Now I've learned the word "Beater" I can ask you guys about Beaters?

There are far more crappy cars in the South than the Northeast. I think it's because the tests are more stringent in the Northeast and probably the weather also causes cars to crap out sooner. My dad would say it's because there are lots of Mexicans in the South who keep old cars running.

I guess they are called "beaters" but it's not that common.

I wish a gaggle of lezzies would put the beat down on this insipidly annoying OP. I hate you, OP.

A 70s Cutlass

Why the fuck should I care if a total loser like you hates me, R2? I'm rather glad in fact.

Old beat-up pickups are cool. Old car beaters not so much. I have a couple of them, just because they run well, they are paid for, I like them, and in fact they are sort of like a couple of old pets, they have been with me so long, I can't bring myself to send them off to an uncertain future.

If someone were to buy them who didn't take care of them like I do, they both would be dead in a year. One is a 1984 Chevy truck with about 130,000 miles on it, and the other is a 1999 Chevy SUV about to roll over 100K miles soon.

yeah it's amazing how long they'll run if you care for them

If you live in a large American city without a garage parking space your car is going to turn to shit inside of a year or two just from parking scrapes if it isn't stolen. Fuggedabout the weather, sand, sun, snow, salt, etc. Hence there's no point to buying a new car but if you did, it'll look like OP's photo sooner rather than later. Japanese cars from the 80's and 90's live on forever as long as you're not focused on what they look like but rather how they run.

I'd quite like to have one of these, as I tend to go for small cars.

My last car (a Toyota Corolla) amassed a huge number of miles, and was dented up (an accidental deer collision) and the paint job was rapidly diminishing, from parking under Callery Pears, which drop their nasty little fruits everywhere. Finally, the air conditioning stopped working (again) and I got tired of taking it in for repairs, so I asked my BF to take me the dealer to buy a new car (another Corolla). Once I got my new car, I just donated my old one to my local classical music station, which auctioned it off, and kept the earnings. We're always advised to buy used cars, as so much of the value of the car has diminished the minute your drive them off the lot. In my case, since I'm not really a car guy, I like the idea of being the only owner, who has meticulously maintained it. I hate taking my car in for repairs. My first car (bought back in 1980) was a VW Rabbit. Used cars are a much better value, but you need to focus on maintenance.

Bitch, you couldn't ask this question in the original thread??

[quote]Bitch, you couldn't ask this question in the original thread??

Why would you CARE?

Poor Southern and Midwestern cities. I think the Northeast has public transport for poor so no need for car. The worst I saw was in North Dakota - no way to work or live without a car. All I could think is breaking down in the winter must be horrible.

Beaters are a result of car dependency in parts of the US. People in poverty have to have some kind of car to survive. But having a car is expensive. When people complain about higher rents in urban areas, they fail to consider the absence of car payments, maintenance, gas.

There was an article in the Kansas City Star about a local lady mechanic who had a passion for old beater cars. She had about ten of them and she would park them on city streets and move them around every few days to keep them from being towed. She couldn't part with them and spent her spare time working on them. She was a great character, a skinny, middle aged blond lady with a cig hanging out of the corner of her mouth.

You have to find a car that's not computerized. I had an old Honda. My mechanic told me that as long as I changed the oil and did repairs (normal stuff like CV boots, belts), I could drive the car indefinitely.

One thing to be careful of (heard this on "Car Talk"): if your car's frame has too much rust, it will crumple in an accident/crash. It won't protect you like a not-rusted frame will protect you.

Hmph. All I know is I wish Florida, my home state, had vehicle inspection laws.

Oprah will only drive beaters.

Heres mine. 204,000 miles and I never have to spend money on it.... Other than gas, tires, etc.

So glad not to have to rely on - or pay for - a car. I hate driving anyway - but when I think of the money It costs, I’m so grateful.

To Black people in the Deep South and Great Migration areas (Cali, Chicago, Detroit and Philly/NY, etc.) it is a [italic]hoopty,[/italic] not a beater.

And they really do last forever if you do the maintenance. My sister is a nurse and has plenty of $$$, but she still drives her 2001 Toyota Camry she bought in 2000. She has babied it from Day 1, and it has a bit over 350,000 miles on it.

All of my car mechanics have driven Toyota trucks (as personal vehicles).

I think it would be cool to drive a retired police car.

I was always taught that the term 'beater' referred to the men who roused the birds out of the bushes and into the air during shoots.

[quote]I think it would be cool to drive a retired police car.

Here in London there was a place where you could buy them. They had very high mileage but people said they were very well maintained.

I quite like to keep my cars for a very long time. But then it's harder to part with them.

R16 they did used to have state inspections on cars. That went away in the late 80s early 90s. I too wish they still had them becuase there are some real pieces of shit on the road. Nothing like getting stuck in traffic behind some rust bucket spewing out black smoke. Even with the air on,its gag inducing.

Beater is also a term guitar players use for their old inexpensive guitars they don't mind playing around a campfire on a foggy night at the beach or at a backyard barbecue on a hot summer day -- temperature and humidity conditions to which they would never expose their high-end instruments.

Flawda Ferrari

When I was in college I had to do my student teaching and literally only had saved a couple thousand dollars to buy a car. I found a Dodge Caravan with like 200,000 miles on it. It was a reliable old thing.

I was very happy to get rid of it when I finally got a new job.