My friend wants to buy a 1989 Honda Civic for $2000.00 to use as a commuter car..or rotate with her 09 justa cooper..she puts a lot of miles on her mini..driving to college and then work.. we both bought our mini coopers around the same time and she has way more miles on it, then me!! Now she is worried about driving to Las Vegas..for AMVIV puttin miles on the mini!!
I told her not to buy another car..and just drive the mini!!

put miles on the mini!!! thats the fun!! but she thinks it not a good idea?
what is the average miles in a year for a typical driver.

Put that $2000 into her mini?? upgrades?

 

I do the same thing, split the miles between my Jeep and my Mini, I only do about 6,000 a year on each. Of course I have double the maintenance costs but again it's spread out longer due to the low miles I put on each car. Then there's some places I just won't take my Mini to, the Jeep's tougher so I take it instead.

 

12,000-15,000 miles is the average. Correct me if I'm wrong, but she must do a lot of freeway driving? If she does she has nothing to worry about. Freeway driving is a lot easier on the car than stop-and-go driving. Also, if she buys a clunker, that is another car she has to insure and maintain. If I were her, I would just save the 2000 for future maintenance or pay for an extended maintenance package now from her dealer.

 

$2000 for an '89 Civic seems crazy. A 20 year old car that sells new for around $15k is still 2 grand!?

But anyways, I've had my car since July '08, and I have 19,900 miles on my car. About average I think.

 

OOPPs its a 1998 Honda Civic 137k for $3,499
or 1996 honda civic 131k for $3,199

of course she will ask if he will take lower prices..

Yes...she does a lot of free-way driving..

 

Unless she has a lease on the car it will definitely be cheaper in the long run to just drive the MINI.

The extra insurance cost, the price of the car, the maintenance headaches with an older car like those is just not worth the hassle or expense.

I have 38000 miles on mine and it is only 20 months old (not even two years yet) So that is above average slightly but not bad.

What kind of millage does she have on the car and when did she buy it.


BTW MINI are made to be driven not sit there and watch another car pull out of the driveway with its owner sitting in the front seat. MINI can get very upset at this.

 

I have 2 company cars so the jcw only gets 100 -200 miles a month.

 

I have a 1990 Honda Civic with 250,000 miles on it that I use as my second car for crappy salty road days like today.

 

Just drive the MINI. I put on 10k since August of 2009. Wouldn't trade it for the world. When stuff gets old, ill fix it because thats the fun of having a MINI.

 

Just keep the MINI and don't introduce any unknown expenses, unless it was leased. What would be the Total Cost of Ownership of the Civic, given its high mileage? I would personally keep the MINI and enjoy the "smile per mile" factor.

 

minis are made for miles. why maintain and pay for insurance on two cars?

 

For some of us, the Mini is the clunker.

I don't like the term "clunker" though -- I prefer "daily driver"...

 

Agreed.

 

Amen to that. I have two other vehicles in the household!

A

 

I think that she should not buy the other car because even if she drops the price to 2.5k she won't know what's wrong with the car until something breaks... and then she's gonna have two cars to upkeep and put gas in... two insurance payments, two oil changes, etc.

 

I think it's silly to buy another car. I could understand if she lived in the North and was worried about rust for instance and wanted to buy a beater but to do this for miles?? No way, I bought the car to enjoy and the more miles I put on it, the more I enjoy it.

I bought my car last June'ish. I'm about to flip over the 19K mile mark. I only live 8 miles from work but I drive that car all the time. I tend to drive a lot anyway since I still average 25K on my H2 and put about 5-6K miles on my Harley each year.

That doesn't include all the times we take my wife's Jeep.

DRIVE IT, ENJOY IT. It's not a classic and ain't gonna be worth any more or less when she sells it.

Mark

 

When I bought my 07 MC, I had a 99 Honda CR-V. I decided I'd just keep it. Its condition was excellent with 100,000 miles, new tires, timing belt, etc. I also needed a car around for hauling. You can't stuff a Xmas tree or 15 bags of mulch into a Mini. And the CR-V still drives like the day I bought it new. It was worth more to me to keep than what Mini would have given me to trade or what I'd get selling private party.

It does save miles on the Mini. The first year I did this I put 7000 on the mini, year two only about 5000. This year I've ramped up some and put about 8000 on it. I normally drive the Mini to work 2-3 days a week the CR-V the others and do my around town errands in the Mini on Saturday. Plus I'll always take the CR-V if I know its going to rain or if I'm going to places where I know parking is problematic. (My dentist has only a handful of real tiny parking spaces that I know it would get dinged in.) Less important than saving miles, my Mini looks like the day I bought it, no door dings, no dents, the only blemish is one tiny paint chip on the hood where I caught a pebble on the freeway.

Now given all that I'm not sure I'd do the same thing the OP was talking about. I wouldn't buy a beater to ease miles off my Mini for a long commute. I knew the history of My CR-V, knew how well its been taken care of and had no problem jumping in it for a 600 mile trip in Dec. But if I had a long commute buying a beater that you don't know the history of, is setting yourself up for a possible breakdown in the middle of nowhere. In that situation I'd stick with driving the Mini.

 

If she intends on using the car as a "weekend warrior" car, then buy a second one. Between my wife and I, we have 5 cars. My intention is to save miles on the MINI as it's my toy, but I find this is not always the case. It's actually a semi daily driver/weekend warrior. When I bought my first MINI in 2003, it was intended to be garage kept and only driven on certain occassions. In 3 years, however I racked up 54K miles on it and then traded it in for an S. The MINI doesn't allow you to not drive it for a while. There are times I swear that thing is telekenetically putting impulses in my head to drive it instead of my supposed "real" daily driver, my '96 Sidekick. It's not a stupid idea to have a second car. To each his/her own, and it's just up to the individual and what they want from the realtionship with the car.