āNo one cares about what car you driveā has such Boomer energy to it, and itās completely false.
Our 2nd car (ie. the one we use if my wife or I need to commute individually - suburban sprawl means we live in a public transportation desert), is a beat-up 15yo Hyundai hatchback.
We both love it because itās economical, surprisingly reliable, cheap as anything to maintain, and we donāt particularly care if it gets dinged at a parking lot.
But the looks we get from our peers when we drive to our respective offices (we usually WFH), holy crap! Constantly having to explain ourselves is tiresome, and our line managers have both made off-handed comments sarcastically asking if weāre not being paid enough. š¤¦š»āāļø
You have a point, but you need to not care about some elseās bullshit opinion. You donāt need to explain yourself. Save your dough and youāll have money for whatever suits you down the road.
Paying cash for big items like cars isnāt always the best idea, but less debt never hurts.
Yeah, instead of āno one cares about what car you driveā it should be āyou shouldnāt concern yourself with the opinion of anyone who cares about what car you driveā.
15yo Hyundai hatchback
surprisingly reliable
Youāve been lucky then. That I believe is in the era of Hyundai/Kia where theyād chew up replacement engines like crazy. But I guess it didnāt affect all engines.
The car was a hand-me-down from one of our grandparents, with ~100K miles on the odometer.
They owned it since new, and like most old peopleās cars - it was religiously serviced. Keeping up with maintenance goes a long way towards keeping most cars on the road (unless theyāre BMWs, but thatās a whole other story).
Keeping up with maintenance goes a long way towards keeping most cars on the road (unless theyāre BMWs, but thatās a whole other story).
Ironically, well maintained BMWs have significantly better durability than Hyundais of that era, just not reliability.
I see M57 engined BMWs doing 500k+ km all the time. ZF 6HP transmissions are pretty good too. Yet the BMW E60/E61 and similar era 3 and 7 series that had these engines and transmissions are considered very unreliable, because everything else around that super solid core breaks down every now and then. They last forever, theyāll just leave you stranded crying when some plastic pipe in the god damn cooling system breaks again.
My boss did joke about giving me a raise to get me a car and Iām all for it.
Given the community, you should probably finagle that raise and just put it towards friendlier commute alternatives if possible!
Boss: āHey, I have you that raise - whereās the car?ā You: āOh, I put that towards an e-bike instead!ā
Maybe itās different in your social circle. I work with engineers and technicians and keeping an old car going is respected not derided.
I wouldnāt want to hang around with people that look down their noses at me because I drive a car with 100,000 miles on the clock.
Itās not so much our social circles; rather our respective companiesā Department Heads and C-Suites. Appearances and office politics play a hand in perception, unfortunately.
While I can somewhat understand their viewpoints, as both my wife and I are paid well - neither of us have client-facing roles, and we have a nice enough family car for carting around the bub and in-laws.
There is honestly something liberating about not worrying about dings, scratches, or expensive replacement parts.
