I will say that I did once experience a real nightmare situation in this regard, with my first ever car.
The first car I bought was a 1990 Geo Metro. It was a used car with over 100,000 miles. It wasn’t really a car that I was super interested in, but I was very young and was relying on advice from older (and presumably wiser) people around me who said that was exactly the kind of car I should buy. And I tried to be smart about it; I actually paid to have an auto shop give it a thorough inspection to make sure everything seemed okay, and I was told the only concern was that it might need new tires soon. So I went ahead and bought it, which at the time was just under $2,000 (this was I believe in 1997 or 1998), taking out a 2-year bank loan to pay for it.
It started giving me problems almost immediately; it would die at random times and have trouble getting started again. I took it back to the shop that I’d paid to check it out (which was recommended to me by my mom, because she “knew somebody” there). I had to pay a couple of hundred dollars in small repairs, like replacing hoses and stuff.
Then, 3 months into driving it, it died and nothing I did would get it going. My mom’s boyfriend helped me tow it to his house with his pickup truck. He took a look at it, and found that the transmission fluid was black, was thick like tar, and shiny with flecks of what were probably chewed up gears. The transmission was completely shot. The best we could figure was that the previous owner never got the fluid replaced. The shitty auto shop I’d been taking it to clearly never checked the fluids, as this should have been part of a routine check, and I was a first-time car owner and didn’t know what to look for either.
At that point it would cost more than the loan I was paying off to get it repaired. I could not afford another car, so it sat at his house for a couple of years while I was forced to pay off the rest of the loan over the next couple of years, and went back to taking the bus everywhere. I did eventually sell the car to some guy for $300, after I paid it all off, and he towed it away as-is so he could repair the transmission himself and give the car to his daughter. So, my first car ownership, I pretty much got scammed by multiple people and that was back when I was very poor and that debt was difficult to get myself out of (though I did it).
My second car was a complete junker I paid only $100 cash for. It barely got me around and was a nightmare, but it worked well enough for a brief time. I ended up just giving it to my brother when I moved away.
My third car was a brand-new car, because I was sick and tired of dealing with the bullshit of a used car, and that car served me very well for 17 years. I am now nearly 10 years into owning my second new car, and I’m just thankful I have been able to afford to buy new, even though I’m still buying very affordable, small budget cars.
– but whom I’d also overheard talking knowledgeablely about car mechanical issues about car things with other customers. So I’m willing to take her at her word that “rad repairs are just not a thing any more”.
+ the work to set it up for new phone, too
for fruit cups, avocado and sourdough bread. Pimento cheese dip also jumped in the basket. Didn’t see a price on the bread but I’ve bought the brand before and it was like $4.99.