Keep your car(s) in good shape to keep them longer so you can keep more cash

My first car, a 9-year-old peeling-blue Ford I bought before my junior year in college, lasted me the two years I needed it to hold a part-time job until graduation. Not bad considering I paid just $50 for the clunker, all I could afford. I also had to carry jugs of water in the car. Every five miles or so, I had to stop, open the hood, and pour water into the radiator so the engine wouldn’t overheat. After graduation, I sold the car for $35.

I warned the buyer about the car’s condition but he let it overheat and die in the middle of downtown Miami three days later. Caring well for our cars, my wife, Georgina, and I have had only five other automobiles combined in the 40 years since, from a red Volkswagen Beetle I bought new for $1,400 after I started working fulltime to our current silver Mercedes C-Class four-door sedan we bought in 2001.

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