I have almost always run bangers (less so once I gave up working on them myself). Many years ago, one of my young workmates bought a new Fiesta XR2i and he said to me, "Why do you run old cars? You could afford a new one". I asked him how much he paid a month for his car and he told me £350. I said that was what I paid for the Peugeot 504 I was running at the time. He then said, "It could break down any day", to which I replied, "Then I will go and buy another for that sort of price, and I will still be better off than you".
He wrote the XR2i off about a month later!