What to expect from a beater

[ronmexico]

My wife and I want to get a beater. I have been pushing for this since I picked up my R because I just dont want to drive that car around with our dogs, to home depot or in traffic when its 99 degrees. We have been thinking about picking up a beater wagon, either an Audi, Subaru, Volo or Benz in the 4-5K range. just about every car has between 130,000-190,000 miles. I have never owned a car with anything close to that.

We plan on using the car a few times a week (i work from home and my wife works 4 miles away) pretty much when we have to load things or when there is a lot of traffic (dont want to risk getting the R hit)

So, is there anyone out there with a beater with 100K+ miles? what can I expect from a car with that many miles, is it worth owning?

 

[XGC75]

Beaters are awesome man. Buy a car you don't give a shit about. It's liberating. +1 if it smells. Get that shit for another $500 off and give less shits about it.

If you're lucky and get to drive it longer than you expected it to last you'll end up liking it more than you might have thought. Source: drove a Passat 80k to 230k miles.

 

[BarryT82]

Look at the Passat wagons. I've seen a lot of them in the price range with a lot of options.

 

[zrickety]

At the higher mileage you may get weird things like wheel bearings or bushings that actually go bad. On the plus side, the previous owner may have replaced those things already. Most of my cars have been high mileage, the good ones over 200k. Expect the usual maintenance and the odd part now and then.

 

[greasyginzo]

Honda