My brother drove a 70's Dodge Colt forever. Actually a decent car, and it was stunning to see his 6-6 frame stand up beside it. The colt had a long seat track and the long doors made it a very comfortable fit. 2 doors can surprise you.

I am doing the same with our tax return. I have been mainly looking at a 2008ish Focus because, well its a Ford. I agree 100% on all the hondas and toyotas being over priced. another car with good milage that is pretty cheap for a newer car is a 2007+ Chevy Aveo. Can get the 4 door sedan and they dont look horrible and get 35 or so hwy MPG. can find them with less than 100k miles for under 5k.

I still don't see the point of buying another car to save money.. but to each their own, I advise against the turbo vw.. 3 of the guys I work with Have them, and have had nothing but problems, the best is they don't start in the cold!! Eventually they do and run like crap.. they had vw's prior to this with no issues. But below 40 degrees they are all in the lot trying to start them

I wanted a DD so I wasn't racking up miles on my mustang, but then I decided I really enjoy driving the mustang. If I end up getting stationed in the dfw area and leave the wife and kids in OKC I could see getting a car that gets great gas mileage to make the 3 hour drive. Other than that I think my DD would sit since I do love driving the stang.

1. to keep the miles off the mustang
2. so I wont be worried about breaking stuff in the mustang when I race it because If i break something and the car is down for a while I still have a way to get to work.
3. a lot easier to fit the huge rear facing car seat in a 4 door car. I can take my son with me in the mustang right now but it can only be the two of us because the passenger seat has to be pushed all the way forward.
4. I dont like driving the mustang to work. Unfortunately we don't have separate parking for visitors and employees and in my line of work I don't want one of last nights "customers" to see me get out of my mustang the next day when I get to work (has already happened numerous times).
5. so I don't care about having to drive in bad weather, door dings (so the wife stops complaining about parking in BFE everywhere), and other things like that.

basically I like my mustang too much to put it thought all the crap an everyday car goes through. Of course I enjoy the mustang a hell of a lot more than a shit DD and I will drive it every chance I get but always nice to have a backup car.

Lmfao. Ok had to chime in here... ive had 3 turbo VWs in a row. they all start in the cold... how fucken old are their shitboxes? I dont keep a car i drive often out of warranty... thats the whole damn point of having a car I dont have to worry about. if its a vw out of warranty, its likely going to break. Once tgey are over 5 to 6 years old they fall apart, but i only keep them for 3 and they are aces in that time frame... not one zero problem.

As for not understanding the point of another car. Its simple mathematics actually. Someone broke it down in one of these threads but figure if you save 250/mo in gas by not driving your Stang or whatever, that is basically applied to a payment or towards a cash car. You also save wear and tear on your hot rod, tire expense, oil changes as often, your paint stays nicer, the interior stays nicer, and if you sell your car down tge road, it will be worth more money.

I got into this mindset when i lived is SF. I had a Terminator that averaged 15 mpg. Gas was 5/gallon, so i bought a Civic Hybrid for 202/mo. With insurance i was out 260ish... so the 37k miles I put on that car which averaged 40 mpg saved me about 7400 bucks in gas, not to mention the price difference in 87 vs 93, and the amount of money i would have lost selling my Cobra with 60k miles instead of 22k... lets call it 7 grand... so not to mention tires and maintenance, i spend 10k for car and insurance to save almost 15... in real world numbers its closer to probably 22 to 25, since tires would been 4 grand at least over 4 sets, clutch or two, 10 oil changes yadada, thats if the motor, trans and rear never broke!

Hope that makes more sense to people confused about the reasoning of a daily car.

But stroked what you are leaving out is the cost for the pos dd.. I traded in my svt focus for my Mustang and my insurance went down.. you say we'll it saved me $250 a month in gas.. well no.. I drive 30 miles one way. That's a tank a week at $50.00 the focus was $30 a week. That's $80 a month.. Tires on the mustang cost me $600 a set.. The focus were $500 . I was and am getting 2 years out of a set that's $5.16 a month.. mustang oil change is $39.00 every 5 months.. The focus was $19.99 every 3 months so that's $1.30 roughly savings for a focus.. I don't have exact numbers on my insurance but I can look them up if needed. . Both are manuals, clutch replacement is a wash.. I'm damaging the paint on which ever I drive. And with 5,000 mustangs sold every day I'm not deluding myself that it's a classic.. so a total of $86.46 left over as a car payment for a dd.. go over that and you are losing money.. we can get more scientific and go into the rates at which both cars devalue, etc... but even if you say that's ok I paid cash.. ok then estimate how much that cash would have earned you over 5 years in interest and subtract that from the total savings.. then put a price on how much you hate driving a 87 civic vs your mustang every day. .. now some cases... let's say you have a 1,200 hp mustang with a drag chute.. we'll yeah. Ok.. or but jeff I live in Minnesota, ok 9 months out of the year you need a 4x4.. If you just want another car to drive ok fine but just say that.

Just a little over 1 year and my mustang has
41,500 miles
100+ miles per day
$100/week in gas

I'll have it paid off in 3 years.
160,000 miles
multiple scratches, dings, rock chips...If I'm lucky.
"OK, You're interested in the Mach 1, Eh? Well, We'll give you jack shit for your '13..."

Buying a beater/DD makes perfect since to me

Fordplay, my math was all included. It was a brand new civic hybrid off the lot for 202/mo for 36 months plus 50 or so for insurance for same time. Thats where I came up with spending 10 to save over 20.. and I forgot to add Uncle Sam gave me 3500 bucks to buy the damn car as a tax credit... that wasnt even figured in!.... the gas mpg averaged 40 (gas in northern cali was 4.99/gallon in 2007 to 2008 when I did this), it got 54 on long trips... i had an orange cobra which they made 281 of not 5000... also, as you wrap it up, my other mustang is going to be over 1200 hp and has a cage and a chute... so you sort of made my point in every way, so thanks for that.

Even it didnt work out for you, it makes sense if you get a car cheap enough that gets good enough mpg to offset its expense. Thats all it boils down to.