[patrickod]

I wholeheartedly agree with this. Having connections and keeping your eye out for potential cars to buy can make a huge difference.

The first car I bought, a 97 Opel Corsa, was going to be scrapped by a friends neighbor until I stepped in. It had been sitting without use for ~18 months. The parts needed were minimal. It cost me €150 and 6 bottles of wine. It still drives absolutely perfectly.

The second car I bought was again going to be traded in/scrapped. $20 later and a can of 44K to clean out the engine it passed smog and has been running since.

tl;dr it pays to keep an eye out for cars that people are looking to sell. Offer to take them off their hands for a reasonable price and you'll find they're very receptive.

[vaksel]

that's partly because in Europe your insurance is through the roof so people throw away perfectly fine cars since they don't want to pay $6K/yr for a civic

[patrickod]

Pretty much everything in Europe is more expensive when it comes to driving. Tax, fuel, insurance are all higher than the American equivalent. In Ireland insurance for young males is ludicrously expensive due to the heightened probability of a crash.

[Tobias42]

Where do you pay that much? I have lived in Germany and Switzerland and had various cars. Liability insurance never was more than 700 dollars per year.

[DanBC]

English car insurance, especially for young men, is expensive. A 22 year old programmer driving a 1996 Honda Civic 15,000 miles a year for social and commuting to work would be paying about £950 if they shopped around but could be paying over £1,500 if they weren't careful. (That's fully comprehensive. And it's for a small town population 100,000)

£950 = $1497 = €1146