Retire from 8 to 5 

By S

I hate to admit it, especially on this blog, but yes I bought a new car – a shiny brand new red Toyota Corolla from Joseph Toyota of Cincinnati in June 2011. In 15yrs of earning a full-time wage, and 15yrs of driving, it is the only new car I have ever owned. Likely, it would’ve been the only car I ever owned, until we relocated from USA to UK in 2022. Cars, especially new cars, depreciate faster than their used-counterparts, and its never a good financial move.

In May 2011, when I got my job offer letter, and I had finished signing it about five minutes later, I started to look for a reasonable second hand used car. The market for used cars was very unreasonable, since Cash for Clunkers had just wrapped up, effectively exhausting the non-dealer owner-direct second hand cars. And the few dealer managed pre-owned cars were exorbitant. Since I did not know how to drive yet, I had to ask various different friends to go with me, so they could test drive the used car, while I sat in back the passenger seat, and dealer sat in the front passenger seat! By end of the month, I was getting desperate for a car, and my friends were getting tired of test driving cars for me, although not one ever told me so. I had to start my new job in July, and I needed to spend June learning how to drive a car.

One day in early-June, while back-seat test driving a 2008 black Honda Civic (40,000 miles for $11,000), I saw the sign for Joseph Toyota of Cincinnati. They had a new graduate schedule ($1,000 off any new car) and gave the new graduate a 0.99% APR car loan mortgage with 0% down! The next day I signed the papers for a Toyota Corolla (the cheapest new car they had), and had a vague feeling that I had gotten away with something. I learnt how to drive in my brand new car, and put a few scratches on it during the process. The driver side mirror was particularly dinged a few times when I had not learnt to gauge the distance to toll booth or a drive-through’s payment payment screen. I always forgave myself for these scratches, since I was still a learner. After the first months or so, the frequency of scratches reduced and finally stopped! I never led anyone eat in my car, and slowly relaxed this rule to closed-top drinks only. Until my son was born, and then it was a food fest in the backseat. The $18,000 car ($18,096 after I paid off my car 1yr later) was christened Dora (anagrams to road) was mine for over 11yrs. When I sold the car for $10,000 in June 2022, it cost me roughly $2 a day to own. Other than regular maintenance ($30 oil change every 3-6mo, twice for new tires at $400 each time), its likely the cheapest, most reliable and swankiest ride I have ever had.

And that was the last time I / we ever bought a new car. Anytime I see a shiny new Tesla or a fancy Mazda CX-5 (my heart belongs to this car), I want to swap out our current car for this one, but I know I never will. I like low maintenance cost and reliability of standard Toyotas, and most importantly, I like buying and owning a car debt-free.