I had a little better deal than you guys did it seems.
I had pretty good part time jobs through HS and college and stayed in pretty good cars. They were generally only a year or two old and in good shape. Rust was never an issue in my area back then.
My problem was that my cars were good enough that my mom would steal my keys and take off in my hot rods. She would return and pass judgement on whether I should be allowed to drive anything that would go that fast. Life was tough.
In fact, I often had two cars! One good vehicle I used daily and an old banger to use for hunting, fishing and camping.
In my area you could pick up a good old car for $200-$300 and turn it into the equal of a Tennessee dune buggy. Heavy lug mud & snow retreads for $10 each, a roof rack to carry the john boat, mount tractor lights on the roof rack, shoot a coat of primer on it and head for the creek.
Of course back then we could keep them running using simple hand tools. Replacing a starter was $25 and an hour under the car. Alternators about the same. We were known to replace rings and bearings and rebuild a head over the weekend if necessary.
The last alternator I had replaced was $900, a couple of years back replacing two 4WD front axles cost me $1200 and I just scrapped my Jeep rather than pay the value of the rig to replace the heads. An engine rebuild would have been twice the value of the vehicle.
Right now most of my hunting is done on one of the WMA areas nearby and they have a nice parking lot and good road access. My favorite fishing spots let me back into the lake and shove the boat in the water so I don't need and SUV or truck for that any more. I am sort of into simple, plain and cheap at this point in my vehicle experience.
Bookmarks