The Poor Man's Car

I ask people sometimes, "at what time had you hit rock bottom financially? I mean how poor were you at your poorest?" Here is mine.

I own 2 cars. Before you start laughing at me because of my obvious financial stability (how many very poor people own 2 working cars) think of this. My first car is a Toyota Corolla 99. It is a wonderful car and has recently passed 200k miles with no end in sight. However, my Grandfather (the most wonderful grandpa in the world by the way) bought it for my wife and I at 4000 dollars as a gift to help us get on our feet after my wife's car accident.

My other car is a Geo Metro...96? It matters little because in the end it is still a Geo Metro. As all Geo owners know; THE CARS ARE GREAT ON GAS. They are amazing in fact. I have searched around the internet to find what other Metro owners have to say about their mileage and I have found some that have claimed above 60 miles per gallon. WHOA! For an American car, that is unbelievable. Personally, I get about 50mpg on my car which I have no complaints about at all.

With the economy the way it is these days and with the price of gas being so volatile, everyone is looking for a way to save money. The first place they went was to their vehicles. Last year saw a sharp drop in travel time amongst Americans due to fewer families being able to afford those long trips. Another big thing to hit the market was....THE PRIUS. BUM BUM BUMMMMMM!

Ahhh yes the Toyota Prius. The proverbial pat on one's shoulder for any car buyer. Feeling bad about the environment? Buy a Prius! Buying a Prius is to me the same as paying the church for condolences of sins back in the 1500s. You are just putting money into a pit to make yourself feel better when you are still guilty of sin. I found a good article on the environmental impact of the Prius Here. So should we get hummers? No. They are too much anyways although if anyone gives you lip on the freeway, you can jsut run them over. But I digest mmmm.

The "Ask a Mexican" car buying approach:
Keep in mind, there are 2 types of Mexicans...(actually there are more but lets keep this simple ok?). There are "homies" which are your typical gangsters/low riders/projects types and then there are the farm working types. I have ample respect for the ladder. By the way, I am not racist. Like any race, Mexicans have their bad and good. White people get white trash/rednecks, Mexicans get beaners, and asians get Hawaiians. Deal with it. Anyways, as a person who has worked around plenty of Mexican Americans and immigrants (I live in California and I am a low income worker) I have come to respect the chosen vehicles of hard working Mexican Americans.

Do this for me. Go to any field where a bunch of ....lets call them Latinos..work. Look at the cars parked next to the field. Behold a "latino car lot". Notice that there are maybe 10 vehicles and 80 latinos? This is because latinos are a industrious bunch. Instead of worrying about their pride and image like so many others, they care more for saving money. It is a commonly known joke that latinos are infamous for shoving waaay too many people in a car on the way to work. Here in CA we often see these jam packed vehicles on the drive to our own workplaces. We may joke about it but let's think. 8 latinos in a 99 Corolla (mine gets about 35mpg). Math time. A typical trip to work = 10 miles. With the price of gas today at 2.65 a gallon (in my hometown at least) at about 2/3 of a gallon to get to and from work for a day, lets multiply 2.65 by .66. That brings us to roughly 1.75. Now divide that by 8 passengers. Thats 21 cents per person per day. That comes out to 1.26 per week (based on a 6 day woorkweek for the average field worker). Who's laughing now?

I was talking about cars though wasn't I? Yes. Look at a "latino car lot" and write down the cars you see. Chances are that those are the most reliable cars on the market. In fact, they usually are older cars. Today I glanced at what I saw driving by one field. Here is what I could see.
2 Geo Metros, 2 Toyota Tacomas (reliable trucks in my opinion), 1 old Dautson Truck...I think I spelled that wrong, some old mazda pickup and others.

What does all this mean? ASK A MEXICAN. That's what it means! Swallow your pride, don't pay 300 a month on 20% car loan interest just to impress the ladies, and don't fork our 20,000+ for a car that isn't even guaranteed after 100,000 miles.
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Oh and I should warn you. Geo Metros have about 60 horsepower so dont expect to pack 8 of your friends in one of those without using the jaws of life to get out. Hehe.