Will Tensions in Iran Send Oil Prices Through the Roof?

[Frank Lee]

God Bless all the new car buyers; they create such a bountiful supply of cheap/free used cars for me!

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

God Bless all the new car buyers; they create such a bountiful supply of cheap/free used cars for me!

Nice to see you thinking POSITIVE Frank!

But honestly the used cars and trucks sold used here in Kentucky often have between 100,000 and 300,000 miles. I have seen some real nice cars in the used lots here but I learned a long time ago that because so many people here have long drives to work that they really pack heavy miles on their cars fast. It's not as easy to find a good car at a bargain price with 30,000 miles or less- and that seems to be the big market here. Yet there is still a bigger demand for inexpensive used running cars/trucks if you know how and can afford to keep them running. The best I can do is work out a trade with a mechanic- I troubleshoot his laptop for his doing the same for my car. Otherwise every used car I ever owned was to "junky" to keep it on the road long. Now thanks to the Cash for Clunkers deal I bet mechanics lost a bit of business, but not for long.

I read somewhere that Americans have aprox. two cars for every person. In China it is something like 30 cars for every 1000 people- So there is the potential for much bigger demands on oil. When China grows their people with money they seem to love to buy Buicks I read. (go figure) We already have so many cars and trucks in America that the only real way to get a big demand for new cars is to scrape out the used cars and lower the price of the new ones.. and I would speculate that cash for clunkers thing was, in part, attempting to deplete some of the used cars so there could be more demand for new ones. I know if I was a mechanic I would have some strong thoughts on that deal.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Jammer

But honestly the used cars and trucks sold used here in Kentucky often have between 100,000 and 300,000 miles.

And this is a problem how? Except for the Insight*, I haven't bought a car with less than 100K on it since the '70s. These days, for a Honda or Toyota, 100K is the effective break-in period.

* 50K when I bought it, about 140K now, and it'll be running just fine again, once I get the Bambi marks pounded out.

[cfg83]

Jammer -

Originally Posted by Jammer

Good points.

And it reminds me of something. I was actually raised as a kid with the advise from my father, who worked for Chevy, that a NEW car/truck was always much cheaper to drive than a used car which likely needed repairs and had often left dad stranded in far away town in his younger years. I guess that is where I got some of my buying habits from. I can recall my own father telling me about all sorts of tricks some criminal type mechanics did to him- Gosh he had one story of a guy just trying to cheat him on a couple pints of oil- The mechanic held his thumb in the dipstick as he measured the oil and my dad caught him red handed pulling the dipstick out with his thumb on it (engine still hot too). I realize most mechanics are good honest folks, it's the bad apples I am speaking of. As you say a good honest mechanic can be a lot of help in keeping a used car on the road at rates a person can pay and still have money for food.

...

And I would also say this was better advice in the past because cars didn't last as long (my claim, anyway). Today cars are safer, better built and therefore can last much longer if treated right. The negative corollary is that they are a lot more complicated. This means that they are much more expensive to repair after an accident or when that one oh-so-precious part fails on you.

I'm sorry to hear about your accident. The same thing happened to my friend's wife's Saturn (an S-Series like mine). Nobody hurt, thank goodness. Brake issues are one of my big worries in an old car like mine.

CarloSW2

[Jammer]

You all really think cars with that kind of miles on it don't start having problems? I know people that have plenty of stories of not only American but imports too that have all kinds of problems after around 120,000. The worse story I know is a woman that had a Mazda, but I don't want to start a bunch of stories here about cars breaking.

If what you say REALLY is true of newer cars then I should still have the advantage, I'll just drive this car until I can not afford to repair it. But I keep thinking about the dozens of cars/trucks I seen purchased used and all the trouble they gave their owners. Many of these cars were bought by girlfriends of my past. I seen one car bought and it stopped running before she could get the car home. But I'll leave the stories there, because yes I also know the GOOD stories of cars going hundreds of thousands of miles without any MAJOR break- however I feel it's always a gamble that I wish to avoid if I have the means. Oh, of the poor quality cars/trucks I speak of roughly half of them were made in Japan and the other half American. So please lets not argue about quality of cars here and there of RECENT years. All car companies have a SERVICE DEPARTMENT.

[RobertSmalls]

Originally Posted by Jammer

You all really think cars with that kind of miles on it don't start having problems?

Yep!

If you're handy enough to fix your own car, it's much cheaper to buy and own a car with >100000mi. If you're not handy, or if you're willing to spend more for the convenience of not having to fix your car, get something newer.

The Subaru is still running strong at 157000 miles / 13 years old. I keep a log of all the parts I replace on it, and most of them are wear items like the clutch, struts, and tires. It's never failed to start or broken down, though it has inconvenienced me and needed the occasional field repair. YMMV.

[Frank Lee]

I bought a new vehicle once. Stupid thing needed major repairs too! Only difference was, for a while, the repairs were covered under warranty. Nope, the $15,000 cost premium vs a used one isn't worth it.

[cfg83]

Frank -

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

I bought a new vehicle once. Stupid thing needed major repairs too! Only difference was, for a while, the repairs were covered under warranty. Nope, the $15,000 cost premium vs a used one isn't worth it.

Yar, that was my old joke. With any car, you will always be making payments. The difference is with a new car, you know *when* you'll be making payments. With a used car, you'll still make payments, you just don't know *when*. In the old daze, I saw those as adding up to the same amount of money. Today, with enough savvy, the used car "payments" will stay lower than the new car payments.

CarloSW2

[tasdrouille]

Oil prices will go quite high next year, starting to climb faster at the end of February/beginning of March and peaking in late July next year. Things will be a bit different this year, because of the recession we will not be seeing a big drop in oil prices (which should have started already at the end of the summer), but steady prices or a slight rise till the annual pattern starts back again.

I predict a lot of traffic to EM next summer!

[user removed]

$2.099 a gallon here today.

regards
Mech