What is a beater car?

lifeonthehill · March 2014

As my earlier post displayed we all have different ideas of beater cars. What is yours?

To me a beater car costs less than $2,500. Has 150,000+ miles on it and is at least 7 years old. Which since that is what I own at the moment it is never something I would consider.

Erikan73 · March 2014

A better car to me is one with high mileage (probably over 150,000) make a little rust or minor dents (you know the kind from shopping carts), mabye a/c or radio might not work & probably not something I would trust to go on an extended car trip with and might even make sure to have AAA membership in case of breakdown.

vlagrl29 · March 2014

To me a beater car is 10 plus years old and has 150,000 or more miles on it. I would never buy a beater car.

brij2006 · March 2014

Guess my definition is definitely off. I say anything under $5k is a beater.

But we're car people and will make sacrifices in other areas to be able to get decent cars.

ashleyjesse1112 · March 2014

I would say over 10 years with over 150k miles worth under 5k. Luckily my car has only hit one of these things so far!

I am hoping to drive my car as long as possible.

vlagrl29 · March 2014

ashleyjesse1112 said:

I would say over 10 years with over 150k miles worth under 5k. Luckily my car has only hit one of these things so far! I am hoping to drive my car as long as possible.

you and me both! My car will be 11 years this year. I can't believe it, but you would have no idea because I take good care of it. Ford Focuses seem to last forever. A car repair guy told me I could drive it well over 200,000

cbee817 · March 2014

My honda civic is 11 years old, but only has 59,000 miles on it, no rust, up to date on maintenence, and lives in the garage unless I'm at work. If I had to replace it, I would probably look at something 2-3 years old, 1 owner, certified pre-owned with a dealership.

I don't consider it a beater car.. if it had 100,000+ miles on it and rust, then it would be though.

Xstatic3333 · March 2014

alyssa32713 said:
As my earlier post displayed we all have different ideas of beater cars. What is yours?

To me a beater car costs less than $2,500. Has 150,000+ miles on it and is at least 7 years old. Which since that is what I own at the moment it is never something I would consider.

I'm with you. I see a beater as something safe for basic, in town commuting only. If it's safe for longer commutes or OOT road trips, I don't consider it a beater even if it was cheap.

We're considering moving very close to my job. If this goes through my next car may be very well-loved, and I'll hopefully pay cash for it, but it won't be a beater. I'll look in the $5-10,000 range.

short+sassy · March 2014

I consider a beater car as something that is more than 10 years old, more than 100K miles, and...although driveable runs rough in some ways and just gives one that feeling it is about to bring down at any moment. Bonus points if there is very noticeable body damage, like the pretty plastic part of one or both bumpers is missing. And, for the most part, it needs to be all three of those things.

formerlyGDaisy09 · March 2014

I'd consider a beater car to be a car you could buy out-right and wouldn't put collision insurance on, because you if you were in a collision it wouldn't be worth fixing. the numbers might be different depending on what your cashflow looks like.

because H an I both work and our schedules overlap we both require cars to get to work, in my mind a beater wouldn't be reliable enough to count on it to get to work...however it would be the perfect car to buy for a teenager

hoffse · March 2014

I mean... maybe I'm a car snob but pretty much anything over 100K miles that doesn't have pretty current safety technology is a beater to me. Doesn't really matter what it costs or what it looks like or the make/model.

Honestly people lose their minds over car loans... but if a loan helps you buy a car that's safer because it enables you to afford a car that has curtain airbags or lane drift, then I say borrow the money. Of course it needs to be affordable, but people seem to forget that driving is the single most dangerous thing we do each day. If a $200/month car payment means I can buy a car that's more likely to save me, my husband's life, or a family member's life in a wreck, then I see no reason to pay cash for something that's less, simply to avoid the debt.

I don't think I'll ever recommend what I consider a beater to anybody. We all know that debt in general doesn't bother me nearly as much as it bothers some (primarily because debt-financing helps you grow wealth if you do it right), but I think the car loan actually bothers me the least out of all the various forms of debt out there. They are relatively short-term, they allow you to pay off a depreciating asset slowly, which means your investments can help you offset that depreciation since you aren't sinking all your savings into the car at once, and most importantly, it might help you afford upgraded safety features so you are less likely to die in wreck.

But that's just my $0.02.

KatieCutie05 · March 2014

Any car under thats under 4k, over 100k miles, looks visibly used and is paid for with cash.

I'm not "above" driving a beater and I would do it temporarily to get out of debt or something like that. I seriously considered trading in my car for a beater but my husband didn't like the idea since it would be years before i could replace it and it didn't gain us enough to make it worth it.

As far as "safety features" i don't think that a newer vehicle will keep you any safer in an accident then then same model 10 years older. If you want a safe vehicle then SUV or Truck is really the only way to go. Its the size and strength of the frame that makes it safer, not an extra airbag.

juliebeannn · March 2014

i'd classify my car as a beater and i love it. we sold my car that had payments and bought a '99 Subaru Forester with 144k miles for $2000. Previous owner and I split the cost of a new timing belt/water pump for a few hundred more. I've had it for 3 years now and have only put an additional 10k miles on it and have not needed any repairs other than regular oil changes.

as PP said, I'd consider anything less thatn $5k a beater.

hoffse · March 2014

KatieCutie05 said:

Any car under thats under 4k, over 100k miles, looks visibly used and is paid for with cash.

I'm not "above" driving a beater and I would do it temporarily to get out of debt or something like that. I seriously considered trading in my car for a beater but my husband didn't like the idea since it would be years before i could replace it and it didn't gain us enough to make it worth it.

As far as "safety features" i don't think that a newer vehicle will keep you any safer in an accident then then same model 10 years older. If you want a safe vehicle then SUV or Truck is really the only way to go. Its the size and strength of the frame that makes it safer, not an extra airbag.

An SUV with curtain airbags is safer than an SUV without.

And newer vehicles that pass the small overlap front test are safer than older vehicles that don't... that's the brand new crash test where they check to see if the engine is likely to be shoved into the driver's body cavity in a frontal collision. That sounds like a terrible way to die to me, and older cars (of all shapes and sizes) were not engineered to prevent it. Now that they are testing for it, I see no reason to buy a car that either hasn't been crashed that way or failed miserably (sneeze: 2013 Toyota Camry).

Obviously cars need to be affordable. But they HAVE made strides in safety in the last 10 years. There's a reason why the insurance on my H's brand new car went DOWN compared to the car he had been driving previously (which was 9 years old). He's a lot less likely to die or be severely injured in it.

People can certainly disagree about this. But I think there are things worth spending money on, and a safe car is one of those things. You don't have to be driving a $50,000 car to be driving a safe car.

short+sassy · March 2014

I have become a true believer in air bags and the "engine dropping down" thing. I was in an accident a few years ago (not the one I just had, lol, ugh). Not head-to-head, but the front of my car hit the side of another one at about 35MPH. The entire front of my car was smashed in by more than half.

It was actually kind of fascinating to look under the car and see where the engine had dropped down, just like it was supposed to, as it got shoved backward. And the entire cabin of the car was like this perfectly intact safe, little bubble. I know the air bag that went off also saved me from potentially a bad injury. Of course, I was wearing my seat belt also.

formerlyGDaisy09 · March 2014

hoffse said:

I mean... maybe I'm a car snob but pretty much anything over 100K miles that doesn't have pretty current safety technology is a beater to me. Doesn't really matter what it costs or what it looks like or the make/model.

Honestly people lose their minds over car loans... but if a loan helps you buy a car that's safer because it enables you to afford a car that has curtain airbags or lane drift, then I say borrow the money. Of course it needs to be affordable, but people seem to forget that driving is the single most dangerous thing we do each day. If a $200/month car payment means I can buy a car that's more likely to save me, my husband's life, or a family member's life in a wreck, then I see no reason to pay cash for something that's less, simply to avoid the debt.

I don't think I'll ever recommend what I consider a beater to anybody. We all know that debt in general doesn't bother me nearly as much as it bothers some (primarily because debt-financing helps you grow wealth if you do it right), but I think the car loan actually bothers me the least out of all the various forms of debt out there. They are relatively short-term, they allow you to pay off a depreciating asset slowly, which means your investments can help you offset that depreciation since you aren't sinking all your savings into the car at once, and most importantly, it might help you afford upgraded safety features so you are less likely to die in wreck.

But that's just my $0.02.

this! I have an aquaintence who was hit head on in their "beater car", technology would have saved them from months in the hospital and rehab...the thought of their femur going through the back of their pelvis will forever make me believe that the technology is worth it and embrace my monthly car payment (as much as it hurts right now).

What is a beater car?

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