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The last two Honda Rebels I bought for $800 and $500 and sold them for $1400 and $1200. Even after all expenses I made a little money including fuel and insurance. 6000 miles for free excluding my labor and some change left over.
I did the same thing over the last 35 years with salvage vehicles. In most cases I made enough money to pay all costs of ownership, probably for over 200 k miles.
When I retired the wife stopped driving rebuilds and bought a new car. Paid cash for it. At 60 k miles we sold it to her daughter, whose husband drove it another 80k miles. I just sold him my Altima and took the 1999 Maxmia in trade for $2k value. At 140 k miles it still runs great. We drove it to the mountains for a day trip vacation, 322 miles. I refilled the tank today. 14.254 gallons-460.7 miles-32.3 MPG in a car rated at 21 combined on the new EPA. Has not dropped a bit of oil level using 5W-30 Mobil 1.
We left her 2012 Sorento in the garage. She is averaging 27 MPG in the Sorento. I had it up to 32 on the highway, great mileage for a 3800 pound SUV. She is still working at 65 and if she wants a new car she gets a new car. I drive old recycled stuff and make money selling them. In some cases enough to pay all of the driving costs.
Last year combining all expenses I would estimate we spent less than 6% of our income on transportation. Our largest single annual expense is property taxes.
regards
Mech
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