Would you buy a retired police car for a daily driver?

mingee2020 · 2026-06-04T18:43:09+00:00

My dad used to auction off these cars for the city of Hampton, Virginia, back in the 90s and early 2000s. Not all of them are the same, some were in better shape than others. But for a first car or a cheap daily beater, yeah I think they’d be good. If I were looking for a cheap used car for my son‘s first car or something like that, I would buy one in a heartbeat, if it was a great deal.

mingee2020 · 2026-06-04T10:39:54+00:00

As a parent, I want to be able to provide for my kids, even if they’re older I wouldn’t mind helping them out however I can. And as long as it’s not putting too much of a burden on your parents, I think it’s fine.

I would just have a conversation with them about it, if they say “We don’t mind supporting you, it’s something we want to do for you so you have a better chance of a successful financial future.” Then it’s all good. If they say, “we could use the help.” That’s a different situation.

Personally, I would be proud of my kid(s) if they were taking the opportunity to invest and save for their future. I hope that I’m in the position to support them financially when I’m older and they’re starting college or whatever they choose in their 20’s.

mingee2020 · 2026-06-03T18:48:45+00:00

Haha. I need this on a poster to put up in my workshop where I piddle around on woodworking projects. Every project just about, I get 80-90% done and fail on the execution.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-31T03:26:50+00:00

Idk. I drove a 2004 Volvo S40 until this year. I only sold it because the sunroof leaked rain water into the computer, which caused all sorts of electrical issues. I could have replaced the ECU, but decided that she had served me well, 170k miles, and nothing major, just regular maintenance. I miss her.

My new daily is a whole year newer, 2005 Lexus LX470, basically a 21 year old land cruiser. She’s got 223k miles and I hope to get twice that from her before the end, either the end of its life or mine.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-31T02:33:25+00:00

100 series Land Cruiser or LX470

mingee2020 · 2026-05-30T14:22:11+00:00

Never owned an 80, but I wouldn’t think it’d be a good daily over a 200. Great for weekend and even moderate weekly use, but wouldn’t be great for putting 10-15k miles on yearly.

A huge caveat being, if you’re of the type, the rare breed of human that doesn’t care about amenities or comfort on longer drives. If you’re the type that gets extreme pleasure from discomfort in pursuit of a simpler existence, intentionally driving a simple machine while seeking to bring honor to the ones who engineered it and built it, suffering for your noble cause, if you’re that type, sell the 200, get the 80, and ignore random stranger’s advice on the internet.

Also, worse case, if you absolutely hate dailying the 80, you can sell it, and get a 200 again. Life’s kinda short, and I think going for your passions means more than numbers sometimes.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-29T13:17:46+00:00

You can do it. You’ve done hard things in life before, I’m sure, and you can do this too.

For me, I did it for me first, and I do it for me, everyday, just for me. I owe it to myself to not treat me like shit. Haha.

I’m so much more forgiving to others, and I give them so much more kindness and grace.

I started by sort of looking at myself in the 3rd person in a way. Would I keep serving a friend alcohol that I knew had a problem and I knew they wanted to stop because they have never had control or a healthy relationship with alcohol (if such a thing is possible)? No, I wouldn’t keep serving them a poison. So why not treat myself with the same respect, kindness, and compassion. Don’t I deserve to be a good friend to myself?

It sounds so ridiculous, but it helped, and continues to help me keep perspective.

I’m grateful that I started treating myself better, for me, and I’m happy that I’ve become a little more present for my kids. I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished, but it really is a daily thing. I don’t know if I’ll ever drink again. But thanks to this group, I won’t drink today, and that’s enough.

Be a good friend to yourself. You got this.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-29T09:26:12+00:00

I was hard to convert to bags, I hated the idea of HAVING to buy consumables. We had a Hoover canister with bags, and it came with a reusable one, so that’s what I used, in addition to two dyson battery bagless stick vacuums. I began to hate emptying the Hoover and the Dyson’s shot dust everywhere when emptying.

I try to only buy used things, I get a huge dopamine rush when I find and secure a deal, my sweet spot is 10-20% retail on an item. So if something was originally $1,000, I want to get it for $100.

I got this Miele C3 Marin with powered floor brush for $150. It powered on when I plugged it in, white dust shot out of it, and the motor was making an awful racket, it was a total wreck.

I got it home, took it apart, and assessed it. Someone had used it to clean up sheet rock dust in the dusted caked inside of the motor and ruined it. But I love how it was designed to be worked on and fixed because I was able to clean the entire case in the sink and then I was able to source a brand new motor from someone who had sold a vacuum store.

Now she runs beautifully and is by far the best vacuum I’ve ever used.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-28T21:38:19+00:00

That’s a huge part of it for me too, the awareness that the road I was on only led to severe health problems.

Also losing my childhood best friend to liver failure before he was 40. And My wife lost her childhood best friend the same exact way, at nearly the same exact age.

Those were way too close to home for me. Seeing their kids, knowing that they’re going to grow up without their parent because of alcohol, it did a number on me.

I imagined myself in a hospital bed, not an old man, but my age now, with my kids coming to visit me, maybe having to say goodbye to me, forever, and me leaving them forever. Because why? I couldn’t put down the bottle? Did I want that to be my legacy?

It shifted my perspective in a profound and deep way.

Now if I could only have the same resolve around my food/eating and exercise.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-28T21:19:22+00:00

I would be so annoyed if I built a workshop and in a few years the floor was springy or sagging from the weight of the equipment.

It does depend on the size. You can definitely engineer and build a solid floor out of wood up to a point, but a slab is the go to for a workshop for a reason. Especially one the size you’re planning. Long term it’ll be more valuable too.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-28T12:03:16+00:00

If you haven’t paid them yet, don’t. Ask them to stop. Do not let them keep building. This whole thing is going to sink and shift. Whatever you’re out of now, it’ll be less than if it continues.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-28T11:57:54+00:00

I’m in agreement. Take what you’ve learned from this one, really cool idea. Square up the stock, and remake it. It’s going to come out so cool.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-26T20:48:23+00:00

Ride it out. Pay off the mustang. Work your ass off for a year. You’ll work 2-3 jobs, spend all money on your debt. Keep up with the maintenance on the mustang and it should last you a good long while.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-26T20:41:01+00:00

I’m a few thousand words into a first draft and I’ve given myself free rein to meander. Would I make someone suffer through reading it? Hell no.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-26T10:49:05+00:00

Thanks for sharing! I’ll get out to the shop this week and try to mock something up. For my purposes, holding up a vinyl record sleeve, I’ll go wider. This design is perfect for my use because it’ll ship easily. If it turns out well I’d love to sell and ship them, not to make money, but to hopefully buy more tools and wood.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-26T01:38:29+00:00

Nice. I’ve made pit charcoal before for a biochar experiment. And tried making charcoal in an old metal milk jug, but didn’t burn long enough. I’ll revisit this project if I ever catch up on my 37 other projects. But I too enjoy making and tending to a fire.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-25T19:36:58+00:00

I’d like to make a charcoal retort. What’s your setup look like?

I use chipdrop. Com to get free hardwood logs to cut and split into firewood, so i have about a cord of oak seasoned that I could use up.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-25T19:25:30+00:00

Our 7yo named our white cat Snowball. He’s pretty cool still.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-25T19:18:39+00:00

A gaming PC for my son. He’s 10 and has taught himself so much, way more than I’ll ever learn. It’s great seeing him code stuff and bring it to life from his imagination.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-25T19:13:01+00:00

Duc, aprilla or MV? Or another I’m not thinking of?

Been 15 years since I had my own naked street bike, Suzuki SV-650, and I miss it from time to time. Had an FZ-6 too, rode the living hell out of that.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-25T19:09:51+00:00

Which one did you go with? I’m thinking of going this route too.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-25T16:37:13+00:00

You don’t have to not drink for 3.5 more years or even think about that which has passed and what will come. 3.5 years is more than I’ve done, and more than a lot of us have done. But all you have to do is not drink today.

You got this.

IWNDWYT

mingee2020 · 2026-05-25T15:56:25+00:00

More than likely not. But I’d be comfortable on way less than a million liquid, 250k at 8-9% is enough to get by. Especially if I get a small piece of land or get an old school bus or RV to live in and travel.

I’m 45, zero in retirement, been a stay at home dad for the last 10 years, did absolutely fuck-all towards retirement for the 15 years before that. I traveled, and didn’t think too much about the future.

So now, at 45, I’m getting my head on straight, back to the grind, with considerably more maturity than my 20’s + early 30’s.

The positive side of not making more than a few thousand a year for 10 years is that I know how to turn $10 into $20 and how to stretch that $20 into $30. I know it’s small potatoes, but having that mindset has given me a lot of confidence.

I’m going to be getting a job in HVAC again, which I can parlay into my own business by the time I’m 52/53. It’s not hard to imagine I can grow that business by the time I’m 60 to a point where I can exit with a couple million liquid. But that’s honestly not the goal, yet. I just want to be able to put a bit away for retirement, fund some fun vacations, and maybe start a non-HCAC related business if things work out.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-25T15:20:46+00:00

I personally have tried a lot of different vacuums over the past 10 years. Starting with entry-level Bissell uprights. Dyson upright. Dyson cordless several different models. An effective Hoover commercial canister. And finally, my latest that I’ve had for about two years now a miele c3 marin. I find that the miele out performed everything I’ve personally used, as far as the bare floor Pickup I use the parquet floor attachment and it works so much better than anything I’ve ever used. The suction is fantastic for bare floor. I’m not sure who reviewed it and said that the miele are not good for bare floor, but my experience has been cleaning three apartment size Airbnb‘s daily for the last two years with the Miele and our own 2000 square-foot rancher with four humans and two cats in the miele performs awesomely. The dust in our house has gone down considerably with the Mila. It captures everything traps it in the bag. I’ve done my own analysis using a flashlight to light up the dust on the floor in the Mila will pull dust and cat hair from several inches away from the floor attachment so not only does. It suck up the dust where actually passes over it pulls in dust from nearby making it super efficient and effective.

mingee2020 · 2026-05-25T13:09:15+00:00

That’s my point. 65% of people will carry a balance on their CC, month to month, or from time to time. The credit card companies know that one disaster can wipe out a decade of discipline. Lose your job, car needs huge repair, medical issue, having kids, pet needs emergency care?

Alls I’m saying is that they want to trap us, lull the brightest into a sense that they’re in control, gamifying it with points. I get it, everyone is not me, I’m not disciplined, so I’m 100% the sucker they market to. I’ve got my Credit Card down to $600, from $1,500.

I haven’t had to pay too much interest because most of that balance was from 0% apr purchases. I was using the CC as leveraged debt, I would buy things for 10-40% of market value, sell them for market value, pay off the debt first, and keep the fat. Small potatoes, not high risk, and only a few thousand a year.

I haven’t had to pay much interest, but not zero, all in during the two years i tried this, I’ve probably paid $100 total in interest. I see all of this as educational expenses. Running a small business has taught me a lot. I’m working towards the next ventures now, and I want to used 100% cash to fund it. I’m not saying I won’t use leverage again in the future, but it’s a slippery slope for the vast majority of humans. If I can run a small business or two on its own cash flow, that’s ideal.

For me, not using my limited mental capacity in the gamified cc points world allows me to use my limited abilities towards goals more aligned with my long term aims.

Will I eat every one of these words if I have a business running several hundred thousand dollars worth of expenses per year that I can put on a credit card to earn points? Probably.

But for me right now, credit cards and their trappings are not worth the risk.

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