With regards to the repairs, you’re right, some research can help lessen your risk of repairs. However, there’s always a risk, and it’s no fun having to drop $2500 to replace an engine that decides to putter out before it’s time.

Tina: You’re right - you do get the payment every month. However, you free yourself of nearly all repair costs - and any hefty unexpected repair bills. Replacing a transmission is no fun, for sure!

Michael: You’re right, I should have included maintenance costs in this comparison. However, I didn’t include them on either end, so it’s a wash. Figure $30 per month for maintenance should cover the Civic, and probably about the same for the Ram. Good catch though, can’t believe I missed it. With regards to tires & brakes, you can get a lot more than the average life out of these by simply taking care of them. Don’t slam on your brakes, don’t ride them, don’t go screeching around turns and do bad things to your tires, etc. If you take care of them, you shouldn’t even have to think about your tires & brakes for at least 5-6 years, if not longer.

I may have overestimated the time missed from work - it’s certainly no guarantee. But even if you miss a few days, some jobs are very intolerant of missed time, and you could end up losing your job. In my line of work, missing 2 days a year is grounds for termination - sometimes even one day will do the trick. An excuse of a car breakdown is not acceptable - the upper level management will ask why you don’t have reliable transportation.

I did not intend to dig on the American auto industry - in fact, I love American cars. Currently I own a Honda and Lincoln, and love both. Over my lifetime I’ve owned 4 Japanese ( Honda, Toyota, and Nissan ) and 4 American ( 3 Ford, 1 Lincoln ) cars. The only one with a major failure was the Toyota. None of the other cars experienced any major repairs during my ownership. However, I’m a fan of playing the odds, and the odds say that a Honda or Toyota is likely to give you less problems than a domestic car. It isn’t true in every case, for sure, but as I said, I like to go with the more likely scenario.

I’m sorry to hear that you may not read A Penny Saved anymore. I try to write posts that will help my readers in their quests towards better financial states. I’m not always on target ( sometimes I way off base, it happens. ) However, I’m still going to write posts that I think mean something, and will get my point across. If that means you won’t be coming around anymore, then I’m sorry. Hopefully you’ll stick around for a bit - it never hurts to have a different opinion around.

First, with the Honda, you still have maintenance costs. You still have oil changes, etc. and you should always keep a fund running to pay for the eventual tune ups, new tires, new brakes, etc.

Second, I’ve known a lot of people that drive cars and trucks with 150K miles and they don’t miss 24 days of work a year because of it. This is way overestimated.

Third, as the previous poster said, you could probably get a car cheaper than a brand new one that would drive the monthly costs way down even further. New cars depreciate at least 20% the first year, so if we’re talking about ’saving’ money, why not take this cost off the books?

Fourth, the dig on the American auto industry is not so subtle. We have an American car that’s falling apart and costing us five weeks of work a year compared to the apparently infallible Japanese car that doesn’t need any maintenance or repair.

This is normally one of my favorite blogs but this post is making me consider whether or not to keep reading it at all.