I don’t know why people buy new cars, but someone has to I guess
If you can’t pay cash for a car you either don’t have the means for it or you just totalled your new one.
long term wealth? lmao.
If they haven’t been trapped by a ridiculous car deal, then theyll be trapped in any number of another Money Traps that have been deliberately engineered into society: Health Care, College Tuition, Student Loans, Rent, Gambling Apps, Expensive Consumer Crap, Streaming Platforms, Luxury Phones, etc. Probably several simultaneously.
The entire point is to make us spend every penny before we die, and not leave any sort of inheritance to give the next generation a leg up. And if we get to the end of our lives with a little nest egg left, they know you’ll get sick, and they’ll get to drain every last penny.
Funny thing how my grandma died in the care center, the month before her money was set to run out, after a lifetime of her and my grandpa carefully investing and saving. They took it all.
My goodness, people have been trained for far too long that a new car is a better car. I splurged on the newest vehicle I have ever owned last year, a 2020 golf gti, my payment is around 250 a month/60 month at less than 10% apr. It had 120k miles on it when I picked it up but everything that fucks up on these cars happens at 60-80k miles so the previous owner took care of all that. Otherwise every other vehicle I have ever owned has been a craigslist special that I spent time looking for and maintained myself.
We went backwards. Had a 2015 Fit which needed work on the VTC and other electronics, and the new cars have too much unneeded stuff that can fail, and surveillence in the infotainment system, so we traded it down to a 2004 Echo.
The car looks and runs like new, and I can fix whatever breaks.
I just bought an 09 fit, crazy deal, like $1300.
The reason? It needed most of the suspension redone. Both control arms, sway bar links, tie rod ends, rear shocks, etc. Also the AC was broken. But the engine is solid, might need the valve lash tightened up a bit soon. But the guy didn’t or couldn’t do it himself, and the labor to get it done was expensive.
All that work I can and did do myself, including the AC (the last guy just overfilled it so the head pressure was too high. Probably did some damage, but so far it’s fine).
With parts from rock auto my total for the car was like $1600, not including my labor, two days or so.
Car has 190k miles on it, I can probably squeeze another 100 out of it.
This is the way, if you have the ability.
I could’ve gotten a new car for 3 or 4 hundred a month. But at those prices, this car owes me NOTHING after 6 months. I’d be annoyed if it exploded, but, that’s unlikely. And every year past that is just gravy, money in my pocket.
Nice.
I managed to get a Mercedes C-Class for under 300 a month, was 3 years old at the time, with 140k km. APR was under 4%… Until Putin attacked Ukraine anyway, after that EURIBOR went up and so did my rate lol, must’ve been about 8% APR at peak (interest rate was around 6%). Best car I’ve ever had and the monthly payment was low enough that it easily made up for all the time I spent in the garage on all of my older cars.
I got a brand new car last year and I’m paying like 300.
You bought a Golf GTI that had 193.000 km on it and it still drove for 5 years?
Youd be surprised how many shit boxes can last to 300k miles with minimal repair.
I’ve only had it for about a year but I have put a ton of miles on it and I haven’t had any real issues with it. It’s the base model gti though so no sun roof nonsense and it has a normal ass key instead of one of those dumb ass fobs.
Im jelly. I want like a '13 GTI. I dont have my own car, but if I did a gti is on the list of ones id want. along with a kei truck. I am really surprised the 2020 model has a key, thats dope
I had a few Mk4 ones before I bought the one I have now. They were tons of fun and relatively easy to work on. They always seemed to have vacuum issues but once those werecl cleared up they were fun cars that got decent mpg
I’m driving a 1999 RAV4. I do regular oil changes. I replaced the brake pads years ago, but I think I got conned. That mechanic also told me my timing belt needed to be replaced. It did not. This vehicle is incredible. It’s a little freaking tank. My pride and joy…
If it had a timing belt on that engine, and hadn’t been changed already, then yes it needed a timing belt.
Its a preventative maintenance part. You don’t want to run it till it breaks then fix it, because a broken belt can mean valves are down (open) and piston is coming up for a interference crash.
And then some more for insurance, gas, tires, oil changes, brakes, etc.
so glad I sold my car last christmas.
Yet, I still have people asking me “when will you buy another car?”
Possibly never, and if I did, it certainly would be something very compact, and certainly not new.
I was about to harp on people throwing money away on new cars, but then the article said Americans are paying an average of 30k for used cars. Every day I understand my countrymen less and less.
- Dealers jack prices way up
- High prices allow them to give ridiculous trade in value
- Trade ins scrapped or exported
- Sky high used car prices due to constrained supply
- Buyers forced into new cars
See how that works?
Know what? People used to be able to understand contracts. This is what’s happening. People are so dumbed down, they don’t even know what they’re signing. Welcome to the USA , and soon to be Alberta, Canada
What’s not to understand? The system here is literally setup to create consumers and it does a great job.
We bought a brand new corolla last year for about $24k. Most people convince themselves they “need” much more car than they do. The auto manufacturers focus on giant luxury cars because those giant luxury cars sell. Yes, there’s always a desire to push larger because of the higher profit margins. But people still have to make the choice to buy the giant expensive cars.
Fuck you dude, lol. We got a Corolla last year, used, for $22k.
Geez, I got mine new and talked them down to 22.5k
Man I really need to figure out this “negotiating” thing.
Theres a variety of factors here. For one, more and more people are rolling their already stupid high loans into their next loan on a new used vehicle. So that is driving up the overall price. Second is that the new car market average price is well over $40k on average. Since people who cant get a new car have to buy used, then used car prices will creep as close to that point as they can regardless of actual vehicle values. The actual value of the vehicle is irrelevant in a country where cars are a necessity for the majority of people. What dealers are selling is the opportunity to have a vehicle more than the vehicle itself, and so they are gouging the shit out of people who have no reasonable alternative outside of buying on the used car market
Did you not read the contract?
Why did I think $900 a month was a good idea? I already need $1200 tires?..
I know that people being offered $1000/mo auto loans are already in dire straits, but if you could trade that for a $1000 annual bus pass or $2000 commuter e-bike, you’d have enough to go on a dream vacation about every year and have some left over.
The last car I bought cost me $1000 :( A 2002 Jetta Vr6. Lasted me three years (purchased in 2018) before the head gasket needed to be replaced.
We went into the pandemic with beater cars costing $500-$1000. Now? A shit beater starts at $3000. It blows my mind. I know I am getting old, but christ.
I suspect you have never been to the US. It is HUGE. You cant get anywhere without a car, and most cities have terrible or no public transportation.
I’ve been to MA, NY (both upstate and NYC), NJ, MI, OH, KY, TN, MS, LA, AR, TX, IL, WA, OR, CA, and AK. As a Canadian I may have travelled to more states than a good chunk of Americans.
I know some states and cities are allergic to investing in usable public transport. I know most states’ DOT staff only know how to build roads and are pretty clueless at anything else. And I know many people can’t imagine biking or bussing is for anyone other than poor people and people with too many DUIs, but I’ve seen many places where it works, some surprising, where many people live there. So yeah it’s hard for any statement about the US to apply to absolutely everyone, but I think tens of millions could make a car free or car light lifestyle work who don’t currently consider it, and that interest can translate to better attention to car alternatives from local and state authorities.
The most leverage a potential car buyer has in a negotiation is the ability to walk away. So the first step is understanding the alternatives and the potential to save a good fraction of an income from insurance, maintenance and gas costs. The more people understand that and aren’t signing car loans out of desperation, car costs would be lower for every American.
In much of the US, the bus routes (if they exist) don’t serve everywhere and only run once an hour or two. And biking on the roads is essentially signing your own death warrant with the lack of bike lanes and driver antagonism towards cyclists. Everything is so car-centric that not having a car consumes an undue amount of time and safety.
