Douglas Johnson wrote:
> Mark Bole <m...@p...net> wrote:
[...]
>> plus the image of reliability and sensibility you project to
>> your neighbors and co-workers (unless you are lucky enough not to have any!)
>
> Or lucky enough to have neighbors and co-workers that don't judge people by
> their cars. "Those that matter don't mind, those that mind don't matter."

True enough, at least for the high-cost status cars. I'm talking about
the other extreme, the automobile equivalent of dirty jeans with holes
and a threadbare t-shirt with something mildly obscene on it.

His 14-year old car has peeling paint, some major overdue engine
maintenance, we don't know about the interior condition or whether the
windshield is cracked but can guess.

Now, he said he only drives 4K miles/year and has another family car, so
maybe this is just the beater for weekend errands, in which case I would
recommend keeping it. Otherwise, I still recommend the "replace when
repairs are 50% of value" rule, it's easy to follow and pretty much
guarantees cash-flow payback in two years.

Speaking of clothes, I wonder how the financial advice would fall
regarding the economics of buying new clothes regularly vs. wearing used
ones well beyond when the edges start to get a tiny bit frayed. For
example, are there financial planning lessons to be learned from "What
Not To Wear" (cable TV show)? Do they clearly demonstrate a pay-off
from the $5K or so spent on clothes in each episode?

-Mark Bole

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