Slys dating site advice help thread.

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Back in those days I didn’t have rules. I didn’t always see debt as a problem. I bought my wife’s engagement ring and wedding band on credit. Got a computer and other things from GuitarCenter on retail credit. Didn’t see that it was a big deal.

I woke up one day with GC wanting their money. They eventually gave up, but I fought hard until I had the cash to pay them off.

We’ve had to choose between keeping lights on or skipping car payments. We had to sell our house with nowhere to go. We’ve had electric, water, cable all turned off because we didn’t have the money. We’ve had that discussion of which creditor we’re gonna screw over this month. And then there was that time my wife needed surgery and the doctor slipped in hundreds of dollars in hidden fees we never agreed to. Dang, I have a broken filling and my dentist was very understanding that I was coming in for a diagnosis ONLY and an estimate. We’d spent nearly an hour talking about her operation and EXACTLY what we needed, and they STILL sent us to collections. Bastards.

Poor practices incurring debt and inadequately assessing risk cost me a nice home and a career.

Bad things happen. So freakin what? We learned from our mistakes. We paid everything we knew about. I think we still have an outstanding bill for cable—but the way they fleeced us, screw em. We manage med bills the best we possibly can. Emergencies happen and unless you have margin for deductibles, you can’t help that. They usually won’t come after you for that, but we do our best to settle those quickly. It’s rare that it happens, and we like it that way.

Reliable cars don’t cost that much at a minimum. Save your money. $4000 max and you have a ride. Heck, my car would be back up and running for that, and the blue book on my car is prolly under $2k by now. There was nothing wrong with it except an oil leak above the engine. I couldn’t afford to fix it, and by now the tires have dry rot.

But I could sell it as is, save up another $2k, and have an extra ride to work for when I need to be away. And then I could save another $2k in a year and upgrade to a used Jeep Grand Cherokee or something. Another year and I could have an old pickup or “terrorist van” and haul more gear to gigs. Or if any of those break down, I might have to take whatever I could at trade-in and downsize, but I would never be without a ride.

“Reliable” doesn’t even cost half what you’re quoting.

Find me a new car that isn’t a Kia or Hyundai that’s under 18,000?
Used cares aren’t reliable they can break down at any minute . Reliable cars won’t bresk down for years then they won’t be reliable anymore.

I doubt my work would consider a car that could break down in a month and need fixed reliable then it breaks down a week later for another issue. Used cars are a ticking bomb. Everything on them is near it’s nresking point besides the engine. And that’s only if the person before you maintained the engine. Most people don’t replace parts when they need to so it’s just waiting to break. Most the population doesn’t read the car manual in les follow the maintenance schedule. S no I’d never call a used car with 100,000 plus miles reliable. I’d cerisnly never trust one to say go on a road trip unless I went through and replaced a lot of parts first.
Most used cars have a list of known issues in their ad, and thst doesn’t include the unknown ones or one they’re hiding.
Used car $5,000,Neds new tires, new alternator k new starter, back breaks are almost completely gone, etc. yeah sure sounds reliable. So with just the nkonown parts your looking st 1-2,000 in repairs. Your probably want to replace the timing belt, habe the transmission filter changed and flushed, I bet you thdid brake fluid is bad too, and check the front brakes as if the backs are bad they might be too. And what about all the supension and sprintd did they change those hen required. Cause that could rack on another Grand.

Anyone who thinks they just going buy a car for 2,000 and be th end of it is a fool. They all have stuff wrong with them. Even some cars for 10,000 have a list of needed repairs.

My other sister bought a car for 11,000 and it died month later. Cost thousands to fix it.
She shouldn’t saved more or got bigger loan and bought new.

This is the kind of attitude that keeps poor people poor. Common sense...you deal with people you can trust and if the car breaks down, you take it back to the dealer and get your money back or a different car. This is NOT DIFFICULT.

You know lots about cars, Sly.

Is auto repair one of your special interests?

Yeah that’s not how it works. Used car places sell as is. No returns.
Most people here buy from other people. Car lots charge double what private sales do.
So my 2,000 car would been 4-5,000 at a lot.

No I just remembered limited stuff. I dont even know the exact mileage of when parts are replaced anymore.
Maybe if cars had been a special interest I’d been able to retain more of what I learned.

Rednecks ruined car culture as well as sports, drinking, smoking, and church culture for me.

I went to dodge.com but they don't seem to have a replacement for my dodge dart this year.
So, next over to chevrolet.com

Spark starting at $13,050 USD
Sonic $15,295 USD
Cruze $16,975 USD

And that's just Chevrolet. MOST automakers have offerings in the USA under $18k USD for brand new cars. Not luxury brands, but the mainstream econo brands besides Hyundai & Kia. I bet Ford sells a car for under $18k USD too. GMC probably. Mitsubishi. Volkswagen. etc etc. There are quite a few brand new cars available for less than $18k USD.

Also, just because a car isn't brand new doesn't mean it's not reliable. I've had my car for several months and it has over 16,000 miles on it.. it's still completely reliable. It may still be at 100k miles, 200k miles, too. It's on a car by car basis. Some cars are lemons right out of the factory, some are truly worn out beyond repair. But there are nearly countless used cars available that are quite reliable. I've driven stupid-cheap cars on long road trips, too. You're exaggerating big time to make things fit your very narrow view that cars HAVE TO cost a lot of money & be brand new in order to be reliable and that's simply not true.

A lot of parts need replaced by 100,000 miles, most people didn’t. Most people selling used cars is cause they bought a new one to avoid costly maintenance of replacing parts.
So the buyer ends Up with it. Some people do follow the maintenance and replace the parts. But they are few, a lot of people don’t ever change their oil. Engine oil needs changed every 3,000 miles, trans oil needs changed too and so does the filter when you do or little tiny metal shaving gums up the system. Coolant is another thing, and brake fluid most cars I’ve seen have black brake fluid. It’s a clear fluid. Brown needs changed. Black is awful. Means all the valves and o rings in the brake system are being ruined and will likely fail and need replaced. These are simple tasks but little expensive. Oil change is $60-$100. Brake flush is about the same, the trans is probably $200. People just don’t do it, laziness or just wasting their money on other things like Booz and cigarettes or weed. Or they just can’t afford it. I was the latter. I changed my oil, but I couldn’t afford the transmission maintenance.

Most people mistreat their cars. They just run them til something breaks then fix it or sell it. My sister is that way. She had costly repairs that could been avoided with simple maintenance. So pardon me for not trusting thst most cars have been well maintained at 200,000 miles. Example. Timeline belts need changed every 60,000 miles. Have you changed your? Ask people if they know when it was last changed and they like i dont know. So I changed mine myself. With friends help it took all day. But car had 250,000 miles on it. Did they change it 1,000 miles ago or 59,999 miles ago?
There’s a maintenance log included with need cars in that manual no one reads.

Haven’t heard good things about the spark, haven’t even heard of the others.
I do know Asian cars are better then Americans and last longer. Americans are looser with our tolerances which leads to more running between parts which means they won’t last as long.

Either way 13,000 dollars might as well be a million to me
I’d have to save for 15 years of not spending any money to get that.

You can buy a new Mitsubishi Mirage for around 10,000. It's a very crappy car, but it will be reliable and very economical with it's tiny 1.0 3cyl engine.

I know enough about cars to know I can’t afford one or afford to maintain it, o can’t even afford the insurance.
I have $40 after bills and food. That’s it.

And it’ll probably crap out at year 3, leaving yiu with two years of paying off a parked car.

If I would buy a car it’d have to go to at least 300,000 miles.
Seems silly to buy a car thst won’t last long and need repairs sooner.
If you can’t affoed the repairs you back to square one with no car but now you have car payments.

All this talk makes me depressed.

You can look for a timing belt sticker. Also if it was changed recently then it will probably look like new. As alternative, you could look for a car with timing chain.

I am from a working class family. We always buy used cars and maintain them ourselves. I know replacing timing belt is a tedious job, but doable on a simple car.

What mass market car has an oil change interval of 3,000 miles? More exaggerations. That’s only 4,800 km.

My car’s oil change light goes on when it’s due for a change within 800 km (varies depending on driving style - must log rpms/acceleration etc) & it’s come on after approx 12,000 km.

Re: buying an old/cheap car

for what it's worth, a good car can be found for a few thousand dollars, but it's not easy. a lot of people do want too much $ for junk. it helps a lot if you have a friend who can/will drive you around to look at used cars being sold by the owners. it is difficult, i fully agree.

repairs are a fact of life with old cars, yes. the only way it really becomes cost effective is if you learn to work on the car yourself. most parts are not prohibitively expensive. but a mechanic will charge a fair bit for labor, and many also charge a markup for parts (not to mention honest machanics seem ordinately rare).

if you want to learn to fix cars, hanes makes a good instruction manual for each year and model of car. youtube has also huge help for learning how to replace parts.

when buying a cheap car, make sure the engine and transmission are in good shape, in my experience those are the most expensive to repair.

sorry this got long... if you have any q's feel free to ask. i've done this a few times

New cars use synthetic oil and don’t but older cars pre 2000s were suppose to have them changed every 3,000 miles and the oil filter too or every other time according to some. That’s not exaggeration it’s what the sticker says at every oil change place. It’s what we were taught, it’s what mechanic shops do. Oil actual oil goes bad and gathers tiny parts in it. The filter captures these. It it’ll clog up at some point. Just way it is. The new car my sister has is the first one we’ve had to use synthetic oil.



We are talking about used cars in the 2,000 price range, which are mostly 80/90s made cars. They needed their oil changed every 3,000 miles. Most people didn’t follow that.

Those cars don’t even have a change oil light lol. They have a oil pressure light if thst. And all that means is there’s low or no oil pressure which is usually because it’s low on oil but can have few other mechanical issue reasons. My sisters new 2017 doesn’t have a change oil light either, Toyota just out w sticker on her windshield and send emails when it’s time.