4 ms·
True for now, but there's a limited and ever-decreasing supply of older cars without rear-view cameras, small homes without HVAC, etc. Today it's hard to buy a
by dlubarov 6y ago
True for now, but there's a limited and ever-decreasing supply of older cars without rear-view cameras, small homes without HVAC, etc. Today it's hard to buy a car (in decent shape) without airbags; I expect that in 20 years it will be hard to buy one (in decent shape) without a rear-view camera. Fair point about lower maintenance costs though.
- owenversteeg 6y agoYour problem is ignoring depreciation. Yes, you may pay more if you buy a new car today with X flashy feature, but that will have little bearing on its used price in two decades, because the flashy features depreciate at a rate far faster than the feature of the car, y'know, actually moving. In 20 years from now, if you buy a $1000 cheap beater car it will not be $600 of car and $400 of backup camera, it will be $990 of car and $10 of backup camera. The same for airbags (the US GAO estimated they added $300 to the manufacturers' costs) - a $1000 car is not $700 of car and $300 of airbags. (Also, the rear view camera is a tiny, tiny fraction of the car's manufacturing cost. Yes, as an option it costs $xxx, but option sticker prices are nowhere the actual cost of the option.)