Which car was your most anti-money pit car ever?

[sugarwood]

The answers may surprise you. It may have been your 911 since it gets fewer miles than a 150k mile commuter. It may have been that Euro sedan you got after having bad luck with a Toyota or Honda. Everyone's experience is different. I know mine is not the mainstream narrative.

[stevej37]

My 2010 Honda Fit
Paid $4500 for it with 100K miles on it.
It now has 220K miles and am still waiting for the first repair.

[cassisrot]

2002 Lexus LS 430. $13K with 110k miles, now 205k. Expenses 1 set of tires and a battery. It still runs and looks like a new car.

[javadog]

Several of my Audis never suffered a single problem or repair.

[LWJ]

Olds cutlass ciera (2)
Ford Taurus
Pontiac Grand Prix
Another Taurus

All company cars. Did great off road, hauling construction supplies, and being a surrogate pickup.

[GH85Carrera]

My 1986 El Camino. It is up to 372,000 miles. I bought it in 1991 with 38,000 miles.
The original engine wore out after 300,000 miles and I put in a brand new 350 from GM for $1,700. Last night we went to dinner and the couple parking next to us as we were leaving commented "I like your El Camino, and and the first red light just a few minutes later a pickup driver at the light next to me stuck his head out the window and waved, and gave me a thumbs up.

It is worth over double what I paid for it, and it has provided a lot of transportation and hundreds of offers to buy it, and lots of compliments. It has hauled bags of manure, to a $500,000 aerial camera system.

Over the years I have certainly done some extensive maintenance, but it is WAY way less than a car payment on some soulless econbox or pickup just like the millions of other pickups that depreciate. I do most of the work on my cars myself.

I discovered just recently that the yoke on the transmission end of the driveshaft is only good for 370,000 miles before a grove is worn in it, and it starts to eat the seal. New yoke, cheap, new seal, cheap. Fixed for the next 300,000 miles plus.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Mercedes SLK. Good grief I loved that car. Yea yea, go ahead and say it was a girly 2-seater convertible or whatever (one of my friends rubbed me mercilessly about my “gay hairdresser’s car”) but it was pretty much trouble free aside from bad luck in no way attributable to it (a drunk ran into it and a tree fell on it during a storm - this is back when I lived in the northeast...) It finally gave its life to protect me when a guy head-on-ed me during a snow squall (more fond memories of living in the northeast and things I miss oh-so-much about it...)

I’d gladly buy another - when the kids are growed up. Preferably the AMG SLK32 variety.

[fanaudical]

Easy - '76 Audi Fox that I bought in high school for $650 with 155479 miles on it. Kept that car for almost twenty years. The only major repairs I did were replace the clutch (~220k miles) and cylinder head rebuild (~270k miles). Did minor stuff like oil changes, points, tires, water pump, etc. Gave it away to somebody who wanted to restore it (have lost track of both him and the car) after putting ~200k more miles on the car.

[rwest]

Bought a new 2008 Toyota Yaris which now has 130,000 miles. Battery lasted ten years and has just needed normal wear items replaced.

[flatbutt]

A straight 6 three on the tree Chevy Biscayne. I don't remember the year exactly, late 60's I think. I bought it for $75 , drove it for IDK how many miles and only ever changed the oil.

[Alfasrule]

GiGi 1984 GTV-6, besides regular maintenance nothing? It's an ALFA Romeo? Put over 100K on her in the last 12 years. Now it has 262K miles on her. Always gets me home. Paid $3600.00 for her.

[wdfifteen]

Had to be my '84 Mazda GLC. It was a year old when I got it, drove it to 196,000 miles with nothing but tires and oil changes. In the end it needed a battery and an exhaust system and I thought I needed a Mercedes. Gave it to my brother-in-law.

I had some interesting experiences in that car. Heading west on the way across South Dakota into a headwind on a hot summer day I had to keep the throttle mashed to the floor to maintain 80 mph. It was hot, so now and then I had to back off enough to let the AC override switch click off so the AC would come back on.
Driving through the UP of Michigan on a hot humid summer day ice started blowing out of the air vents. Needed to back the AC down to let the evaporator warm up.
Somewhere west of Indianapolis on I-74 I was climbing a hill in a rainstorm and the car got squirrely and the RPM surged up. I thought maybe the clutch got wet and was slipping. Nope. Those skinny little tires were hydroplaning. I had no problems for 100k miles after that little scare.

[sc_rufctr]

The best and most reliable car I've ever owned is my current daily --- 1992 Mercedes Benz W140 S420!
It's also the cheapest car I've ever owned. It's not as much fun as my 911 SC but it's comfortable and stress free.

I've owned it for more than three years and nothing but the usual maintenance and consumables.
(After spending some money on doing the stuff that the PO had neglected.) Everything works including the door close assist and central locking.

The biggest problem I have now is what should I buy to replace it when it finally dies?

W140 As a daily?

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Taking out all of my 911s which never really broke, definitely my 2007 BMW 328i. W124s too

[Bob Kontak]

73 Celica ST. Was given the car in 79 for rustproofing a lady's car. Had to file the crud off the ignition points on the one hour trip home to make it.

Tuned it up, added cheap seat covers and painted it that dark brown Toyota color that was the rage in the late 70's.

Drove it four years and near the end lent it to my brother for a road trip to NYC. Four guys in the little thing and it popped the front upper strut mounting away from the inner fender. Still drove it and lent it to my sister who was t-boned in a low speed accident when a young kid ran a stop sign.

Martin Senour enamel paint - $40
Seat covers - $15
Tune up parts - $20
Misc repairs? probably brakes - $50
Insurance settlement - ($650)

$400-500 in my pocket save oil/tires/gas.

Never once did the AC stop working.

[Scott Douglas]

Had to be the first new car we ever bought. '80 Honda Accord hatchback stripper model, ie NO A/C, no radio, no AUTOmatic. Wife learned how to drive stick in it. We had that car for 99k miles, I forget how many years that was worth. We out grew it [KIDS]. It went to the dealer once early on, to have the glazing taken off the rear brakes as my wife toasted them during the break in period. Only put gas and oil in it, maybe an air filter, brake pads too. Replaced the tires with the old ones off our 4-dr Accord when we decided to get rid of the car. Sold it for $4800 if I recall. The guy that bought it couldn't believe how clean it was.

[Embraer]

'88 BMW 325e. Paid $500 for it. I owned it for about 4 years, putting around 40k miles on it. Had the alternator go out once....took it to AutoZone for replacement, come to find out the PO had.bought a lifetime unit, so I walked out of AutoZone with a free alternator. Later on, a teenage girl hits me and the car is totaled, but completely drivable. Her insurance company totals the car, lets me keep it, plus still cuts a check for $2500.

I moved myself to California in the car....drove it there for about a year. Sold it to a kid on Craigslist for $700. Never had one issue with the car. Made tons of money on it.

[stevej37]

Along with my Fit in post #2....I should have mentioned my 98 Prelude.
Bought it new...now it has 120K miles. The first and only time it's been in the shop was a few weeks ago for timing belt replacement...and that is just normal maintenance. Quite amazing considering the amount of Nitrous Oxide that it has consumed.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Had to be my '84 Mazda GLC.

Love it. I bought a four door 1983/4 GLC new because my 72 2002 didn't have a/c and I was sweltering in Florida.

Just doing some quick math, I have well over a million (nearing two) miles across all the Japanese cars I and my family have driven the last 40 years.

One failure, an alternator on my daughter's FJ Cruiser.

We lost a transmission on an Isuzu Trooper (I loved that thing) but the shop owned up to their mistake.

Other than wear and normal stuff, that is it.

I know they are soulless, sort of, but there is soul in reliability.

[RANDY P]

1989 Silverado. Paid $1.8K for it with 264K, over the last 8 years, put in new $1700 engine, $800 trans and now $1.3K rear end. Driven it 60K miles so on it, can easily sell it and make a few bucks.

It's never going to be sold tho.