<prompt> Human: Hi Reddit,I am entering my second year of grad school. I have a 2016 Toyota Corolla lease with 21 months left on the lease. In my attempt to reduce my expenses 16 of my monthly income goes to car payment and insurance I was thinking about giving up my lease and getting a cheaper car. I have a friend who is asking me if I want a 97 Volvo 960 with 300k miles on it. Would it be worth it to take the car? When I graduate I may have to move to the West Coast for work and I will need a reliable car to get out there. I have no experience fixing cars so if something broke I would need to take it to a garage. I have a small emergency fund 1000 and I could put the money I could be saving from not having a car payment and high insurance into my emergency fund in case something in the car broke.What should I do?  <response>: I think when your income is low like a part-time working, full-time college student having a manageable fixed cost is an advantage over having an unpredictable variable cost. If you were shopping for a car right now, youd probably buy a used car with a much greater potential for reliability than one with 300k miles on it. But instead, you went car shopping a year ago with different goals, and got yourself a lease vehicle. Thankfully, you didnt put yourself under with a high lease on a car thats less practical. Youre trying to move from one non-ideal situation to another, but in this case what youd potentially be saving in fixed monthly expenses you could easily pay far more for in maintenance costs. The math favors the fixed cost, in this case, even before accounting for the costs associated with breakingtransferring your lease which I think you have underestimated. 