Why "Amazing Cheap Car" Lists Need To Die.

You know the lists - the ones that tells you what amazing cars you can pick up that sold for a lot of money initially and can now pick up inexpensively. High end sports cars, luxury cars, high powered V8 cars, German cars… pick a category and Google will find a page of those lists.

Updated: 10 Oct 2024

What these lists never talk about is why these cars are cheap.

The main reason these cars tend to be cheap is because you are buying someone else’s problem. Take BMW’s for example as they always crop up in these lists. Sure you can pick up a late 90’s or early 2000’s 5 or 7 Series for under five grand but you had better have another five to eight grand to spend on it at some point, and probably some point soon. Parts for these cars aren’t necessarily expensive but they are more complicated to work on than your average Honda Accord and something as simple as a sump gasket, or any gasket really, can end up costing a grand in labor fees to replace a three dollar part .

Look around a cheap BMW for sale and you can pretty much guarantee something costing a grand to do in the shop is lurking under there somewhere - those vintages of bimmer are notorious for sub frame issues as well as the bad plastics used in the cooling system that require a refresh every so many thousands of miles. You can pretty much guarantee the one you are looking at hasn’t just had that kind of money spent on it recently. Just ask CarThrottles own Alex Kersten.

Run a deep search on common problems with a vehicle you are interested in and it’s guaranteed there are indeed problems, and somewhat expensive, problems that will need to be dealt with sooner or later. You may pick up a champagne car for beer money but luxury cars tend to still cost champagne money when it comes to maintenance.

Often these lists will contain large engined cars, and if you can only spend $5000 on a car you should ask yourself if you can afford to maintain a V8 or even W12 that takes eight or more quarts of oil every so many thousands of miles on top of getting teens to the gallon in mileage.

W12 Audi A8 - you can find them under $20,000 now and require 11.5 liters/12 quarts of oil every change. — W12 Audi A8 - you can find them under $20,000 now and require 11.5 liters…

It’s all very well getting an amazing car for cheap, but having it sitting in the driveway because you can only afford to drive it two weeks of every month is going to suck.

Pick up a V engine and it needs twice the amount of anything come repair or maintenance time. Any unfortunate overheating incident on a V engined car runs a high risk of two head gaskets being replaced - a great example of a five dollar part needing many hundreds of pounds or dollars to replace and your V engine needs two.

Take a look at things such as tire sizes as well, if the sizes are large or even worse uncommon then putting fresh rubber on is going to be a costly affair - 19 or 20” rims may look great but you’re paying for more rubber to go round them. The same goes for brakes, or indeed any consumables the car needs to keep it roadworthy and safe. HID lights, for example, tend to last a long time and that long time is generally until just after the third or fourth owner has purchased the car.

Now, I’m not saying don’t buy a high end car when it’s value has dropped sufficiently to be affordable. If you do your homework and understand the costs and have the ability to have it taken care of then you can most certainly run an old but cool car.

What I am saying is it’s disingenuous at best and cynical at worst for these clickbait lists to present these cars as being something you can pick up for peanuts while giving no thought to the cost of actually running them.

#blogpost #MakeCarThrottleCarsAgain

Comments

I can wholeheartedly confirm this. I very optimistically bought a badly neglected Audi 100 Turbo Avant for €500, and ended up spending just as much on parts.

The five cylinders are great engined, but parts are rare and the Bosch K-Jetronic injection is stupidly finicky. A lot needed to be replaced. My dad’s a mechanic so I saved the cost of labor, otherwise it would have been impossible for me.

I would have needed a specialist to spend many many hours and euro’s on it to get it in working order. Bankruptcy would be inevitable.

Yes, some cars may be cheap to buy but are expensive to maintain. HOWEVER, it’s not always like that. For example, Ford Panther bodies are great for reliability. There’s a reason you still see them used as taxis and police cars. Also, old American cars like 1990 Pontiac Bonnevilles and Ford trucks with 300 cubic inch inline 6’s. Old Honda Civics and Toyota pickups, yada yada yada.

I guess the general rule is if you’re going to buy something cheap, get something that was cheap new to begin with.

As a student who’s just got a £500 repair quote for a £1300 MX5 I can confirm Ian Wright know’s his stuff…

This post displays the accuracy of buying any Volvo from 1990 forward for less than $2500.

Whenever you buy a car, subtract the amount you’ll get when you sell it when you’re done with it (say 5 years), and add that many years’ worth of running costs and repairs. That’s how much the car will cost you across its lifetime. But you’ll only get the selling money at the end, so do the same calculation without the resale value and make sure you’ve got enough. Similar principle to cash flow in a business.

E36s arent too hard to work on and parts are plentiful. Its not reliable but it makes a good 2nd car with a civic or something as your daily driver.

Look on the bright side, at least when buying a used BMW u won’t HAV to worry about the indicators being over used…. Or used at all

That’s why if I were to make a list like this, I’d be using cars like MX-5s, 90s Corollas and V6 Commodores

Commodores never have problems unless they’re like 150 bucks

I do agree with the article however the only problem is that, that’s just common sense when it comes to buying an older (even just a matter of a couple of years old) car is there will always be things to fix. My general few on lists of cheap cars also is that they point more at people looking for a project car or people who can afford more but what to buy a cheap enthusiast car

Common sense ain’t common mate.

So, what, are you asking me to settle with a 20 year old Civic for the rest of my life? Hell no! This is what Car Throttle’s for. Spreading new ideas with other enthusiasts. And most cars are more reliable than you think.