I always try to save my money in any way that I possibly can.
I have a budget for nearly any and everything, however my folks provided me their old SUV my junior year of school; The SUV had already been in the family for a few years.
It had over 68,000 miles on it by the time it passed into my hands. I squeezed another couple of years out of the vehicle, and by the time I started thinking about buying a replacement, it was pushing 150,000 miles. I may be frugal, but the one major thing that made me decide to get a new car was that the air conditioning finally failed. I just couldn’t handle it in this oppressive, humid heat we experience down here in the south! When I took it to the mechanic garage, I was informed that there were a host of other problems with the vehicle, and it was basically on the way out. At that point, I was dreaming of a new car with a powerful new air conditioning system, and I had saved up a fine amount due to my aforementioned frugalness, so I finally caved and opted to get a new vehicle. Well, not a new vehicle, per se. I got a used car from a rental supplier’s sales lot. It had only 45,000 miles on it and was many years old. When I cranked the air conditioning to max on an unquestionably sizzling and humid day for the test drive, I fell in love, and sure, all of the other features were fine in the vehicle, although I was missing that killer air conditioning!