Buy it Once
1974 BMW 2002ti
“Buy what you like – buy it once" by Larry She, Frugal Fixer
I learned this lesson 10 years ago. I was fresh out of Engineering school and working in New Orleans, enjoying my first car – a used 6 year old BMW I had purchased for myself as a graduation gift! I joined the local BMW car club, and came across a one owner 1974 BMW 2002 for sale. It would soon be my second car!
Buying an old car from its original owner is a fun and unique experience. If the car is really old, the owner is likely an enthusiast. My old 2002 came with a stack of paperwork, including the original window sticker, original brochure, and every service record for the past 28 years. Bob, the car’s owner, bought it brand new as a birthday present for his wife Elizabeth back in 1973. The original sales receipt showed that Bob traded in a three year-old Chrysler New Yorker on it, and paid the astronomical sum of $7,513 – not an unsubstantial sum of money today but a gargantuan amount of money 30 years ago.
When I bought the car, I tried to put myself in Bob’s shoes, and wrap my head around spending THAT much money on a car in 1973. I was a freshly minted Engineer making a solid salary from one of the world’s major oil Companies, and would never dream of spending over a year’s wages on a new car.
The more I thought about Bob’s decision, the more it made rational, financial sense. Bob and Elizabeth drove that car for 28 years. They maintained it and enjoyed it. The money they saved keeping it, instead of buying something new every 3 or 4 years, made the initial $7,513 price tag seem like a relative bargain. The reason is simple; the single biggest expense associated with most car purchases is depreciation. A car starts depreciating the moment you drive it off the lot, so the less frequently you drive a new car off the lot, the more money you’ll save. In Bob and Elizabeth’s case, they had a car that they loved, and had no desire to keep up with the Joneses by purchasing a new depreciating asset every few years.
The lesson here is simple. Buy what you like, and keep it “forever”. Manage without it until you can afford it, and then don’t be afraid to pay for quality. The point is NOT to buy an interim surrogate, only to replace it before the end of its useful life with the item you wanted in the first place. This applies to sofas, dining room sets, watches, cars, boats, or anything else that most people purchase multiple times in their life.
The hard part is having the self awareness to know whether you REALLY like it, or are just seduced by its newness, and then having the discipline to keep it for the true duration of its useful life. A new car if maintained properly could last 30 years. Cars don’t really ‘wear out’ they just become less and less appealing to own. If you just bought a new car, will you really like it enough to keep it that long?
I learned this lesson 10 years ago. I was fresh out of Engineering school and working in New Orleans, enjoying my first car – a used 6 year old BMW I had purchased for myself as a graduation gift! I joined the local BMW car club, and came across a one owner 1974 BMW 2002 for sale. It would soon be my second car!
Buying an old car from its original owner is a fun and unique experience. If the car is really old, the owner is likely an enthusiast. My old 2002 came with a stack of paperwork, including the original window sticker, original brochure, and every service record for the past 28 years. Bob, the car’s owner, bought it brand new as a birthday present for his wife Elizabeth back in 1973. The original sales receipt showed that Bob traded in a three year-old Chrysler New Yorker on it, and paid the astronomical sum of $7,513 – not an unsubstantial sum of money today but a gargantuan amount of money 30 years ago.
When I bought the car, I tried to put myself in Bob’s shoes, and wrap my head around spending THAT much money on a car in 1973. I was a freshly minted Engineer making a solid salary from one of the world’s major oil Companies, and would never dream of spending over a year’s wages on a new car.
The more I thought about Bob’s decision, the more it made rational, financial sense. Bob and Elizabeth drove that car for 28 years. They maintained it and enjoyed it. The money they saved keeping it, instead of buying something new every 3 or 4 years, made the initial $7,513 price tag seem like a relative bargain. The reason is simple; the single biggest expense associated with most car purchases is depreciation. A car starts depreciating the moment you drive it off the lot, so the less frequently you drive a new car off the lot, the more money you’ll save. In Bob and Elizabeth’s case, they had a car that they loved, and had no desire to keep up with the Joneses by purchasing a new depreciating asset every few years.
The lesson here is simple. Buy what you like, and keep it “forever”. Manage without it until you can afford it, and then don’t be afraid to pay for quality. The point is NOT to buy an interim surrogate, only to replace it before the end of its useful life with the item you wanted in the first place. This applies to sofas, dining room sets, watches, cars, boats, or anything else that most people purchase multiple times in their life.
The hard part is having the self awareness to know whether you REALLY like it, or are just seduced by its newness, and then having the discipline to keep it for the true duration of its useful life. A new car if maintained properly could last 30 years. Cars don’t really ‘wear out’ they just become less and less appealing to own. If you just bought a new car, will you really like it enough to keep it that long?
