Why do you keep driving an unreliable car?

Because I'm poor, and reliability costs money.

My unreliable Jeep was driven as it had full warranty coverage with rental car.  It was still a hassle for me on multiple occasions when it stranded me requiring multiple days of repair work sometimes hours from my home.  Once the warranty period was close to expiring I jettisoned it.

The minor fixes will still be less than a monthly payment. 

That said, I drive two cars that are quite reliable (looks around for wood...QUICKLY), but I've been there before

Oh, just yesterday I was telling the gf....er, FIANCE about the mercury capri that I kept a 5 gallon bucket in the trunk with various bottles/containers of water because we couldnt figure out why it kept overheating. 

RevRico said:

Because I'm poor, and reliability costs money.

Truth.

Plus, I'm becoming more of a penny pinching miser as I get older and starting to get that "get off my lawn" vibe when I see new car prices.  I remember being 20 and laughing at my grandfather talking about how expensive new cars are and I've heard myself say the same thing..... 

-Rob

I'm not poor anymore. But I was scrounging for so long that it's just second nature. Honestly, I just can't stand the idea of a car payment. So I have a fleet of semi-reliable cars I shuffle around with.

Reliability is boring.

At least that's what I tell myself.

I keep it because I listened to the PO about how great it was with rose coloured glasses of it being a dream vehicle of mine and then I overpaid for it. 

Needs work / refinement as it is, and its not worth anywhere close to what I paid for it, let alone what I have already invested into repairing it. It has potential, just not nearly as great of a car as I was led to believe it was prior to purchase. 

I've been mostly spared unreliable cars but I do have one. The infamous black hole of cash; our one off single seat race car, the Yamaha 1000cc D-Sport Racer.

The car pulled 2.5Gs in corners and 3Gs on the brakes. It would out accelerate Vipers and Turbo Porsches at track days. The lap times were within a second of GT1 / Trans-Am Cars. Driving it was an almost transcendental experience.

After a host of teething problems it suddenly started blowing engines, the only change was installing a large radiator to solve an overheating issue. Three engines later we found out why; I talked to a friend and Yamaha engineer.  Apparently this generation of engine is clearanced as such that if you run at water temps much below 150 you'd lose oil pressure to the big end of the #1 rod bearing and it seizes..........kablamo. 

Again the driving experience was phenomenal; even now I think "if I had that car I could rule my run group at vintage races".

After three seasons, the lousy ownership experience far outweighed the great driving experience.  

There is nothing more useless in this universe than an unreliable race car. 

I drive a reliable car to work because I have to get to work.

I drive unreliable cars on weekends because there is no place I have to be on weekends.

My rally car is 8 years old.  My tow rig is 20 years old.  My daily driver is 36 years old.

Priorities.