Latest clickbait: Outrageous Car Payments

[Saint_Cad]

@Broomstick

But then, I know what I can and can’t afford and will be looking to buy in my actual budget range. Some people don’t have that sort of sense.

Or ability to plan long-term. The $1300 ain’t easy. I’m not in danger of missing a payment but a few hundred less a month would make other parts of my life easier. But I went into it knowing it would be not-easy financially for 48 months BUT THEN life will be glorious for the next 20 with a great reliable car and no payments since I (hopefully) won’t have to replace it.

And that’s my issue about the clickbait videos that ask people only what their car payment is. They would look at my $1300 and immediate declare me a financial incompetent and move on to the next clip.

@Broomstick

Back when I last bought vehicles my spouse and I could, in fact, afford brand new and it was important to him to do so, so that’s what we did. We took care of them, which is why they’re still running after more than two decades. Now, with just me… I’m looking for something newer, but not brand new. Also, not expecting to have the same longevity because most people don’t seem to give them as much TLC as I do.

So much truth in what you wrote. Thanks or expressing my thoughts better than I could. The only thing I would add is when my son has used cars, it was “too expensive” to maintain them with oil changes. Now that he has a new car, not a scratch, not a dent and he finally listened to me to have the oil changed regularly. Proud papa when he got it done at the first 5000 miles.

@wolfpup

5 years seems like an extremely short estimate for the life expectancy of a typical used car these days

Watch Mechanical Nightmares or Just Rolled In. Remember it’s 5 years after those people are done with the car.

@mozchron

said most people trade in within three years.

FWIW, many people were talking about how weird the car market would be in 2024/2025 because of all of the Covid car deals made.

[Saint_Cad]

@epbrown

I haven’t seen the lack of context you’re talking about.

Watch Clip 1. As soon as the woman says her payment he immediately stops the video and starts commenting.

[wolfpup]

@Saint_Cad

@wolfpup

5 years seems like an extremely short estimate for the life expectancy of a typical used car these days

Watch Mechanical Nightmares or Just Rolled In. Remember it’s 5 years after those people are done with the car.

Sure, but there are a lot of reasons that people can be “done with the car” that have nothing to do with its condition or remaining life. Many company cars, for instance, come off lease after two years or three at most. People can sell or trade in cars just because they want or need something different. I’ve done it myself. There are lots of different reasons that careful shoppers can get good, reliable used cars.

But absent special factors, I like to keep a car as long as possible. My current one is 20 years old and still looks and runs just fine. I haven’t watched those shows but I’ve had a lot of experience with car ownership, both new and used, including from way back in the day when they weren’t nearly as reliable as they are now. Not every car is a “mechanical nightmare”. So yes, 5 years seems like a very short time estimate for a typical modern used car.

[LadyStardust]

This makes sense. How much money do you save on a yearly basis, and how much do you spend on parts a month for all six cars? Have you done a cost analysis?

[epbrown]

If you don’t buy a used Ferrari 12-cylinder, you’ll never spend more on maintenance than you’ll lose to depreciation on most anything used. In 2003 I owned three cars, all the same make, from 1983. I spent $20k for the cars and $4500/year on maintenance and repairs for the three of them. The cheapest new car I could have gotten from the same car maker was $60k, which would have depreciated more than the total spend by the time I sold.

[engineer_comp_geek]

@LadyStardust

This makes sense. How much money do you save on a yearly basis, and how much do you spend on parts a month for all six cars? Have you done a cost analysis?

I’m fairly similar to @Crafter_Man. I have a 2004 Buick which is my daily driver, a 2002 Jeep that is my bad weather vehicle, and a 1995 F350 which I use to haul stuff around and also functions as a backup in case one of my other vehicles has a problem. I also generally do all of my own maintenance and repair work.

I had to put new tires on the Buick last year. I have also had to replace the glow plug relay on the F350 twice since I’ve had the truck. I haven’t had to do anything with the Jeep yet, but then I just bought it last year.

I also have a 1953 MG TD, a 1968 VW Beetle, and a 1926 Ford Model T. These obviously aren’t daily drivers. Plus I have an old Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

I probably spend about $200 to $500 per year in parts for all of my daily drivers combined. Some years will be less than that, but then in some years I need to get new tires for one of them.

It’s probably about $200 to $500 per year on parts for the antique cars as well. They don’t get driven anywhere near as much, but they do tend to break more often. This year, both the MG and the VW had broken fuel pumps, and the Model T starter bendix broke (to be fair, it’s a 98 year old part). The VW and the Model T are very easy to get parts for. The MG, not so much.

My daily drivers typically cost between $2000 and $5000, and I keep them for about 10 to 15 years. For example, before the Buick, I had a 1980s era Cadillac, which I had for about 15 years. Over that time, I had to replace the battery due to a sticky relay killing it, and I had to replace brake cylinders and brake lines, and that was about it. The power window mechanism broke and I couldn’t find a replacement part for that, so that part stayed broken until the car died. I paid $5k for the car, and total parts cost over that 15 year period was probably about $1500, including tires and oil changes.

Another example is the old Dodge pickup I had at the same time. I paid $1500 for it. I had to do a lot more work on it, including replacing the radiator, replacing most of the exhaust system (twice), replacing the catalytic converter, and replacing the EGR valve. There’s a bit of a funny story involving this truck, but in the end I probably had about $2000 into it by the time it died.

The long and short of it is that most of my daily drivers have lasted about 10 years, with a total cost of less than $5k, except for the Cadillac which was closer to $7k. I bought one new car when I got out of college, and it was a very cheap car. I’ve bought all used cars since then and, with that one exception (which I paid off in about a year), I’ve never had a car payment.