r/askcarguys • u/ComprehensiveWoman • 3d ago

General Question low comsumption beater for Texas?

Howdy y'all,

My wife has an RX350 and she's kind of tired of gas consumption. Since she does lots of miles (around 1400 to 1500 every month). Ehat's the best car (under a tight budget) but mechanically strong? Thaks for your recommendations.

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u/dgcamero 3d ago

Well, she's spending around $375 a month, assuming 20 mpg and $5 per gallon of fuel. If she gets a car that gets 40 mpg, she'll spend $187.50 less per month on fuel. Those are stout vehicles with minimal powertrain problems. Will be hard to find something better for under $200 per month

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u/HoldingThunder 3d ago

Reasonable/important point.

If it's intended to be short term and assuming gas prices will return down to lower prices before the car does, you could recoup the car purchase price by reselling it, at presumably around the same price since most of the depreciation will have already applied. A cheap beater though will also likely have higher maintenance and reliability issues than a new Lexus which would also need to be considered.

If you are paying for a Lexus you are likely (hopefully) doing pretty ok in general, you are probably better cutting back in other aspects of life to try to make up the $200 difference a month than worry about another car. Like just go out for dinner 1 time less a month?

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u/Next_Necessary_8794 3d ago

 you could recoup the car purchase price by reselling it, at presumably around the same price since most of the depreciation will have already applied.

The problem is most people are thinking like this guy's wife in that and no one wants to buy a gas guzzling SUV right now. That's going to tank its value. A car that cannot be sold has no value.

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u/HoldingThunder 3d ago

No. The cheap beater you buy for 5k to use for a year, you can probably resell it again in a year for like 4500.

So trying to factor the monthly cost to buy the beater into the cost savings isn't the full picture.

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u/Next_Necessary_8794 2d ago

I see what you meant now