Not the OP, but having owned a 30 year old car up until recently, I can list a few things I loved about it:
1. It operated on mechanics that I could see and touch and fix with a wrench, as opposed to opaque black box computers. I did not need a code reader to diagnose problems.
2. Thanks to point #1, I had the confidence in the knowledge that it was maintained correctly, the parts were good and soundly installed, that every bolt was tightened to the right torque specification, because I did quite a bit of it myself, and could visually inspect any work that someone else did.
3. Points #1 and #2 let me learn a hell of a lot about car maintenance and how everything works than you can with today's computers-with-wheels.
4. It was built years before every manufacturer decided to make their cars look like identical bars of soap, so it had a distinctive '80s look that you don't see much of anymore.
Sadly, the state of California decided that the car had to meet emissions standards that were far stricter than anything the original manufacturer ever dreamed of, so it eventually became impossible to smog. I had to sell it to someone outside the state and I'm currently driving a boring bar of soap.
My car is about 20 years old. In my country it's far more normal to buy a cheap car outright (say 2.5k USD) rather than get a lease or a loan for a new car (say 25k USD).
There's nothing wrong with it, i'm not sure why i'd want a newer one.
Hi from cross the Tasman! My daily driver is a 1988 Mazda 323 hatchback. It cost me $900 and had just had the autotrans reconditioned and a new radiator before I bought it. I recently put new front break pads in and will do the rear breaks shortly.
For my own personal, and endless, amusement: I paid more for my phone than I did my car.
Crash protection, that's why. A new car will let you walk away from a crash that your 20-year-old car will maim or kill you in. Crash protection is that much better now.
