely rusted under the car). The driving experience was exceptional and I would buy another BMW any time!
If I had more money, I would have kept my first car to make it a collector’s car… that is too bad I had to sell it 5 years later because it wasn’t starting anymore…
A 1974 Chevy Impala. Blue. Huge. Looks like this:
My neighbor flat out gave me the car in 1988, as it had been his sister’s and she wanted to just get it away from her. She joked that it was so big you didn’t park it, you *docked* it. As we “test drove” it (I’d take it no matter what that revealed) it made a heavy THUNK sound and my neighbor looked at me and said, “Did I just drop the trans?”. I still don’t know what that means.
My friends and I called it The Impaler and I used to fit 7 or so high school students in it with me and then go to A&P parking lots at about midnight and use the car to ram into shopping carts at about 20 mph. This was how we passed time in suburban NJ in the late 80s.
It got a flat, and, being stupid, I just left it on some residential street for a few days. Of course, that was illegal, and cops put huge orange “TO BE TOWED” stickers on it. Neighborhood kids saw that, and somehow misread the signs to say “WHALE ON ME WITH BASEBALL BATS” and so when I finally picked the car up at the junkyard for a release fee, the owner said, “Oh, you’re the one with the Chevy with the smashed in windshield?”. Yep. It was more money to replace that than the car was worth, so that was the end of the Impaler.
Not bad for free. I’m with the others who say parents should not buy their kids any car. Maybe give them one of your old ones if you’re getting rid of it anyway, but let them save money for as much of the car’s needs as possible.
“The Impaler” and “Whale on me with baseball bats” hahahah… SWEET! Love it man. That Chevy looks like a BEAST!
At least you could probably lay down flat in the back seat with those benchs yeah?
My first car was a red Datsun I got as a graduation present. It was used and literally was like driving a tin can. I lived it and it was very reliable.
I put an 8 track player in it to play my favorites. Thanks for the triggering this trip down memory lane!
My first car was an old blue Chevy Chevette. It had been parked outside for a few years and barely made it home after I push-started it with the help of my friends.
No power steering with a stick shift, that thing was a little beast, but it had rear-wheel drive, so I could hang-out the backend around corners in the snowy winters.
I wasn’t embarrassed by it at all, wheels were wheels when you had no place to go and just wanted to have fun getting there.
I don’t necessarily think parents should buy their kids cars at all, as they could probably earn it on their own, but I’m no parenting expert or anything. If you could afford a nicer or safer car for your kids, then I couldn’t see buying them a junker, but it does really make me sick seeing sixteen year olds in their birthday BMWs, so you’ve got to draw the line somewhere.
It is so funny how you can tell how old some of us are!!
My first car was a blue 1980 Saab Turbo 900. I was a sophomore in college when I bought it for $1000. It was a stick shift, and had a sun roof (and no air conditioning….unless you count the windows!!). I thought I was sooooo cool.
It was cool…..until the springs in my seat broke and I had to stuff pillows under it to prop up my tushie. And then there was the time when I stepped on the brake, and all this greasy fluid shot out all over my feet. That was the master cylinder blowing out.
Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
In college I had a two of ’78 Toyota Corollas, bought for $500 each, one after the other. They met untimely demises, one by an accidental short circuit to the electrical system (which made repair too expensive) and the other by road accident (don’t lend your car to relatives). Very economical cars, great value and easy to work on. My very first car though was a ’72 Mercedes 200c 4 door sedan, bought for $2000. Mercedes, you’re thinking…. heh, it sounds better than it looked. The car was pretty well broke in.
First off, great blog! I’ve been following for some time, but this post calls out to me, so I have to share.
My dad was a bit of an automobile tinkerer, so my first car was a Frankenstein of parts from the salvage yard that coalesced into the body of a 1982 Toyoata Celica. At 17, having a car meant the world, and i certainly appreciated what my father gave me. However, the car had one quirk: it would screeeeeeech at 100+ decibels when I accelerated. Despite all his skill, he couldn’t figure out what made the sound, so for two whole years, EVERYONE kne when I was approaching. And I was too mortified to ever go through a Drive-Thru.
Hahaha, sweet Tom! At least everybody knows to get out of the way! Thanks for checking in and commenting. What car you big pimpin in now?
I try to be inconspicuous in my ’09 328i, which I got used in a killer deal. It was a previous exec car, fully loaded and marked down 35% after a year of use and 5700 miles. I was incredulous at the price and kept thinking “something has got to be wrong”, but its been great. Like yourself, im a bit of an automobilephile, and the BMW driving experience calls out like a Siren to financially rocky shores, and I answered.
That sounds awfully familiar! My parents actually wouldn’t let me drive until I was 18. They didn’t trust me! (I was going through a very rebellious period.) I took the test 3 weeks after my 18th birthday with my friend’s grandmother’s car (grandmother didn’t know about this.) Thankfully, I passed.
That same week, I went out and bought a $500 clunker on my own. My parents had kept telling me they would give me one of their old cars, but it was just taking too long and I was very impatient. I drove home in my two-toned primer 1971 Plymouth Valiant. It actually lasted 2 years, but constantly needed oil and tune-ups to keep it running. Eventually, my parents gave me their 1978 Datsun B210 Honeybee and I sold my beater for $400 (not too shabby!)
What the heck is a “Lada Samara”?!
HOLY SHIZAM BATMAN! That is ugly! lol
Parents buy cars? :-)