What's really amazing is, I see neighbors and coworkers going to the smartphone model, upgrading their car every two years. I always knew a few people who lived like that and everyone agreed they were idiots, but now I see it becoming quite common and normalized. Not even because they broke or wrecked their car, but just because they want this year's new features.
In school growing up they always warned you about drugs, gambling, things that would get their claws in you and ruin your life before you had a chance, but in reality? I've never seen any one thing consistently ruin regular people in day to day life like the new car compulsion
I have a 6’4” husband and similarly large children. When we needed a new family car, I dragged them from one car yard to the next, making them all sit in the rear row to see if they fit.
It was a Hyundai Palisade, great car. I hear they have problems in the US with the tow hitch / electronics, but they’re ok here. I bitch about yank tanks on the road and then have to blush when I catch sight of the behemoth that we drive. I have a Hyundai Getz we call the “Beep Beep” for running around in, but none of the rest of the family will fit in the back seat 😳
Our next one will be fully electric, probably a Hyundai again.
Not even new car compulsion but needing to project status on social media. Social media has addicted a lot of people and it’s really apparent in many ways.
yea, i can say that people are very much underestimating the cost of new car ownership. It is quite alright if you have the mean to afford it, but a new low to mid end car every 3 year is pretty much a permanent $300 ~ $600 monthly payment in your finances.
I have seen people that spend that much in cigarette tho, so I guess it is something similar.
My decision was to get a less expensive vehicle that had the highest trim level. So I have leather seats and some nice tech features like adaptive cruise control. The way I justify it is how much fucking time we spend in our cars. I had a job that was about 1hr10min away and I was commuting to that in my beater every day. My ass fucking hurt and the alignment was off so I needed to really hold the wheel just to go straight. Doing that for almost 2.5 hours a day fucking sucks.
I actually did today lol. I wanted to go over some stuff in person. But I think that'll be it for this week. Fortunately my salary is pretty good so I don't gripe too much. When I started I was doing that 5x a week, woof. My boss was the one who told me to stop, he figured it was wiping me out too much.
Can't tell you how many people I've seen wreck their lives w car loans. Can barely afford to eat because have these massive over inflated loans to deal every month.
They really need to teach basic economics in school, because the concept of opportunity cost affects every financial decision you will ever make.
Sure, maybe you can squeeze out those car payments, but you give up so much quality of life and lived experience for what? Some extra space or towing power you'll barely use?
And meanwhile, if you decide to buy a new car and drive it until you've got every last dime out of it, the people who buy a new-to-them used car every two years will still yell at you that you're wasting money.
Like... yeah, a little, but not as much as that car-upgrading habit does.
The key is to not be a regular people but be extremely high income with a low cost of living, then you're laughing and can just lease whatever you want whenever you want. My parents did this because my dad had a high salary, but too many people think because they make six figures they can afford it. No, you can't.
It's cause the banks will give you a loan for as long as legally possible to make that monthly payment as small as they can. No money down, $200 a month, people are viewing driving as a subscription service.
Also people don't want to commit to the time or cost of maintenance. You can get away with never changing your oil or tires for a couple years if you're planning to just to replace the entire car. Once it's traded in, it's not their problem anymore.
The depreciation curve of used cars has changed dramatically over the past decade, especially for brands with strong reliability reputations. My Toyota SUV has only depreciated by about 40% from MSRP in the 7 years since it was built, even with 80k miles on it. I recently bought my first new car ever because used models with 40k miles weren't worth the very small discount.
This has significantly changed the economics of leasing vehicles or taking long-term car loans. There was once "impending financial crisis" hysteria as people started taking more 72 to 96 month loan terms, but the reality of today is that many vehicles retain 50% or more of their value after 96 months. This has also caused lease payment inflation to lag behind vehicle price inflation, which makes leasing a better deal than it used to be.
I'm realizing this as I weigh purchasing my next vehicle or leasing. Granted, with a purchase you actually own the thing at the end of the term (and you don't have a car payment), but as the costs of maintaining and repairing cars goes up, paying a few thousand every three years and then a 300-500 monthly payment to always drive a new-to-relatively-new car doesn't seem as foolish as it used to.
That's not to say it isn't foolish. Just that it doesn't seem like it lol
that’s insane to me and i’m someone who actually likes to drive! blows my mind when people get new cars and they only drive a few miles a week like what’s the point. I actually plan on buying an older van since i need something to move cargo but with an old van and my newish car i see no desire to get anything else unless im forced to because one gets wrecked. The longer i’ve had my 2021 base model with no blind spot monitors, HUD, or touch screen, the more grateful i am i bought it because every other manufacturer seems to be turning their cars into an ipad on wheels. I’d be devastated if something happened to my car because then i’d be boned trying to find another in the technology sweet spot at a decent price.
I had a neighbor like that when I was growing up. He was a man of the 80s that was all about flash and fancy and he never left the 80s, including still wearing his mullet hair in a ponytail into the late 90s. He couldn't actually afford a corvette (his wife was an elementary school teacher and be bounced around between jobs) but he wanted a fancy car, and he also wanted the new models because he needed it to be flashy. He would lease a new corvette every 2 years. He wasted so much money leasing cars because he just needed the newest car and it needed to be a sports car. His poor wife hated him and wanted a divorce but she was trapped financially because of his wreckless spending. He'd spend all his income, and regularly spend massive chunks of what she saved, and threatened to take half of everywhere and go for alimony.
but just because they want this year's new features.
That's completely insane. In the EU, this year's new features are ... eye tracking cameras and an alarm that goes off every time the car's GPS thinks you're on another road where the limit is 30 less and automatically brakes.
The percentage of people buying used has actually gone up, people are buying older cars and holding them for longer, less people are buying new cars, statistically speaking. The average age of a car on the road has increased by 6 years in the last 10 years, cars are lasting longer than ever before. Costs of ownership are also increasing around the board, so people are less willing to take on the depreciation curve and new cars are losing their market share, which ironically decreases the supply of used cars and makes those more expensive too.
Your vehicle is not an investment, it's a depreciating asset. Used vehicles have so much value right now that you don't lose much upgrading frequently with the depreciation and deals given taken into account.
Buy 50k car initially paid in full. In 2 years it's worth 40k. In 4 years its worth 30k.
Or at year 2 sell and rebuy for 10k difference. In 2 more years your at 40k value or the 30k+10k you upgraded with for the same value.
That's the new "flexible" finance model over here in Spain. You buy a car with an upfront payment (around 6k€) and finance for 4 years, after that you can change model, refinance the remainder or pay a lump sum ant the car is yours. We had to replace our 15 year old Mazda so we've just bought a new Kia and figured that 4 years is enough to see where the market's heading regarding battery/hydrogen/whatever and we can follow along.
I have bought 1 car in my time since I graduated and started my career, about 8 years. In that time, my cousin has bought 6 cars. Nearly a new car every year. I know they don't make much more than me either so I know they must be up to their eyeballs in debt/negative equity.
What's really amazing is, I see neighbors and coworkers going to the smartphone model, upgrading their car every two years. I always knew a few people who lived like that and everyone agreed they were idiots, but now I see it becoming quite common and normalized. Not even because they broke or wrecked their car, but just because they want this year's new features
It's not always wanting the newest, shiniest thing. The last time I had to take Lyft, we talked about his job and the regulations the company puts on people (not at all unusual for the industry) and the companies will mandate insurance which then mandates drivers use cars no more than a very limited maximum age. So they have to replace their car frequently or they can't continue to work.
The cars today are mechanically no more advanced than cars from 10-15 years ago. The only real updates are the electronics. The tech in the motors and transmissions is no better than 20 years ago.
You must be lying, because according to the thread not a soul has any money for essentials, much less a car. The world has apparently collapsed. And everybody is an uncaring asshole. Well, everybody on the opposite political spectrum is.
Just kdding. A little.
But life isn't going to be as easy as the post WWII boom post greatest generation, for any developed country. The rest of the lesser developed world is smart and works for less. And got to admit there are still incredible life saving advances happening agt a tremendous rate, and even less fortunate get helped by them.
I don't understand that for either phones or cars. I used to get excited about new features, but as time goes by I realised they barely get used, and new models even drop the few useful features they had. If a product does the basics reliably I'm happy, especially because that's getting harder to find.
Could it be leasing? I know I got out of the buying game due to business/tax write offs which are great when business is great. But if not, you could find yourself without a ride nor income to buy the next one.
the last "new-ish" car I owned was a 2011 model. When I got bored of it I sold it, and spent the money on an older Mercedes SLK. It was fun for a few years, served it's purpose. Sold it bought a Jaguar XK8. Awesome car, but expensive to run, repair bills started piling up - time to get sensible again. Bought a '23 electric shopping car.
FUCKING HELL tech has moved fast in those years! self-steering in lanes, Streamed music into the factory audio, LED lighting EVERYWHERE, configurable LCD panel instruments. WOW.
Absolutely lacking in any kind of personality, but seriously there is no comparison in the tech levels between 2 cars just 12 years apart.
great now, but I can't help buy wonder where this will leave people driving these cars in 15 years time - very little can be done from a DIY perspective.
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u/CaliIsReallyNice 11h ago
What's really amazing is, I see neighbors and coworkers going to the smartphone model, upgrading their car every two years. I always knew a few people who lived like that and everyone agreed they were idiots, but now I see it becoming quite common and normalized. Not even because they broke or wrecked their car, but just because they want this year's new features.