55 points

Just bought an 11 year old car for 12k. Because a new one would’ve wiped out my savings and then some after saving for 5 years to replace my 20 year old car. Nobody can afford shit.

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29 points

People need to stop “pretending” they can afford all this shit, it’s not needed and noone cares, who are people showing off too?

New iphone? Don’t need it

Maybe if we stop buying shit these companies will actually try

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10 points

They’ll just cut you off from your subscription if you don’t buy buy buy.

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1 point

That’s all the 80 month car loans are at this point.

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-27 points
*

I bought a boat last year and now I want a bigger one. I’ve got lots of disposable income because I don’t live beyond my means. Lots of people carry credit card debt and spend stupidly. Don’t do that and you’ll likely be ahead of most people.

The boats are around 2k. Not huge rich guy money.

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21 points

The cost of a boat is primarily in upkeep, not price. You’ll see.

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9 points

I bought a boat last year and now I want a bigger one…I don’t live beyond my means…spend stupidly…

🤯🤯🤯

Homie. You just bought the largest money sink there is. You can drop 20k into your 2k boat and when you turn around and sell it you’ll get your 2k back, that’s it, maybe. All the amenities are nice, but no one cares if the all the outlets match the drapes - that’s why buying either is stupid, financially.

Fences are another good example. They can cost tens of thousands…EASY. In fact if I heard a neighbor fenced even one side of their yard for under 5k id be in shock. They make a place more livable, more comfortable. They increase the likelihood of a sale but they don’t increase property value so you’re never getting a return on that money.

Be it fences, boats, outlet covers or drapes, those are all emotional purchases. Their value is subjective, so most find when it’s time to move on from them theyre the only ones who see that value.

Like go spend 5k on a couch. How much you think your gonna get for that? Or your mattress?

Better live on your next boat if you like life on the water. It’s literally the only way I’ve ever seen anyone who works for a paycheck hold onto a boat. A real boat. The kind that you have to moar and drydock once every few years. Only way.

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6 points

I’m curious. What car did you buy? I hate how everything is so inflated. I bought a mint civic si for 8 grand like 6 years ago. I kinda want insight/realize everything is fucked.

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5 points
*

You got yours 6 years ago. 8k was about average for a decent used car then. Now you’re paying almost full price for a 5 year old car or if you’re okay with a shit box that may or may not last then you can drop 5k. I got a 2012 GTI.

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6 points

We picked up a 12 year old civic hatchback before Covid for 5k and it was in immaculate like-new condition, low miles. It got totaled right after our other car’s engine finally wore out. I then found a 10 year old Toyota for 16k. It was the lowest price in a 200-mile radius for cars/small trucks with under 150k miles on them that weren’t limping/totaled/savaged.

It was fucking flabbergasting.

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31 points

shrug and?

I know most people want “New cars” and fine, go chase that over priced luxury, but I’d rather a car that’s 1-2 years old that’s dropped more than half the price, and being passed over because new shiny thing came out.

People shouldn’t have to drive beaters, but buying a car for 10k isn’t a bad decision unless you’re extremely well off our only care about status symbols.

Like there’s a reason I was able to buy a house, and a good job helped, but also my wife and I lived with in our means, which is something I feel that isn’t talked about in the consumerism age. (You can buy something new, but for most things you don’t need a yearly iphone/car/or anything. A good 50 inch tv works well for a tenth of the price of the newest one. ) And yet I see people complain about not having a lot of money yet they’re always talking about the newest graphics cards, newest tvs, and newest tech… I wonder why.

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9 points

Yeah it’s insane. I bought a 1 year old Hyundai and knocked tons of depreciation off an already cheaper brand.

At my work people be driving around in leased Range Rovers/AMG Mercs. Then they will take the piss out of my car.

Seriously? I now have more disposable income because i’m not wasting it renting a car and also I own my car… It should be me bragging

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19 points

Look at this guy with his $10k…

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-45 points

Get a better job. If you can’t afford a $10k car, you’re doing something wrong…

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31 points

You understand that if someone in a low paid job gets a better paid job, the low paid job does not disappear in a puff of smoke? That the proportion of people in low paid work is a function of political decisions as to what the economy should look like?

I mean, the headline is fucking ridiculous (we don’t need anything like 10% of car sales to be new cars). But so is giving careers advice as a solution to the high prevalence of shit pay.

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21 points

Why don’t I strap on my job helmet and squeeze down into a job cannon and fire off into job land, where jobs grow on jobbies?

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9 points

The only thing that’s being done wrong here is you defending the system and not the individual.

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4 points

Don’t look at pickup prices. Mine was worth the same at 2 years as new.

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4 points

A decade ago I was able to buy a shitbox Silverado 1500 crew cab for under $15k that ran till it rusted out from under me halfway back from the moon. It hauled garbage, pig feed, and two moves without a complaint. Same truck today would be $30k minimum and at that price I’d be too afraid of scratching it to have any fun.

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1 point

So sell it and get new

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51 points

I’d rather a car that’s 1-2 years old that’s dropped more than half the price […]

Except that doesn’t really happen anymore. Shoot, I’ve seen some cars appreciate in value after they roll off the lot in recent years. Hoping that reverses soon, but it sure isn’t like it used to be.

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19 points

Take the Toyota 4runner for example - they’re incredibly reliable because they are simplistic in many ways with bullet proof components. You can even find 5 year old models that are within 5k of a new one.

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2 points

Arguable the case for purchasing a brand new vehicle starts to make more sense as BEV become the majority as the batteries are a consumable that degrades with use and time. So long as the increased price is offset by the longer utilization of that battery.

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1 point

Yeah, of course… But they’re also replaceable. You can even check the individual cells, swap out the worst ones with cells from other used packs, and end up getting back up to decent capacity. There’s a whole statistics, mean time to failure aspect to batteries - it’s not going to take them back to new, but swapping out the worst cells can get you a lot better performance

Or you could just replace the batteries with newer, likely better, battery banks. The first option needs a certain scale, but would be cheap, the second would be a straight range upgrade over even the factory range.

There’s also the fact that electric cars are much more mechanically simple - this is unlikely to catch on under our current economic system, but it’s way easier to swap electric motors than an engine…

My points being, I think we need to make way less cars, and electric cars are actually easier to repair (at least from a physics and resource perspective, hostile design and economic pressures could easily eat up that difference)

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1 point

The problem with replacing individual cells is you’ll end up with cells with different wear levels which means different discharge rates and capacities (max voltage). The battery management system can mitigate some of the problems that arise but can only do that while chargering. While the battery is in use or sits for an extented period of time the cells will try to level out the voltage difference causing loss in capacity and a potential fire risk if the cells are too out of balanced.

Replacing the battery with new better batteries isn’t really an option either as any significant increase in power density would be from a change in battery chemistry and that would also require changing out the on board charging circuit and related systems. There’s also the issue that the majority of charge points providers state in their TOS that the use of any aftermarket parts or modifications to your battery or charger is forbidden so you are essential blacklisted from using any DC fast charger.

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2 points

we need right to repair laws for cars so this is possible

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9 points

I got a 2021 car last year with 6000km on it . It was almost full price .

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5 points

Probably because it only had 6000 km on it. Average is closer to 15000 km/year.

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3 points

I have a 2020 rav4 and it is only valued at $3k less than what I paid for it brand new. This isn’t a reality anymore.

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1 point

but also my wife and I lived with in our means, which is something I feel that isn’t talked about in the consumerism age.

the problem is the basic cost of living is going up beyond what can be afforded and people scream at you about not making extremely bad decisions you didn’t even make and don’t have to in order to end up struggling.

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33 points
*

Yet CEOs and billionaires are making more money than ever. Something has to give and soon…

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8 points

Right, right after the article about tech workers living in “pods”. I mean, how much money are they making for other people? And then I know of this millionaire (who made his money in f’ing health insurance) with an 18,000 square foot house by Vail that his family visits twice a year for a few weeks.

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31 points

I can’t afford a used car. My dad helped me buy my current car and if it does I’m fucked.

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8 points

2 years ago I was in need of a new truck (work related). Practically all the used stuff that’s worth a dam was priced not far behind if not more than new. The kicker, the new ones I was interested in weren’t available…so I was forced to buy used.

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137 points

We should not be building our cities in ways that necessitate owning a car.

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40 points

That ship has sailed a long time ago

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5 points

It’s gonna be crashing on the shore pretty soon at this rate.

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59 points

Never too late to change. Just look at Amsterdam now vs a couple decades ago

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33 points

I know Jersey City has made a big push to bikify the city, and limited parking in new high-density development, with the idea being if you build it, they will come. It’s part of an overall plan that they date out to 2060. Shit takes time. Doesn’t mean you don’t try though, that’s for sure. I’m hopeful.

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I’d argue that Amsterdam isn’t a great example, as the infrastructure of that city was largely built before the advent of automobiles, then converted to support a more Americanized design that was vehicle-centric, before finally realizing, “Hey, we’re Dutch, not American, we need more space for our bicycles!”

If we’re discussing American infrastructure designed in the 20th century, it seems to be pretty difficult to convert because the physical structures of both the transportation infrastructure and the destinations people want to visit are not built densely enough to make going without a car a top tier option for most people.

I mean this broadly, not to say that there aren’t opportunities to start moving this in the other direction, but emphasizing that changing the focus to downplay the importance of vehicles will be neither quick, cheap, or easy.

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5 points

You’re right, let’s not change with the times but just lay down and die, nothing is worth the effort.

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-1 points

What are we gonna do, nuke all the suburbs and cram everyone into little pods?

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1 point

not really. it’s a choice that’s remade every year. we can fix it, and people are trying.

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2 points

It’s about oil and profits. They want us to need a car to go anywhere. More cars, more oil, more profits, RIGHT?

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1 point

Nerevar, what do you need a car for? You have all the siltstriders in the world at your disposal. Here, take the keys to Juan Angelito. He’s my favorite.

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