Photo: 2002 Hyundai Accent, 73,338 miles, asking $4290.00
By John Pearley Huffman
MSN Money
It used to be that a car was toast at 100,000 miles. Worthless.
"Used up," agrees Phil Reed, a senior consumer-advice editor at Edmunds.com.
Today, that's a costly misperception. "For a lot of buyers, their frame of reference is out of date," Reed says. "Now you can easily go 200,000 miles with regular maintenance."
Heck, why not aim for 250,000? Or more? That dissonance between what many people believe and how well most late-model cars are built has produced a tantalizing buying opportunity: the $5,000 used car that you can drive virtually indefinitely.
It won't have that new-car smell, your retinas won't be scorched by its shine, and the neighbors won't be jealous. But the compensating virtues are overwhelming.
"A conservatively driven and well-maintained $5,000 car should last 10 years," says Steven Lang, who owns two used-car lots and half an auto auction, and writes frequently on used cars at The Truth About Cars. "Cars are engineered today so that you'll get tired of them long before they tire out on you."
You could save a bundle, learn a lot about cars and maybe even improve your social standing.
Click here for the complete interview from Money at MSN
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveonaCar/the-joys-of-a-5000-dollar-used-car.aspx?gt1=33017
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