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metadat

Where did the assumption come from that a new car costs $20,000? This is off by a factor of 2-4x.

I wonder how correcting this data point would influence the resulting recommendation.

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Here is a list of 10 new (2023) cars that you can buy for prices ranging from 17,600 to 22,115:

https://www.cars.com/amp/articles/here-are-the-10-cheapest-n...

How many of these will be in decent condition after 14 years of use?

These are also the prices for the shittiest base model version, once you add decent options the price will increase considerably.

Call me crazy but I don't believe cloth seats age well.

I've had acceptable outcomes purchasing older higher-end fully loaded Japanese vehicles like Toyota and Honda.

Cloth actually tends to age better in my experience. Automotive leathers are often bonded and sealed leathers these days, so they have a finite amount of moisture and colorant that wear out over time. Cloth is quite durable as long as you don’t have anything that’ll catch on it or rub it too bad, which is also a weakness of leather and vinyl as well.

In my experience cloth eventually gets stained and stinks after even relatively minor spills. The foam underneath soaks everything up. The same spills are minor and easy to clean from leather.

Clearly ymmv, I appreciate you sharing yours.

Cloth can be cleaned with one of those portable fabric cleaners.

Or don't eat fast food and drink soda or wine or coffee in the car.

Wine?!

yeah because it stains real bad. Also the driver shouldn't be drinking wine in the car for obvious reasons but eg taxis.

I prefer leather seats, but my wife prefers cloth. Her 225K mile, 18 year old CR-V’s cloth seats are pretty much mint, even after us raising two kids while owning that car (and the obviously significant overall usage).

My 2015, 24K mile LEAF has noticeably more wear on the leather seat’s bolster.

Nissan is pure garbage compared to Honda

Funny - my 2002 Nissan Xterra still runs, drives and looks like the day I bought it. My 1997 Miata is likewise just as fit. I'll take ANY Japanese car over an American, or god help you, European car - keep them clean and do oil changes religiously and most modern cars will treat you well. The biggest thing that boggles my mind is the amount of people who have garbage they don't use in their garages instead of their cars. And then let their kids destroy the interiors with food and drink.

21 year old Saturn LW200 with cloth seats here. Seats are still great. I also own cars with leather and vinyl seats. I prefer the cloth.

> How many of these will be in decent condition after 14 years of use?

With cars, more expensive doesn't necessarily mean that it will last longer. In fact, the opposite is often true. I would be willing to bet that a typical Corolla is capable of getting more miles than a $100k Mercedes.

In my experience cloth seats age best. Fake leather gets tears and the like too easily, and are hard to repair.

The average new car is close to $40,000 right now in the US

I didn't believe this at first but it seems to be true

https://www.statista.com/statistics/274927/new-vehicle-avera...

Cheapest doesn’t mean where the average car sales are.

A base Toyota Corolla goes for $21,500. No, it's not a flashy car, but it is well built, relatively easy to repair and should last a while.

Yes, the average car is far more expensive, but if you are looking to optimize for cost and just need something to get from A to B (which is what the article seems to assume), then a Corolla is a perfectly good vehicle.

It came from the fact that the author is at the age where that WAS the price of a new basic car when he was growing up.

I bought a new Subaru Impreza in 2020 for something like $23k

I also bought a 5 door Impreza in 2020. Manual, as base as I could get in stock for about 22,000. 0% financing. I also have a big vehicle for carrying around all 7 of us that was more expensive but I can't imagine why I would ever buy an expensive smallish car unless I travelled for work and wanted a luxury, quiet interior or just didn't care about money.

Yeah I don't get that either. If I'm going to pay a lot for a vehicle it's got to be because it's more practical for what I want to use it for. Also, this was my first time buying new because I figured that 0% interest wasn't going to last long.

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