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Man it must be nice to be able to set aside cash to only buy cars in cash. Did you pay cash for your house? In the real world most folks finance cars, yes they are depreciating assets and I would never view one as an investment "vehicle"(pun intended). But, the piece of mind I get from driving a car that I know will have a factory warranty and should not have anything major happen to it for a number of years is well worth the opportunity cost to me.
Man it must be nice to be able to set aside cash to only buy cars in cash. Did you pay cash for your house? In the real world most folks finance cars, yes they are depreciating assets and I would never view one as an investment "vehicle"(pun intended). But, the piece of mind I get from driving a car that I know will have a factory warranty and should not have anything major happen to it for a number of years is well worth the opportunity cost to me.
I think cheapdad was making the point that a *new* car is typically a bad investment so unless you have a financial cushion its more prudent to keep your existing car or buy used. It does seem that the gap between new and used car pricing in narrowing a bit, but the new car depreciation is still pretty steep.
Man it must be nice to be able to set aside cash to only buy cars in cash. Did you pay cash for your house? In the real world most folks finance cars, yes they are depreciating assets and I would never view one as an investment "vehicle"(pun intended). But, the piece of mind I get from driving a car that I know will have a factory warranty and should not have anything major happen to it for a number of years is well worth the opportunity cost to me.
Wraunch,
I wish I had enough money to buy the house with cash. [Actually wish I had rented for a few years and could buy now, but that's a different story]. I used to be of the mindset of happy to have a vehicle under warranty so that the dealer would fix anything that happened for free, but as I have aged my opinion changed - got tired of paying depreciation, dealing with the dealership service manager trying to upsell you every time you walk in the door.
I learned how to do all but the most complicated repairs myself (internet forums are a wealth of information). Vehicles are much higher quality now, so 200K miles is the new 100K miles. If my wife would let me, I'd by a 5 yr old police interceptor with 100K miles (regular maintenance, heavy duty everything, inexpensive readily available repair parts) - cost <$2k. Drive it until it dies, then buy another.
I love the Interceptors. The new ones are going to be ridiculous. They just had an article I read on them. 2011 Ford Taurus SHO with twin turbos, crazy fast with AWD. State Surplus off Hwy 54 has had a few older Interceptors for sell from time to time. Who knows I might be ready to grab one of the Taurus version when they cycle them out in 5 yrs.
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