After Ethan totaled the Mazda last month (actually, after Ethan was appropriately contrite about totaling the Mazda last month), I began looking for another car for him (this time, with his money). Everyone wants to hit that knee in the cost / age / mileage curve, and there's no easy answer. To nearly eliminate risk of breakdown, you can buy a new car, but then you've turned it all into financial risk. The easy answer is buy a five-year-old Toyota or Honda, but this is still big money for the purchase, sales tax, and insurance. Ethan is trying to make films and has equipment to haul, so I thought a small wagon would be appropriate. I looked at mid-90s Toyota Corolla 5-speed wagons, but people want crazy money for these, like three grand for 15 year old cars with 180k.
Looking at cars with less cache (and thus lower cost), I started trolling for Ford Focus wagons. By chance, I hit on a 2005 Focus 2-door hatchback, with 108k miles, 5-speed, for $2500. It was a repo that wound up at a very small used car lot in Gloucester. After verifying the CarFax showed it hadn't been wacked or wasn't a flood car, I bought it. Stripped car, manual crank windows, but working a/c. Not a bad point to hit on the cost / age / mileage curve.
Also about a month ago, my friend Alex who built my garage and who still owns Bertha my old 2002, was looking for a cheap car. Alex wound up with a 12 year old Passat wagon with a 1.8L turbo and 160k for very short money ($1250).
This afternoon there was some odd symmetry in the fact that, while I was driving home after Ethan and I drove up to Gloucester to pick up the Focus, Alex called me saying that the Passat wagon had blown up its engine on the Mass Pike, and asking if he could have it towed to my house because he had no space in his driveway.
What are old friends for?
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