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I have as a second vehicle, my old work van. It gets lousy gas mileage but it seldom needs repairs. I can afford to buy a little more gas for it easier than buying another vehicle. It's a 1985 with only 120,000 miles. Probably drive it another 10 years.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Why don't poor people drive fuel efficient cars?
Many reasons: (As previously mentioned)
Poor people have fewer choices.
They are often 'crisis' managers, and can't get far enough ahead to the forest to see the light (By necessity or choice).
They may not have a mindset, or the training to think fuel efficient.
They often have been swayed by a less than credible sales person.
Reminds me of an anecdote from a friend of the Kennedy brothers when they were at Harvard. The friend complained he was always having to lend them money because they never carried cash on them.
I know that's true.
I attended a boarding school with someone from Grosse Pt MI, from the famous Fischer family, she NEVER EVER had cash on her allegedly. But was the only student in the school with this remarkable allowance of $50.00 per month in grade school in the 1960's. CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP! And she'd never lend anyone a penny!!!
Poor people buy transportation. Rich people buy status. Ford's workers bought Model T's. Ford's executives bought Duisenberg's. So what else is new.
I belong to an antique Ford club and submit articles of interest for our newsletter. What you've stated particularly intrigues me. I have not been able to find any proof that Henry Ford and his upper echelon drove anything other than Ford cars. It would be an interesting twist. Would you please share your source? Thanks!
This discussion really spawn from a topic I spoke with my colleague about. We as managers know how much our subordinates make and yet they're always complaining they're broke. So my colleague was saying that one of his staff owns an Audi A6 and he's complaining about being broke. Well maybe that expensive Audi is one of his financial issues.
Then my colleague who also drives a Prius shared the revelation that a lot of poor people stayed poor because they make bad financial choices because they often try to emulate what people who are well off does such as buying driving gas guzzlers and eating out a lot.
I think driving SUVs is a choice, because there are many cars that are both save and provides good gas economy without costing a lot.
There's no reason a BMW X5 is your safe SUV of choice when you could drive a compact SUV like a RAV4.
These are decisions poor people make that keeps them poor.
Who says just because they shop at Walmart, they are poor or made poor decisions?
The majority of poor people that I have known in life have horrible money management skills, are slaves to mass consumption, and simply don't THINK before they buy. If you asked a poor person this question their reply would be "why would I do that?", then they would go buy a Ford from a local dealership.
It's the same reason obese and overweight people walk around saying they know they need to lose weight and then 10 minutes later you see then down an entire box of twinkies.
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Best of all, your work van is all paid for.
