So you don’t want to spend a bunch on maintenance?
You buy an old Cessna, and in the first few years you find all the problems that your half assed prebuy didn’t find. So you end up fixing a bunch of stuff, but how much did it really add up to?
Or you save up for a few years, then go down to the dealer with your down payment and buy a new plane. It costs more than your house, but hey it’s new, new things don’t require maintenance right?? You quickly find out that even if you don’t have big things to fix, that you still have to pay for the annual. And there are still little things, like the flat spotted tire from the day you got on the brakes too hard, and the Little Rock dings in the prop from the trip to the local grass strip. But, you don’t have any money left to fly Anyway because the insurance on that new plane is through the roof because of the high hull value. And your monthly payment, a good portion of which is interest, is chewing through all your income. So, after two years you figure out that while the new plane is nice, you can’t afford it. You then sell it losing your ass because of depreciation, and you go out and buy a decent but old plane and you actually fly again.
I found my first real airplane on barnstormers, it didn’t look pretty, but had all the best mods. And, the price was pretty good. Some friends with experience were in the area and looked at it, they said it was ugly but a solid plane. I paid for an “annual” which was a total pencil whip waste of cash. Did I mention it was my first plane? In the first month, I find that the tail wheel is worn out. There goes $1600, but I install it myself with the supervision of a qualified friend. A couple months later it needs a fuel bladder, then a cylinder and the horizontal needs to be rebuilt. All of that was stuff a good inspection should have found. But, now 3 years later, all the little problems have been fixed, in total all the necessary parts and repairs added up to less than $8000, add that to the purchase price and I still got a good deal.
I love my 67 year old Cessna, and it gets about 120 hours a year on it. And it cost one third of the closest new thing I could buy.