I wonder what percentage of residents have been paying $0 per month for the last 10 years, like me? My monthly mortgage payment, before I paid it off three years ago, was $698 a month. Now about one out of five people in this idiocracy republic of murika pay over $1,000 per month for a rapidly depreciating asset, to keep up with the Joneses, in order to convince their neighbors, family, coworkers, and friends they are successful, and not in debt up to their eyeballs. The stupid, it burns.
https://twitter.com/GuyDealership/status/1687806911306231808/photo/1
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I doubt there’s a lot of people who still buy cars as a status symbol these days. The highly inflated price is the real price. They purposely build cars to break down after the lifetime of the auto loan. Another product of the disposable economy designed to be obsolete just in time for the roll out of the newest model.
The way many people see it is you’re going to get fucked buying a car so you might as well get fucked buying a new car with very low mileage.
You’re wrong. Millions buy cars as a status symbol. You’re projecting your own beliefs.
Don’t get fucked and buy a 3 year old car with 20,000 miles on it for 70% of the new price.
Or we’re nitpicking over what’s considered a status symbol. There’s a difference between buying a brand new Nissan with under 15K miles and a brand new Tesla. A brand new car doesn’t automatically make it a status symbol.
Especially after the government backed cash for clunkers scam sent all our old vehicles to China as scrap metal. That wrecked the used car market for the past decade.
Soccer moms driving Range Rovers, BMW SUVs, Mercedes SUVs, etc to take kids to soccer practice and get their nails done is status symbol. They are everywhere on the roads in my suburban paradise.
Dudes who don’t do construction or any blue collar work driving a Ford F350 that costs over $50,000 is just compensating for a small dick by pretending they are a rugged individualist.
I don’t live anywhere near that kinda of blue state bizarro world of overpaid union and state government workers that could come close to “affording” that kind of nonsense. I saw that type of shit all the time when I lived in Michigan 20 years ago.
In my part of the country if someone is driving a luxury car it’s because someone in the household is a doctor, lawyer, or comes from old money.
Guys with giant $100K trucks with rearview cameras, and a set of plastic (ahem, making frogs gay) testicles pasted to the rear bumper, with no sense of the irony. The only off-roading they do in these behemoths is turning right off the main route and into the supermarket parking lot, on a grocery reconnaissance mission, for caged, tortured, poisoned, GMO packaged meats.
The worst thing is the 3 or 4 foot bed…really?
F350 Diesel Lariat I bet is north of $70k
It would be alright if the truck had a real use and could be a tax write off.
Pro tip: The people who need and use their trucks have 8 foot long beds.
Just make one up.
Actually sounds like Southlake , Texas and surrounding areas.
Every car is a status symbol.
Just in my cul-de-sac in a small town, there are tesla’s and expensive toys toys toys. There is a fast charge station in town and no shortage of brain dead people using them. People still buy the very expensive junk and virtue signal as much as the chrome kings do.
I’ve driven a ’56 Dodge for the past 50 years: plenty of room, takes regular gas,
cruises at 70, doesn”t have a computer, can’t be tracked, and I get all the attention
when I park it next to status symbols in the parking lot.
Come to Florida. Tons of dudes over 65 in 100k cars and 250k boats.
People are fucking stupid.
They are, after all, the largest tribe.
$716
Car payment statistics
The average monthly car payment for new cars is $716. The average monthly car payment for used cars is $526. 39.5 percent of vehicles financed in the fourth quarter of 2022 were new vehicles. 60.5 of percent of vehicles financed in the fourth quarter of 2022 were used vehicles.
Source – the internet
Hell.
I thought he was talking about a house.
Really.
$698 a month?
For a car?
Yeah, that’s stupid that burns.
I’ve never had a mortgage on a car…
SMDH, I’ve never paid $698 on a mortgage. But then I’ve never tried or cared to try to live in some gated community where peeps constantly have their noses in the air as if their poop does not stink like all the rest. Southlake , Texas always comes to mind when mentioning well to do attitude peeps. These peeps will be SOL should SHTF. I bet most of them cannot even skin a rabbit much less know how to cook it on a stick over a campfire, much less how to even start a campfire without a bic lighter, mush less…
submitted w/o comment-
I love that ad. I post it often. So much truth in it.
Asking $6,700. 145,000 miles. Should last another 100k.
https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/cto/d/saint-paul-2010-toyota-corolla-clean/7651258383.html
Can someone please explain to me how one racks up over 10,000 miles per year on their car?? My current car is 8 years old and has 24,000 miles on it. I’ve put roughly 1,500-2,000 miles max on it a year. Where are you people driving??
Well, in a state as big as Texas, to get to a big city sometimes takes hours, unlike in the Northeast, for example. Commuting from the suburbs can be a 15-20 mile drive here; it’s 30 miles just between Fort Worth and Dallas.
I bought my car in Texas and drove those all my mileage in Texas. Any time I drive long distance of more than 500 miles I rent a car for those trips so I don’t have to worry about mechanical issues from a long distance trip.
Commuting more than 5 miles for work or shopping is unfathomable to me. I’ve always lived within a 5-10 mile radius of work and anything I need to purchase to live.
perfect occupant for a 15 minute city
No, it’s called the 10 minute small town. The closest “city” to where I live is Little Rock, AR which has a population of roughly 200K people.
I don’t know about Little Rock. The HEB area between Dallas and Fort Worth could have been considered the 10 minute small town at one time, maybe a bit more than ten minutes to Dallas or Fort Worth. Now the HEB area is a total POS stuck between Dallas and Fort Worth and actually completely blended in and merged with DFW, the DFW metromess.
Just stop it Steph, you make too much sense, except for that car rental thing. Your car is that bad? life is much easier when you don’t drive that much.
The reason for the rental is in case a tire blows out or any other mechanical failure. I’ve taken a lot of cross country road trips and it’s very likely any trip further than 500 miles is going to show exactly what parts on your car are worn and in need of replacing. If that happens to my car on a long distance drive I have to find a mechanic that’s open and hope they have whatever part I need. If a mechanical failure happens with a rental 1.) I don’t have to pay to fix it 2.) I don’t have to find a mechanic 3.) I just take the car to the rental company and switch it for a new car. No wasted time for repairs.
Plus, it’s nice to know if anything happens to a rental car it’s not my problem as long as I bought insurance.
I rented a car just before all the so called covid nonsense began and it was one hell of a long drive to Newport , Oregon from somewhere between here and there of Uncertain.
30 miles of hell! I have nightmares about that place! Not really, only when I drive through or near it. Life on a houseboat somewhere between here and there of Uncertain has spoiled me.
The nightmares I have are usually to do with someone or something trying to jack me and for some reason no matter how hard I pull the trigger the damn gun just won’t go boom. Frustrating. There is something behind this type of nightmare I forget what.
Easy, a 20 mile one way commute to work 250 days a year is 10k. That doesn’t count driving it on trips, off days and the weekend. Used to put 24K per year on my company car.
To work. 60 miles rountrip per day for the last 17 years.
Can’t you telecommute a bit, Admin? Aren’t you more or less a desk jockey – some sort of accountant, or other financial services sort? Not that you should miss your 30 Blocks of Squalor exploration . . . it’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it.
Loved the covid scam. Worked 18 straight months from my basement. Now I work two days at home and three in the office.
Always suspected you loved the deep state and its scams and were controlled opposition.
/s
That’s insane to me. But as a millennial gas prices have always been over $2.50 for nearly all my adult life. I’d never consider working 60 miles away from where I lived.
The lowest gas price I remember paying was roughly $1.20 per gallon when I first started driving in 2002 and by the summer of 2007 gas prices reached $4.00 per gallon for the first time.
This idea of cars as a status symbols has never existed to me. Owning a car has always been nothing more than a necessary financial burden.
You do what you need to do when you have to support a family of five. Been driving a gas efficient 2012 Honda Civic for eight years. Bought it for $12,000 in 2015 with 30,000 miles on it.
C’est la vie.
You’re quite correct Admin. One does what one has to do to make ends meet.
My first job out of school I moved to a new city and lived 5 minutes from work. Within a year I got married, and the only place the made financial sense for my spouse and I to live required I commute 160 km / 100 mi five days a week. Fortunately it was all highway driving with very little traffic. My car was a second tier Japanese coupe with a manual transmission that was not known to be particularly reliable, but with regular maintenance, mine proved to be. By the time I’d worn that car out, I moved on to what proved to be a better paying job and replaced that car with a more reliable Japanese sedan.
Moved back to Texas in 1973 to finish college. Gas was 29.9 a gallon for about a year then got into the 30 cent plus range. Talk about good ole days.
Wait you are a millenial? I thought you were a turbo-boomer. Sad.
Admin.- Incorporate before you retire. The corporation can pay for your car & related expense, gas, auto repairs, taxes, insurance etc. Also, half of my vacations which are many and part of meals out all year. Throw in things like coffee, tea, snacks, cleaning supplies, etc.
Keep a side gig Admin and set yourself up with a sharp MBENZ. Have your clothes imprinted with TBP logo and let the corp. pay for that too.
TBP: The Lunchbox
.
I’ll take the flamethrower…..always wanted a flamethrower.
It probably only took a few years off your life. Plus the beautiful scenery in Philly.
I calculated that one entire year of my life was spent on the Schuylkill Expressway.
Auntie prefered the scenic route: 30 blocks of squalor with all the trimmings.
Filet of rat, marinated in junkie piss, under broken glass, on a bed of weeds?
70 for me.
Work. As I worked right near the Atlanta Airport, there was no way in hell I would live anywhere too close. I was doing 110 miles a day that I cut to 53 but wouldn’t move closer. Now I only put real mileage when we take trips.
I was an on-call service technician covering the greater Toronto area. I averaged 60000 kms / 37000 miles a year while doing this job. I did receive a car allowance which more than covered the payments and insurance on my small Japanese sedan and had my fuel costs reimbursed. Despite being very reliable, the car was worn out after about 6 years.
In Texas
Back before I retired … was working construction … I used to oftentimes travel upwards of 60 miles each way to a job site …
When we lived on the OR Coast for 9 years, I had to travel almost 250 miles round trip every week just for acupuncture … plus the other distances that come with living in a more remote area.
If you’re driving only 1,500 – 2,000 miles per year … you’d be better off taking a taxi …
People should do the math. Can be.
Or talk to a neighbour. See if you can rent their car. People are short on cash these days.
Also, if you are in a big city, car share might be right for some.
For the amount I drive, ~20 times/year, it would be great. Unfortunately I am 3.5 hours drive from the nearest one.
I had to drive 130 miles to work for several years, out on Monday, back on Friday
260 miles a week for at least 35 weeks
Those of us who have private enterprise jobs that involve producing items or providing services have to drive to customer locations or factories.
Thus, milages accumulate…when I was working from dark to dark, I averaged 110-120 miles daily.
I also lived far from work due to prohibitive housing expense where I worked in N. VA.
Not all of us can work from home, via Internet.
I put on at least 25 miles a night cruising for hookers.
In-calls are your friend. Save the gas, get the gf experience.
With a side of herpes.
Use protection.
Just stay at home and call door dash. I believe the outfit now delivers hookers.
Free and Clear is more than just a non-irritant version of laundry products.
Blessed, to able to have said goodbye to the shackles of a mortgage payment, though still on the hook for annual property tax payments.
Size & location of house is acceptable.
Debt is the American Way, used to be a justification cliché a couple decades ago.
If used and not abused, a temporary tool that’s helpful.
Nevertheless, freedom from debts to the greatest degree possible is invigorating and brings peace of mind.
Living within one’s means, was a Depression generation forced reality, and many tried to instill that maxim into the thick skulls of their offspring.
Some learned.
Many have not.
Bankruptcy can be a cold hard slap to the face, when forced to choose, between food for an empty belly, or finding shelter during life’s inevitable storms.
& food prices aren’t shrinking, like wages and income.
Darker clouds are gathering more frequently Anno Domini 2023.
Is there anyplace in the US where this is not true? Some states and counties are much worse than others but I know of no place where you are off the hook for property taxes. They should be illegal. Why should we be taxed over and over for something we own?
I would rather pay a reasonable state income tax over property tax.
If you become disabled and can’t work you still keep your home.
‘Reasonable state income tax’ … an oxymoron if there ever was one …
What would be considered reasonable? Seeing as how I have little “income” sounds great to me. Rid me of the property tax and you pay the income tax.
~Das da troof, Hippie. I agree. I’z at 2k+ per annum, & consider that tolerable, but still.
Zero would be preferred.
And Joe {below}, reasonable is the key word. My locale is currently at 6% state sales tax.
At this stage, I’d be good with a higher raw material consumption tax to eliminate property taxes and state income taxes, but .gov won’t let that happen, being the skim junkies to our funds they are.
Everything you think you need, you probably already have, excepting food.
We just need to find it, or remember where the hell we put it.
Wait.
What was this thread about, again?
I think I got that Old Timer’s Disease.
Oh yeah.
Mortgage burdens.
{now above}
The larger question is why we should be taxed, period?
Auntie needs roads that are safe to drive on; water that’s clean to drink; courts that actually administer justice and first responders to handle the bad, stupid and awful things people do and happens. Everyone has to pay for those things one way or another. It’s a group responsibilty, normally. ANy suggestions how those worthwhile objectives can be met without taxation? Voluntary donations? A telethon? Bake sales?
However, being taxed as we are today is why the bloated, dangerous and decrepit American Empire is extant. All that money corrupting every aspect and interstitial space of civilization ( being generous with the term ) Plus FJB gets 10% off the top. Nice work if you can get it.
If people were to go back to horse and buggy the chugholes in the roads might not matter so no need for those taxes anyway. Whoa Nellie (pulling back on the reins), slow down from 80 to 5 and the old wagon wheel might not fall off.
Property taxes are the most evil, vile form of taxation.
School taxes take the prize.
All taxes.
Ah yes, the “taxes” they slip by in off season ballot initiatives that are called bond levies instead of taxes. Before you know it, the levies add up to almost as much as property taxes.
Football is King in Texas High Schools. Pay up whether you like football or not. How about a “participation fee”. What a concept. Your kid is in sports , band, whatever and you tote the note.
Texas is supposed to vote on property tax reform in November. My understanding a homestead exemption is supposed to increase to 100k if approved and why would it not? Only thing , those that run things likely have something up their sleeves like suddenly one’s property tax appraisal goes up 100k. No free rides.
I keep waiting for the housing market to drop and continue dropping, but it keeps on not happening. Real estate prices are ridiculous. When is the breaking point?
When Blackrock sez, “Pull it!”
BINGO!
Re-financed to a 15-year @ 2.875% in 2020.
They call that “golden handcuffs”.
It’s the only debt we have. Everything else owned free and clear.
Honestly, I doubt I’ll have a chance to pay it off before the world goes full retard.
Ford is quickly going bankrupt because no one is buying their electric cars. I wonder how many of those money losers Cadillac is making?
Welcome to Smart 15-min. City. No cars needed.
Sincerely,
Yuval Harari
And you will just love the Frankenfood available to you, serf.
Organic, free-range, non-GMO, fair-trade grasshopper loaf.
Cockroach: the other brown meat.
Brown bugs are local bugs, and local bugs are fresh.
You are obviously a marketing expurt.
Will someone please put that POS out of our misery?
Freedom Cities , Freedom Cities.
My 2003 Chevy Suburban is now driving around my grandchildren.
Paid it off with a 0% loan on 2008. It’s still worth $9000. according to
Blue Book. And it still gets 20 mpg. AHHHHHHH!
Ford originally forecast losing $3 billion on their EVs this year … the reality that they’ve finally admitted to is more like $4.5 billion in losses from that division.
Chevrolet was losing more than $10K per EV … I’d be surprised if it’s not more than that …
Thankfully, though, even with such steep losses — they can always make it up in the volume …
Sell the rumble, not the manifold.
Narrative Is Job One.
No worries.
You and I, and every other poor slob on this website will be bailing them out.
But isn’t the LGBT crowd buying the Ford Ranger Rump Rider?
We’re living in a Simulaton and the programmers are High as Fuck.
Only $340 Grand…each????
What a bargain!!!
I’ll take 5, 1 for me, the boss, and each kid!!!
And have some FedBux left over!!!
Maybe the single worst asset possible to purchase. Would you finance a house knowing it would lose 1/3 to 1/2 it’s value before the loan was paid off?
All the while paying ridiculous interest fees.
Our newest vehicle is 8 years old. Paid cash too.
I believe stars are aligned for another October Crash. Looming government shutdown (yay!) and student loan repayments begin just as 2 big ones. I’ll be bargain shopping as suckers unload what they really couldn’t afford in the 1st place.
Yup, I’m looking for another car and am waiting to see if the bubble pops in the next month or so. Stipulation is it’s a vette from say 15-20 years ago with under 50K
LOL…smelt, would that be a Chevette? Tha’s more practical than a Corvette.
All in fun. A personal choice.
Whate’er ye heart desires and ye wallet can afford.
{shit} can a Ford?
I’m in Admin’s camp.
Fortunate enough to find a sweet lil’ older gal down in the sunshine state, who was sitting on a 10-year old Honda w/ 8k on the odo, when they said she couldn’t drive any more.
Bought it sight unseen, as I knew it would be in perfect condition, and it was.
Had to put new rubber on it; wipers and tires, plus a new battery.
Then had it shipped north for a ridiculously high fee, but was a solution.
Also fortunate that I’m not 6’8″ and don’t weigh 3 bills, as that corporal makeup would
have made a Honda sedan purchase an unfeasible option.
She’s been a good lil’ buggy for a good lil’ dude. Don’t have to haul much, except ass.
The best part is, as a 2011 model year, I believe thats before all the techno gadgetry that
became standard for capturing driving habit patterns and histories.
Good Luck with your search for a much more exciting coupe to drive than mine.
Buckle up, Get Your Motor Runnin’, then Head Out On The Highway.
Have some fun, while it’s still available to be had.
Safe travels.
If your Honda was built in the US(first character of the VIN is 1,4 or 5), it will have had GPS built into the ECM going back to 2004…sorry to say.
Good luck!
Insanity also includes Tel Avision and cable “packages” including Diznee, jungleball and a fuckton of other mindless, useless nonsense approaching $200 per month. That’s completely retarded yet the mass of Lumpen pay it happily. (Can one pay with EBT for that shit?)
Most of the kids around here just stick a gun in your face when the need a new car.
Now, that’s the smart money. Steal low, sell high.
Well, money, anyway.
I have a 1986 MB 300 TD wagon that has 1.3 million miles on it. It has been mine since my father gave it to me upon graduation from college ( it was his) and he is called Wolfgang. I have spent about $6000 on his upkeep for all these years He has been and continues to be my only car. I’ve never had a car payment. I will never part with the Mercedes — I intend to be interred in it.
1.3 million miles is awesome – maybe a record?
Some motorcycles even get to 1 million miles … the BMW MOA monthly magazine had a place in it with owners whose BMW motorcycles had 250K, 500K and 1 million miles on them …
No. Wolfie has competition: there is a guy who has 2M on his and i have met him on occasion.
2,000,000 miles? Caramba!
My work is five minutes away so I drive a loop to let my engine warm up a bit on at least one leg of my trip. I change my oil right before it gets hot or cold out so my engine has fresh oil and will last. I do the two-vehicle owning thing so I can drive one while fixing the other if needed. It doesn’t take fifteen minutes to go anywhere where I live. My son is saving up a down payment for a vehicle, I think the price of a decent truck will be scary.
Tell him chicks love a guy in a ten year old Corolla. Nothing hotter than a frugal guy, except maybe a frugal pudgy Chinese guy with glasses in a Corolla. Actually that’s redundant. All fat Chinese guys drive a Corolla.
Fat Chinese guys? Where, Iska? Is this a New Mogadishu thing?
GNL doesn’t know any fat Chinese guys either.
This is the public being prepared to accept the “you’ll own nothing, and be happy about it” lifestyle. When housing, transportation, food, and leisure activities become unaffordable, the sheeple will gladly turn over all rights, privileges, and autonomy to an oppressive, tyrannical government, in exchange for the ability to continue living, albeit at a MUCH lower standard.
You’ve read the WEPH prospectus haven’t you.
Was in Western Indiana this weekend. American cars, lotsa Japs, VWs but very few Euro luxury. The opposite is the case in Beaufort & Charleston Counties. Seemingly every other car here is north of $50K and speaks German.