How much have you spent buying cars?
 

A comment I made in that "worst repair" thread got me wondering how much I spent on buying cars in my life? So I made a list of cars I've bought- hopefully I didn't forget any of them- and yet again realized that I'm easily confused by accounting. For example, should every car make the list? Some of them were bought for parts only and never got licensed or driven by me. Since they really never performed any "car" function for me, I think I'll leave them off this list.

Then there are all the gifted cars. Over the decades, when anyone in the family or extended family had a beater on it's last leg, there was a choice: scrap it or let Frank have at it. And a few times I've been gifted with nice vehicles too, for a surprising total of 11 times! Those should be on the list for even though there was no purchase price for me, I titled, licensed, repaired, and drove 'em. They performed their car functions.

Then there are the other car expenses. Nah, trying to tally all that up would just be insane- lack of records and/or too many records. It was bad enough trying to remember the purchase prices for some of those cars from years and years ago.

Indeed, my comment about not spending $4500 on cars in my entire life- if I exclude the F150 (a truck ha ha) was true. To make it true I also have to exclude another pickup I bought for $6000- it was supposed to be for the ex-G.F. but after she hit a deer with it, it became mine again- go figure. :rolleyes: So... drumroll..... the grand total is $3710 for 25 cars, averaging $148.40 each.

Bah, if the trucks are included the total rockets to about $28,000... but at $1,037 each vehicle, or $800/year, the seeming extravagance of it really wasn't a money pit after all.

The F150 was the only one of the entire lot I purchased new. Wow did that thing ever wreck the average cost! :eek:

Some other things popped out at me since I compiled that list. For instance, I've only had one Japanese car out of the 27, ever, which goes back to the late '70s- a '78 Toyota SR5. There were seven air-cooled VWs, five Chevys, 10 Fords (including pickups), two Dodge Dynastys, and one Pontiac, one Buick, and one Triumph.

Five were red, 11 were blue, three were black, three grey, two bronze, and one green, one white, and one yellow.

Oof Da.

I lost count at somewhere around 200. There are 19 vehicles, current and retired, in my garage since joining this forum. I haven't lost money on many, if any of those 19, and in most cases (bikes) I made enough to ride for free.

Bought a 92 Sentra a few weeks back and sold it for a $200 profit, the next day. Never titled it, it was originally sold to my dealer buddies brother. The owner was going to haul it to the scrap yard, so I pulled the idle air regulator off and cleaned the pintle and orfices, so it would idle without stalling.

The new owner gets a decent car for $500, and I knew who took care of it for most of it's life. They don't rust away here, it even was original paint with no rips in the interior.

regards
Mech

Yikes, I can't answer this one without being totally wrong. I bought my first car 2 weeks after my 13th birthday, and ended up selling it for a $125 profit, and things went downhill from there ha ha. I was supposed to be an electrical engineer or something cool like that, yet sadly I ended up hustling cars for a living in one form or another. Sometimes I buy a car with the intention of selling it for profit, then end up keeping it (as anyone here that has seen the fleet can attest), so it makes it difficult to say exactly. But for stuff that has actually been registered in my name, insured, and driven on the road? If I said $300k I don't think I'd be too far off, I have owned a LOT of cars.

I spent $6,000 on my 19/23 Forester and $2,700 on my 30/39 Civic. I really wish that I had found the Civic first!

1987 Honda Prelude in 2000 for $2,500, and I hope to not have as many repairs for the rest of my life as I did on that car.
1990 Honda Accord in 2,004 for $2,800. It hit an elk.
2002 Ford Focus with 200,000 miles in 2,007 for $3,000. A truck hit it after three months.
1997 Nissan Altima, which I sold when I joined the Army.
2,007 Ford Focus in 2,012 for $5,000. A motorcycle hit it after three weeks.
Forester
Civic.

ive bought a car for every year since i got my liscense and have lost big money on the first 3 and still own the next 2 cars. in total with purchase and the expenses to get them initially driving ive tipped 10k.
'95 explorer $2000
'96 taurus $2200
'00 intrigue $2000
'99 escort zx2 $1100
'02 grand am $3200

We should also be able to report how much was spent on those cars in repairs, mostly estimated by the "Old" folks here.

I think that I spent five or six thousand repairing my Prelude. Immediately after I purchased the car, I needed to replace the tires, brakes, and clutch, and since my mechanic persuaded me to use a clutch with a lifetime warranty, I replaced it twice more.

It also had ripped CV boot joints and I was told of the replacement boot kits, but told that as long as I do not hear clicking when turning, I was fine. Of course, once I hear clicking, the boot kits are useless.

The alternator went out and I do not remember what else, besides having a power steering leak. I kept replacing the fluid, often trying "stop leak," which was often non-Honda. Then I somehow tore out the cross-members at work, which my mechanic replaced, but then said that my motor mounts broke. I forget what he fixed after that, just that I went for an alignment and wheel balancing and they told me I needed to replace my rack and pinion because it was saturated with power steering fluid. I am not sure what other repairs I had in just two or three months, but each time the mechanics said that only the one thing was wrong, and then they found something else afterward.

Once I spent $2,200, my transmission went out, and then my car was towed. They wanted more money than my car would have been worth had it run.

I did not have the money. Had I the money, I did not have any way of getting my inoperable car forty miles to my home, I did not have anywhere to put it, nor any way to fix it. I evaluated my options, and blew off the towing company. They got a salvage title and I later paid the MVD $50.

However, apparently, the fine is now five hundred dollars, and I might still have chosen that over paying ransom to whom I considered to be car thieves. I asked if I could sign over the title. They said they would deduct $100.

I've only sold a few for a meager profit. Then there are the ones that were sold or scrapped, which I now really, really regret and wish I had 'em back. The trauma of that has turned me into a car hoarder. Oh, to have that '74 Nova back!

Oh boy, estimating repair costs??? Luckily for me, with few exceptions I've always done my own repairs, so mainly I'd just have to try to recall what the parts tallys were.

As noted, accounting often confuses me. Some of the vehicles were bartered and I didn't include the cash value of them as that would be really tough in some cases.

2000 Ford Focus ZX3 $2,700
1993 Geo Metro XFi $1,000

So a grand total of $3,700.

I've spent $8360 on to buy 4 wheeled vehicles in the last 17 years.
I made $5,000 back selling them and still own two, my civic VX that I spent $1,100 on and my Commuti-car that I spent $3,500 to buy, value of the Commuti-car has stayed pretty level, maybe going down slightly and my VX has an NADA value of $5,000 or so.

I also have spent $2225 on motorcycles, selling all but two of them for $2,900 total, kept my Honda CL100 that looks to have a value of around $1,500 or so and my electric motorcycle that I paid $250 for the base motorcycle.

$1050 on mopeds, selling all three for $1,350 total.