Beaters Before World War II
John Steinbeck wrote about Beaters in his monumental epic novel, "The Grapes Of Wrath". He mentioned how families couldn't even afford a single can of new motor oil. Cars in the 20s and 30s and 40s for the most part did not have seperate oil filters and oil had to be changed much more often than today. The families would filter that used engine oil through cheesecloth to clean it up enough to run in the car's engine for a few more thousand miles, in the hopes that maybe next time the car needed an oil change, that they could buy new oil. Many didn't. But you know what? The cars kept running. Even the great dust storms couldn't stop progress!
Beaters For Boomers
Have you ever been offered a hundred dollars for your trade-in? That was COMMON back in the 50s and 60s. Cars depreciated quickly and sold for very cheap prices on used car lots. I remember reading a 1960 newspaper in an Ohio library with ads for cars at used car dealers priced under $100. Some dealers wanted to make profits on used cars so badly that they would offer even less money. A non-running car might be traded in for as little as five dollars. That wouldn't even pay for the deluxe seatbelt option on a new '68 Ford Galaxie. But in some cases, it was all the car really was worth in reality. As cars continued to improve over the years, used cars became more and more important for the bulk of American purchasers. A used car worth $3000 new might be $1500 used when only a year old. That saves a lot of money. The same is true today, but on a larger scale thanks to inflation.
Beaters Since The Oil Crisis
After the oil embargoes of the 1970s, Americans began to look to foreign car manufacturers for cheaper and more fuel efficient cars. And they stopped ignoring the small older used cars like Datsun B210's and Subaru HF's. Those tiny cars could easily go 40-50 miles on a gallon of gas. Datsun's tagline in the 70s was "Datsun Saves" and it was typically shown printed on a metal gas can in advertisements. Once the gas lines shortened and fuel was easy to come by, smart consumers kept buying the small used cars and still do today. A ten-year-old Toyota Corolla gets just as good gas mileage as a new one, but costs a fifth of the price! Why spend more money to get more mpg's when you can spend less money and do just as well?