Let's say you have an average 25-35 minute commute to work. You have a reliable beater car, and a nicer car. Do you commute with your beater, or enjoy the drive with the nicer car? This, of course, is just a proxy for the concept of saving the best for last... the concept applies to many things--do you use the heck out of your beater knife, but baby your Chris Reeve Sebenza? Wear your Casio every day, but break out the Rolex for social occasions?

Question:
Do you save the best for last?

Choices:
Yes, I take the beater car to work. My nicest things are often untouched.
Yes, but I sometimes take the nice car to work if there's an occasion for it..
No, I only live once and try to enjoy the finer things at the earliest opportunity. I keep my lesser things for a rainy day.
No, I live my life in series--I use up what I have now before I get something else. What I'm using is the best available to me.

 

I have a short drive to work, but it's still tough on a car. I drive a 6 yo Subaru and rock it through potholes, train tracks, stops and gos. Leave it in the door ding lot. Start it cold and go immediately attempting to warm it as fast as possible for me via RPMs. It's sad to be my Subaru.

At home I have a 1998 MB E430 that is fun to pull out to run my kids to college, or to take a nice drive somewhere on the weekend. I baby it, park it way out in a lot. Do preventative maintenance on it even though I'm putting 2k miles a year on it.

If I lived in Santa Barbra, I'd have one great car. I live in car hell with 8 months of snow and salt a year. I cannot abide a 50-60k$ car in that slop.

As I have aged, I have tried to become "content with what I have" as Paul says in Philippians 4:11. I am living my life in series (your fourth poll choice), and being content to drive my 2006 Buick LaCrosse, the best I have now, recognizing I may one day have a better vehicle.

I have best of all three worlds. Work vehicle for work, pleasure vehicle for pleasure, and wife's Subaru for driving in snow/dirt/rain. My car probably will only be driven 100-200 miles all winter.

I use what I have now until it wears out. When I had my house I had a Corvette it came out on nice days. But my new life style of full time RVing, does not leave room or space for saving things for later.

I only have 2 cars, a Daily Driver and a fun car. My current DD is 13 years old and doing fine. My fun car is a 1966 Mustang, which gets little use. (Currently has a dead battery.) Previous DD was driven for 20 years, was still good when I sold it.

flashguy

One vehilce a 2019 Tacoma. It should last awhile and does everything I need it to.

drive the 'beater'

there is a calm peace of mind that comes with not really caring about door dings, potholes, crazy drivers, gravel chips, etc

get it detailed and the interior might surprise you

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A beater is almost a necessity when you live in "car hell" as r0gue put it. I will never drive a nice car to work (my commute is about 30 miles one way which is good for this area.)

One good thing about my current beater (Jetta) is that the heated seats get so hot you could fry an egg on them. With the winter coming this thing will be perfect. Maybe I will even get the motivation to fix the headliner and paint the bumper to match the rest of the car. Nah who am I kidding, it's a beater!

I drove a Tacoma with 200k miles and no a/c in the DC summer for five years.

My cars get me from Point A to the terminus of Line AB. Nothing more.

Now if my car meant much to my work prospects I'd drive a classic Rolls Royce, something from the 1930s or 1950s.

Yep, I have my daily driver Tundra but usually only drive it in decent weather because the AT tires don't do too well in the rain. On rainy days I drive my Tahoe. On really nice days I get the Benz out of the garage and drive it, maybe with the top down. Decisions, decisions....

How do you get a door ding on a Wrangler, front door on the rear vertical part about halfway up? Easy. Work at the last car dealership I was at. Painted black, I'm 5'10",it was just a bit under eye level. The Sierra I previously owned shared the same fate, the first four years I had it at a previous dealership it never had so much as a nick from the parking lot.

We had a "specific" area for employees to park. Except the car haulers used it as a staging area to drop new vehicles, the mobile used car ding doctors used it as their work area, overflow from new and used cars not to mention service customer vehicles were also parked there. But don't you dare park anyplace else except in designated employee parking or the hellhounds were released upon you (well except if you were one of the favored few, then you could do whatever you wanted to). Oh, and the dumbass kids they hired, they had no respect for anything except for their cars. Loved watching one of the office girls fling her door open many times into the car next to her.

It's amazing, since I retired almost two and a half years ago I have not acquired anymore battle scars, even in our local Kroger store who's parking lot was listed as number one of the top ten worst parking lots in our county.

And people would ask "Why don't you bring your (67) Pontiac 2+2 to work?"

Gotta ask yourself what you're saving the better car for. Personally, if I'm sitting in the thing for an hour+ every day, I'm gonna drive the nice one.

I'd drive the beater.

I drive the beater, the wife gets the new, fancy ones.

In my line of thought, its not about use or wear and tear, its about risk. Since you are doing 30 minutes a day over a period of years (possibly), sooner or later, the law of averages will catch up to you. Someone will crash into you. You will enjoy the experience more knowing your beater took the hit.

I don't see the point in having a comfortable car and not using for the commute, which accounts for 90% of my time in a car. Why not use it?

If I kept a beater for that drive I would be unhappy most the time I am driving.

What would I be saving it for. Saving it to not use it? Seems silly.

A lot of the places I have to park (like downtown Atlanta/Buckhead city streets and/or parking garages and various other places), one would have to be an idiot to drive a nice car. I’ve got the door dings and scratches all over my daily beater to prove it. No way in hell I’ll drive one of my other cars/truck to work everyday.

I don’t buy stuff I don’t use.

I drive the beater, well until the end of July when I broke me neck. I will require a back up camera for a few more months.