A New Car!

Via a friend of Michelle’s, we found a cheap Daewoo Lanos.

Well, actually we found two; a 1999 SE with A/C, a slightly larger engine, mag wheels, etc.; and a 2000 entry-level model. I decided on the 2000; this is our second car, so A/C isn’t as much of an issue (we only really need it for about 3 weeks out of the year in this climate anyway). The A/C (and other stuff on the larger engine) will only lead to more maintenance issues (and higher bills!) down the road, and the smaller engine still has more than enough power for day-to-day use.

Further, the car was slightly out of my original price-range for a beater. On the other hand, it’s also 5 years newer than all of the beaters we looked at. Heck, it’s not really a beater; I even get the 2 years remaining on the power-train warranty! I decided that since I was already spending more than I wanted to, I didn’t really _need_ to drop an extral $1000 for the A/C…

We pick up the new car on Thursday. It is red… :-)

posted at 1:19 am on Wednesday, August 06, 2003 in Personal | Comments (2)

2 Comments

  1. jok says:
    2003-08-07 at 10:43

    Beaters don’t pay. Take my cars, I had a nice new van on a lease at $365 a month which required no maintenance for 3 years. Now I’m driving a 95 Intrepid and it’s cost $3000 in 3 months in repairs. I’m still clinging to the hope that $3000+x < $365*12 but it’s not looking so good with 9 months to go.

  2. Harald says:
    2003-08-07 at 10:55

    On the other hand, my 1990 Eagle Vista has required only minor maintenance (a couple of distributor caps, new tires, oil changes, etc.) in the 5 years I owned it. Even now, putting it back on the road would cost $700 to $1000; it’s only not worth fixing because the body is starting to go.

    I highly recommend CAA’s autopinion (http://www.caa.ca/e/automotive/autopinion.shtml). They survey their members on maintenance costs, which components require maintenance, and general satisfaction, and then publish the statistics. It’s a good way to project the maintenance costs of older cars before you buy. Of course, there is the odd lemon out there; buy from someone you trust!

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