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So many people seem to dump the car once the payments are done or even worse before they have paid off the note. I remember back in the late 80's I had purchased a 1976 Ford Pinto for $350 and the car ran very well. A friend was getting married and her fiance was trying to sell the car. I picked it up from them and should have just kept that car. A year out I ended up having to replace some things under the hood, nothing I could not do. After getting the car in tip top shape and with it only needing a new paint job as the old paint was not as shiny as it was before, I traded it in and picked up a new car, a Ford Festiva. Although I liked the Festiva, back then anyway, I am thinking that the Pinto was a much better deal. The Festiva did not live as long a life as the Pinto.
I can't believe that in less than one human lifetime, the price of an average car is now TEN TIMES what the cost of an average house was, when I was born. It's a testament to the power of the bankers.
The home I was born in cost my young parents $2500 back in 1947. I am now 68 (still kickin'!) and the average price of a decent car is about $25,000. Back when I was born, the cost of a new car was in the $100s, not thousands. History can be so instructive; lots to be learned here, about more than just cars!
Yeah but post WWII homes where cheap in comparison to current homes value also. My in laws got a tract house in Long Beach Ca. 1951 on the VA bill. They paid $14,500 with a buck down, and sold it 2006 for $685,000. In my home town down south, in the 50's you could get beautiful 3/2 for $3/5k in great neighborhoods. But a 1956 Chevy Bel Air was still $2,000 and that was not the top of the line model. I think we need to adjust for income, inflation and the cost of operation. The 1973 Oil Embargo, the Japanese and European cars entering into American car market affected the pricing curve trajectory upward as well. My first car a 1976 Chevy Malibu was about $3400 and a money pit that last me until 1982 when I sold it. While my 2006 Corolla base model was $13,800 brand new. I've driven it for 179,000 miles and the only maintenance has been oil changes, brakes jobs and two batteries. Looking at a new 2016 Corolla they are still around $16900 for a base model.
I think the sweet spot is a off lease mid tier luxury. A BMW 5, Mercedes E350/550, Audi 5/7 something like that. You get a very good machine and depreciation is already baked in. I got a 2013 "E" class fully load off lease CPO 19,000 miles. The car came with Mercedes 5/100k mile warranty, which you can extend up to 7/130k. The car new was almost sixty thousand, I paid a little less than $35k with ttl. I plan on keeping it 5 more years worry free under warranty and hopefully sale it for around $15 thousand then.
No, they are not worth the asking price, and that's why most people don't pay that much. The last two I bought were a 2014 and a 2007. In those cases I paid $6,000 below sticker on one, $5,000 below on the other, which is what they were worth to me. Used may be considerably less, but also has most of the warranty period gone, and in 3 years may have 1/4 of it's useful life used up.
Are you buying glass vehicles?
Are you suggesting a car is only good for 12 years and at that point it should be tossed like a cigarette butt?
If they are wasted at that point an accident during the first 3 years halves that life expectancy.
If I may ask; what is the weak link in these broken cars?
Are you suggesting a car is only good for 12 years and at that point it should be tossed like a cigarette butt?
If they are wasted at that point an accident during the first 3 years halves that life expectancy.
If I may ask; what is the weak link in these broken cars?
Average vehicle age in the U.S. is 11.4 years.
The average age of my fleet is 14.
Buying right is always a winning strategy and prices vary...
Used car prices have spiked and a lot of this was due to cash for clunkers and people holding onto cars longer...
Growing up around the car business... I am often the go to person for family, friends and co-workers... My Grandfather and Father were in the business and NEVER owned a new car in their entire lives... true they did drive demonstrators... never did know what car would be in the driveway at night!
I've done well buying cars when they were at the low or bottom of the depreciation scale... how many still have the car they drove to High School and drove it for 20 years... yes an $800 Plymouth?
The Hospital CEO had even called me into the office to speak about my Plymouth... saying why do I drive such an old car knowing I could afford better... I had to explain that I had not yet gotten my money's worth from the car and it still had many good miles left...
One way to get a good deal on a used car is to be a cash buyer... for many this is a problem...
The other thing is many buyers are payment oriented... if the payment works they buy... thing is the real cost is often way more than simply buying...
Cash for clunkers is having zero impact on current pricing. That's beyond silly
The cars taken out of the market has had lasting effect on the entire market segment of low priced cars...
Many in my State turned in very usable rust free vehicles that were anything but clunkers... the supply of cheap cars tightened because why bother selling private when there was a guaranteed offer on the table to trade it in... about a million cars sent to the crusher in a 3 Billion Dollar program.
I still have ties to the car market and it was a great time to have an older car.
The cars taken out of the market has had lasting effect on the entire market segment of low priced cars...
Many in my State turned in very usable rust free vehicles that were anything but clunkers... the supply of cheap cars tightened because why bother selling private when there was a guaranteed offer on the table to trade it in... about a million cars sent to the crusher in a 3 Billion Dollar program.
I still have ties to the car market and it was a great time to have an older car.
You are off base. 700k vehicles were taken offline in 2009 because of cash for clunkers but the average age of vehicles rose during that time. If you can't tell why that conflicts with your stance I don't know what to tell you. You know there is over 250 million registered vehicles in the US so tell me again what impact less than 700k cars is having 6 years after that program, especially given the average age of cars rose during the cash for clunkers timeframe
Per your own link it wasn't close to a million cars
Quote:
On August 26 the DoT reported that the program resulted in 690,114 dealer transactions submitted requesting a total of $2.877 billion in rebates.
In 1977 we bought a new '77 Chevy Nova, 4 door, 6 cyl., automatic (optional), AM/FM radio (optional), wheel covers (optional), adjustable drivers side mirror (optional), I paid about $4.5K for it and I made between $4-$4.50/hr. The car was pretty basic, bench seats, all vinyl, I think it had lap and shoulder belts for safety.
Today, even entry level cars come pretty well equiped, A/C, nice seats, tinted windows, great sound systems, power windows, burglar alarms. Then consider the safety equipment, air bags, ABS, traction control, halogen lights. Yeah, entry level pricing is probably around $15K today, but your getting a lot in perspective with the past. Did our pay keep up? I had an entry level job in the 70's, what's entry level today? $12-$15/hr? So pay has gone up 3-4X, car prices, pretty close to the same.
Are they worth what we pay for them? I'd say yes, my Nova was pretty well spent in about 6-7 years (I don't recall the mileage), new cars are good for more than 10 years and better than 100K miles and they hold up. If I'm going to be in an accident, no question you'd want to be in a modern car. The technology, some of it is a gimmick, but some like ECM's and ABS have made cars from the past look like dinosaurs. Finally, we're getting over 200 HP from 4 cyl engines and getting over 25 mpg! In my opinion it's about perspective.
It is even hard to imagine a comparison between a modern car and the good oldies (and there are a lot of oldies I like)
Even your modern average midsize sedan (for example the OP friend's Nissan Altima) in the US market is a marvel of engineering and it can reach performance that not long ago were in the realm of supercars.
Entry level power is about 200 horses and in their V6 version (or turbocharged 4 cylinder form as is becoming more common) if they had no speed governor, they could cruise at well over 150 miles an hour with comfortable room for 5 and seats and quietness that car rival a business class trip. You rental grade Chevrolet Malibu 2.0 turbo has an electronically limited top speed of 155 mph, that is the performance of a 60.000 dollars Ferrari 308 in the 1980's (which it had a fraction of the comfort and safety especially at these speeds).
Handling and braking in modern cars is order of magnitude better so is fuel efficiency and safety.
Especially when equipped with their tech packages (navigation, intelligent cruise control, infotainment system, lane keeping, etc...) they have more electronics than some old airliners still in service.
A modern midsize sedan requires billions of dollars of investment and years to develop....even at these prices margins in the automotive business are very slim because of the skyrocketing development cost required to design a modern automobile.
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