Driving old, crappy vehicles is the way to go

I screwed up buying a nice vehicle. I always used to drive old, beat up craigslist deals that would crap out after a year or two.

I had a 1988 corolla that I bought for 1200. It ran fine for two years then when the tranny went out I sold it for 600. I spent 600 dollars to drive about 100k miles, also the insurance was dirt cheap.

I did the same type of thing with a few other vehicles, an 1999 corolla, a 2003 camry, and a 2001 accord. When the camry crapped out in 2016 I decided it was time to get a new vehicle like an adult. I ended up with a 250 dollar note.

250*12=3000. I'm spending 3000 dollars a year to drive this car. Over the 5 year course of the note that is around 10,000 more than if I was still driving the craigslist specials. Normally my insurance was around 50 bucks for liability for the old cars, it's about double now. That's another 3000 over 5 years. I also put a 12k down payment.

It's nice to have a reliable vehicle but I'm single and breaking down doesn't really bother me that much. I have a second vehicle that I use for hunting trips and such.

TLDR: I should have kept driving shitty vehicles.