Many people treat cars like a status symbol. Everyone has heard of the celebrities with massive collections of expensive cars, or custom built garages to accommodate their cars in the heart of an expensive city like New York. But for some people cheap cars are the way to go. Cheap in price doesn’t have to mean cheap in quality. Less expensive can still be functional, and even fun.

One of the ways to obtain a quality car on the cheap is to purchase cheap used cars. Even luxury models are much less expensive when purchased second hand. A new term has emerged over the last decade, pre-owned – to denote used cars that are of high quality. These pre-owned vehicles have even managed to pull some long time new car buyers into the used car market. Consider this with luxury cars. A Mercedes or Lexus is so well built that even 10 year old cars can still be in excellent condition. In fact, many people have generations of car buyers in their family who always purchase higher end models that are used. Remember the chauffeur in “Driving Miss Daisy”? He always bought Miss Daisy’s second hand, luxury cars.

Some cheap new cars are quite nice, too. Hyundai makes some models that are decent for less than $12K.  A car like the Honda Civic weighs in at about $15,000 for one of the best engineered cars in the world.  That car lasts a long time, and gets great gas mileage.  These cars are also much cheaper to maintain than luxury cars that often require more expensive parts and even premium grades of gas.

There are even relatively less expensive luxury cars.  The Audi brand is generally at the bottom portion of the price spectrum in the luxury class.  These are the best engineered in the world, nobody beats them.  This includes the Audi TT which, while not exactly cheap, is a very nice sports car with a lot of power and speed.

Of course some people want cheap, cheaper, cheapest. They turn to the clunker, the hooptie, the late late model car that was probably old when their parents first bought a car. Teenagers often purchase such a car as their first vehicle. It’s a set of wheels, and it gives them practice for a life time of practical mechanical knowledge. But watch out, the age old adage “You get what you pay for” applies to cheap cars too. When the car overheats, you won’t be happy.

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