New car prices are out of control

[ShawnD1]

I'm using this to keep from quoting a picture... What are you gonna do when your car dies; Minivan? AFAIK, they don't make decent wagons anymore. When I was looking for one used, everything I saw had too much cancer, so I settled on a Cherokee. Almost as good as a wagon(better in some ways), but loading takes a lot more thought.

Why would you buy a Chrysler product? Does it have the Death Wabble? My friend's 2002 (?) Cherokee has that Death Wabble, and it's terrifying. When traveling at highway speed, it shakes like crazy. This is why Chrysler was sold to the Germans then sold to the Italians. Eventually the Italians will sell it to the Chinese. Feel free to quote me on this

 

[lxskllr]

Why would you buy a Chrysler product? Does it have the Death Wabble? My friend's 2002 (?) Cherokee has that Death Wabble, and it's terrifying. When traveling at highway speed, it shakes like crazy. This is why Chrysler was sold to the Germans then sold to the Italians. Eventually the Italians will sell it to the Chinese. Feel free to quote me on this

Chrysler is the only American brand I'd buy. Every one I've had the pleasure to use or own has functioned flawlessly aside from routine maintenance. Your friend needs to get the front end looked at.

 

[ISAslot]

I got my main car for free. An 87 Tercel. I named her カゴメ. Great on gas and reliable. She's blue with grey primer spots (late 80's paint sucked).

 

[BoberFett]

I got my main car for free. An 87 Tercel. I named her カゴメ. Great on gas and reliable. She's blue with grey primer spots (late 80's paint sucked).

Somehow it doesn't surprise me that someone named ISAslot drives an ancient car.

Rock on! :thumbsup:

 

[holden j caufield]

newer Acura TL I bought a few years old that I paid half of what it was new. But I still driver my beater 20 year old Honda because it does the job. Point A to B, no frills and less things to go wrong. These new cars that my mom got, tps etc it's stupid tech that costs more and breaks more often. GPS or something is real useful. TPS, automatic hydraulic trunk lift, stupid and expensive to fix.

 

[highland145]

1988, 279K

Chick magnet, for sure.

 

[PhoKingGuy]

The only thing I can get out of this thread is a bunch of people that

A) Don't care about cars
B) Don't get any enjoyment out of their cars
C) Can't afford anything else

My 335i puts a shit eating grin on my face every time I get inside of it. Plus it's already got its payments autopaid out of an interest bearing account.

I'd rather be taken seriously if I ever have to meet with any Docs or admins and not show up in some hoopty.

 

[Fritzo]

Chrysler is the only American brand I'd buy. Every one I've had the pleasure to use or own has functioned flawlessly aside from routine maintenance. Your friend needs to get the front end looked at.

Really? I've had just the opposite. Every Chrysler product I've owned has been a huge POS (yet my wife keeps buying them...go figure). Her wall of shame for the last 20 years include:

1998 Plymoth Voyager
2001 Plymoth Voyager
2003 Dodge Grand Caravan
2006 PT Cruiser
2008 Town and Country

Every case featured terrible plastics, brakes the size of milk caps, window trim that would slowly detach and cause road noise, suspension issues causing tire wear, and the PT Cruiser had electrical problems (as well as the turning radius of an aircraft carrier)

I've owned a 1996 Jeep Town and Country, and a 1992 Jeep Comanche, and they were both good vehicles, but I don't count that period of vehicles as Chrysler as they basically used pre-existing designs from their buy-out.

 

[lxskllr]

My 335i puts a shit eating grin on my face every time I get inside of it. Plus it's already got its payments autopaid out of an interest bearing account.

I'd rather be taken seriously if I ever have to meet with any Docs or admins and not show up in some hoopty.

Bland. There's numerous cars that cost much less I'd take over that.

 

[lxskllr]

Really? I've had just the opposite. Every Chrysler product I've owned has been a huge POS (yet my wife keeps buying them...go figure). Her wall of shame for the last 20 years include:

1998 Plymoth Voyager
2001 Plymoth Voyager
2003 Dodge Grand Caravan
2006 PT Cruiser
2008 Town and Country

Every case featured terrible plastics, brakes the size of milk caps, window trim that would slowly detach and cause road noise, suspension issues causing tire wear, and the PT Cruiser had electrical problems (as well as the turning radius of an aircraft carrier)

I've owned a 1996 Jeep Town and Country, and a 1992 Jeep Comanche, and they were both good vehicles, but I don't count that period of vehicles as Chrysler as they basically used pre-existing designs from their buy-out.

I guess I should note that all the vehicles I've used have been truck-like things. I never owned one of their cars, but people I knew that had them haven't had problems.

 

[PhoKingGuy]

Bland. There's numerous cars that cost much less I'd take over that.

Such as?

IMHO this is quite possibly the best good weather DD ever made. Not overly ostentatious, looks wonderful, great power, decent gas mileage, all the tech I could ever want, comfy, etc.

 

[PhoKingGuy]

Really? I've had just the opposite. Every Chrysler product I've owned has been a huge POS (yet my wife keeps buying them...go figure). Her wall of shame for the last 20 years include:

1998 Plymoth Voyager
2001 Plymoth Voyager
2003 Dodge Grand Caravan
2006 PT Cruiser
2008 Town and Country

Every case featured terrible plastics, brakes the size of milk caps, window trim that would slowly detach and cause road noise, suspension issues causing tire wear, and the PT Cruiser had electrical problems (as well as the turning radius of an aircraft carrier)

I've owned a 1996 Jeep Town and Country, and a 1992 Jeep Comanche, and they were both good vehicles, but I don't count that period of vehicles as Chrysler as they basically used pre-existing designs from their buy-out.

The only chryslers I've driven have made me want to drive my parents old 1999 I30 beater over them.

2010 Avenger, 2010 Sebring, 2009 Caliber. All utter trash.

 

[fstime]

General advice is generally pretty useless. So somehow it's ok for somebody making 32k a year to buy an $8k car leaving them with $24k left over but somebody making $100k can't spend $50k leaving them with $50k extra?

It's horrible example/generalization. The fact of the matter is that once you reach a certain level of income you have exponentially more for savings/fun money. There's a basic cost of living and as you begin to exceed that you end up with a lot more money. It's not like the guy making $100k a year pays more for food then the $32k (unless he goes out of course).

I saw this first hand when I went from making $40k at 23, $75k at 24 and 25, and then $100k at 26. Short time frame but god did I see a world of difference in what I could afford/pay down as my income went up each year.

Anyway the example is poor. Does not account for the fact that somebody making $100k has far more money left over after paying for basic essentials.

YES, just because you make more at 100k/year doesn't mean you should spend more and end up saving the same amount of money when you were making 32K/year!!!

This is why the average American has little to no savings even in their 50's, it is pathetic.

When you make more, you can spend a little more, yes, but your first prioriry should be saving more.

If the difference of retiring 10-15 years earlier does not matter to you and you want to slave away, ahem "work" a little longer, be my guest.

A $25,000 car is a fine car, it's just psychology getting to you. You think you are some big shot now because you make 100K a year and because EVERYONE drives $25,000 cars, you deserve something better. Truth is, leaders do not care what other people around them are doing. They do what seems logical to them and fuck everyone else's opinion and standards. And if everyone else is living beyond their means, let them do so. Ask the housing bubble buyers how they are doing.

 

[JM Aggie08]

Also ITT: People getting emotional because others do not share their same opinions.

 

[JM Aggie08]

The only chryslers I've driven have made me want to drive my parents old 1999 I30 beater over them.

2010 Avenger, 2010 Sebring, 2009 Caliber. All utter trash.

2012 Challenger > *, mostly because it was the only coupe that I could fit into. I sure do love it though :wub:

 

[purbeast0]

YES, just because you make more at 100k/year doesn't mean you should spend more and end up saving the same amount of money when you were making 32K/year!!!

This is why the average American has little to no savings even in their 50's, it is pathetic.

When you make more, you can spend a little more, yes, but your first prioriry should be saving more.

If the difference of retiring 10-15 years earlier does not matter to you and you want to slave away, ahem "work" a little longer, be my guest.

A $25,000 car is a fine car, it's just psychology getting to you. You think you are some big shot now because you make 100K a year and because EVERYONE drives $25,000 cars, you deserve something better. Truth is, leaders do not care what other people around them are doing. They do what seems logical to them and fuck everyone else's opinion and standards. And if everyone else is living beyond their means, let them do so. Ask the housing bubble buyers how they are doing.

the thing is, if you make $100k vs $32k, you can spend more on fun stuff AND save more. i do not understand why this concept is so hard for many people on ATOT to grasp.

instead most people on here (who obviously don't make a lot of money or else they would understand it) think that people should all spend $XXXXX on necessities and then everything else HAS to be saved!

when you go from $50k to $100k, you can spend A LOT more and also save A LOT more.

 

[fstime]

the thing is, if you make $100k vs $32k, you can spend more on fun stuff AND save more. i do not understand why this concept is so hard for many people on ATOT to grasp.

instead most people on here (who obviously don't make a lot of money or else they would understand it) think that people should all spend $XXXXX on necessities and then everything else HAS to be saved!

That's fine, but the general point trying to be made is on average, people spend way to much on cars and it is due to a lot of wrong reasons, a bit part of it being psychological.

 

[purbeast0]

That's fine, but the general point trying to be made is on average, people spend way to much on cars and it is due to a lot of wrong reasons, a bit part of it being psychological.

who are you to say what is "way too much" to spend on cars when you have no clue about 99.9% of the populations financial situation?

 

[lxskllr]

Such as?

IMHO this is quite possibly the best good weather DD ever made. Not overly ostentatious, looks wonderful, great power, decent gas mileage, all the tech I could ever want, comfy, etc.

Can't give you specific models, but I've seen them from pretty much every brand. I haven't car shopped in a long time, and have no idea what I'd get that's newish if I had to go out today. The last vehicle I got excited about was a 51 Dodge army truck. I came really close to getting it, but couldn't justify the purchase.

 

[PhoKingGuy]

Can't give you specific models, but I've seen them from pretty much every brand. I haven't car shopped in a long time, and have no idea what I'd get that's newish if I had to go out today. The last vehicle I got excited about was a 51 Dodge army truck. I came really close to getting it, but couldn't justify the purchase.

I see what you mean. TBH I loved driving the old mid 80's F250 4x4 we used in my old undergraduate ecology lab. It was an airforce surplus truck with no AC/radio/anything but it was practically a tank. Was fun as hell to hook up the back end of that up to old dead trees and just pull them around like it was no sweat.

Also....mudding FTW

 

[BoberFett]

The only thing I can get out of this thread is a bunch of people that

A) Don't care about cars
B) Don't get any enjoyment out of their cars
C) Can't afford anything else

My 335i puts a shit eating grin on my face every time I get inside of it. Plus it's already got its payments autopaid out of an interest bearing account.

I'd rather be taken seriously if I ever have to meet with any Docs or admins and not show up in some hoopty.

Inevitably when anyone questions the general financial decision-making ability of the average person, insecure people jump to the "You're poor" defense in an effort to belittle anyone who has the audacity to be average. Especially around here where we're all tits-deep in supermodel girlfriends and luxury cars.

If you like your car, great. If you can afford a car you love, even better. But you can't really argue with the fact that people are now routinely taking out 6 or 7 year loans on cars. This means they can't afford them, which means the industry is pushing the average person into a higher than average priced car, which is pushing the entire market higher as unaffordable cars become the norm.

I make about $95K/yr. I like cars. and I still cringe at spending $30K on a car. It is, after all, just a car.

Also, if you honestly think doctors give a damn about your car, you're delusional. It's telling that you say "If you ever have to meet admins or docs." In other words you never have. You're a small fry. I rub elbows with CxOs all the time, and have yet to have one turn their nose up at me because I drive a 97 Lincoln. It simply doesn't matter, except in your head.

 

[BoberFett]

who are you to say what is "way too much" to spend on cars when you have no clue about 99.9% of the populations financial situation?

Ummm, it's pretty clear what most of the populations financial situation is. On an individual level, sure you can't know what someone has in savings by how much they make or what they drive. But there are pretty solid statistics that show that the average American household makes around $50K/yr and has dick for savings. So that 99.9% number of yours is bullshit. We can very safely say that the average American spends more on automobiles than is financially wise.

 

[purbeast0]

Ummm, it's pretty clear what most of the populations financial situation is. On an individual level, sure you can't know what someone has in savings by how much they make or what they drive. But there are pretty solid statistics that show that the average American household makes around $50K/yr and has dick for savings. So that 99.9% number of yours is bullshit. We can very safely say that the average American spends more on automobiles than is financially wise.

where are your stats on how many of these $50k households with no savings have $25k cars?

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Ummm, it's pretty clear what most of the populations financial situation is. On an individual level, sure you can't know what someone has in savings by how much they make or what they drive. But there are pretty solid statistics that show that the average American household makes around $50K/yr and has dick for savings. So that 99.9% number of yours is bullshit. We can very safely say that the average American spends more on automobiles than is financially wise.

50k and the chances they own a 35k car are pretty high. That means a whole years worth of work (50k minus taxes) is going towards buying a vehicle. It's absolutely insane to think about.
Oh well let the suckers play the Jones' bit and I'll come along and buy their perfectly good car for pocket change.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

I'd rather be taken seriously if I ever have to meet with any Docs or admins and not show up in some hoopty.

I can understand not showing up in a rusted out 1988 Ford Ranger - but I don't think anyone would judge you negatively for showing up in a Civic, Fusion, or or Elantra.