4 ms·

Can we just assume large percentage of people is just plain stupid? My fathers car was totaled. He wanted a compact car like the Hyundai Elantra. I suggested H

by avgDev 4y ago

Can we just assume large percentage of people is just plain stupid? My fathers car was totaled. He wanted a compact car like the Hyundai Elantra. I suggested Honda Civic. I called a few dealers around and 0 civics were available with no ETA. We went to a dealer who had a few Elantras. We drove one. We sit down to talk numbers. The MSRP was $23k, plus about $7k in mark up. Otd price would be around $33k. I said I'm not paying anywhere close to that and walked out. However, there were many people buying......I was floored, obviously they can probably get that price lowered a bit but still. I ended up finding a Jetta below MSRP, not as popular due to the scandal and worse predicted reliability but we paid much less for a better higher trim car. When the car prices fall and they will, these people will be very much upside down on their loans.

deleted 4y ago
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MandieD 4y ago
To be charitable: a large percentage of Americans are acculturated into continuous high monthly outlays to own an acceptably large and new vehicle. A car payment is just an unfortunate fact of life to a lot of them, and not a lifestyle choice. I grew up seeing my parents with near-continuous car payments, and started to continue the cycle with my own nearly-new car purchase two weeks after starting my first post-college job. Why, a junior IT consultant needs a nice car! It wouldn't do at all to be seen driving a 12 year old Camry! Fortunately, dating and then marrying a sensible German who bought his first car at the ripe old age of 32 (several years old, really small) helped reform me, and I'm now on board with a program of buying a 3-4 year old car with low mileage and driving it until it starts having expensive, difficult-to-solve problems. Germany has long had a large pool of such vehicles fresh off corporate leases and with good maintenance histories. Current ride when I'm not pushing a stroller: 2017 Ford Focus wagon, modified by Ford to run on LPG, which is currently half the price of gasoline or diesel. I'm rather proud of that one: I picked it out last summer, when LPG was somewhat, but not wildly, cheaper to burn than gasoline.
charlie0 4y ago
I don't think people are stupid, even though they certainly came come across that way. What I've come to realize is most of those people are playing a different game than the one I'm playing. They are optimizing for other things. One of those games is the status game. Buying a used car would put them a step below their peers on the social ladder. They can't have that, so off to the dealership they go. These are the same type of people who project an image of everything is fine no matter what. Status plays a large role in their life and they must look good. The other thing is fear. They're afraid they'll buy a lemon if they go to CL. Maybe that's justified because they don't know jack s** about cars or have friends that do.
atrettel 4y ago
I wouldn't say that people are stupid. Many people just desperately need a car. I wish it were not the case, but at least in the United States, most people need to buy a car or else they cannot go to work, get groceries, etc. Indeed, most suburban places in the United States are car-dependent places: you cannot do anything without a car. That was by design. I cannot judge people for paying such high prices given that they need a car when living in that kind of environment. If anything, I sympathize. I too am floored by the current car prices, but I think you underestimate how desperate some of these people are for a car, any car, immediately. That said, I do also agree that a lot of this now cultural. The subdivision I am currently living in is reasonably small, on the order of 100 houses. Despite this small size, I see people driving their kids to the bus stop a few hundred feet away (yes, even on clear days with good weather!). Today is the yearly yard sale and as I type this people are driving up to a house, getting out to look at what is being sold, getting back in their car, and driving to the next house (and the lots are not large!). That's just one of the problems with suburbs in general. They acclimate people to driving everywhere, so they think that they need to drive everywhere, even when it really is perfectly walkable.

by avgDev 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

MandieD 4y ago

To be charitable: a large percentage of Americans are acculturated into continuous high monthly outlays to own an acceptably large and new vehicle. A car payment is just an unfortunate fact of life to a lot of them, and not a lifestyle choice. I grew up seeing my parents with near-continuous car payments, and started to continue the cycle with my own nearly-new car purchase two weeks after starting my first post-college job. Why, a junior IT consultant needs a nice car! It wouldn't do at all to be seen driving a 12 year old Camry! Fortunately, dating and then marrying a sensible German who bought his first car at the ripe old age of 32 (several years old, really small) helped reform me, and I'm now on board with a program of buying a 3-4 year old car with low mileage and driving it until it starts having expensive, difficult-to-solve problems. Germany has long had a large pool of such vehicles fresh off corporate leases and with good maintenance histories. Current ride when I'm not pushing a stroller: 2017 Ford Focus wagon, modified by Ford to run on LPG, which is currently half the price of gasoline or diesel. I'm rather proud of that one: I picked it out last summer, when LPG was somewhat, but not wildly, cheaper to burn than gasoline.

charlie0 4y ago

I don't think people are stupid, even though they certainly came come across that way. What I've come to realize is most of those people are playing a different game than the one I'm playing. They are optimizing for other things. One of those games is the status game. Buying a used car would put them a step below their peers on the social ladder. They can't have that, so off to the dealership they go. These are the same type of people who project an image of everything is fine no matter what. Status plays a large role in their life and they must look good. The other thing is fear. They're afraid they'll buy a lemon if they go to CL. Maybe that's justified because they don't know jack s** about cars or have friends that do.

atrettel 4y ago

I wouldn't say that people are stupid. Many people just desperately need a car. I wish it were not the case, but at least in the United States, most people need to buy a car or else they cannot go to work, get groceries, etc. Indeed, most suburban places in the United States are car-dependent places: you cannot do anything without a car. That was by design. I cannot judge people for paying such high prices given that they need a car when living in that kind of environment. If anything, I sympathize. I too am floored by the current car prices, but I think you underestimate how desperate some of these people are for a car, any car, immediately. That said, I do also agree that a lot of this now cultural. The subdivision I am currently living in is reasonably small, on the order of 100 houses. Despite this small size, I see people driving their kids to the bus stop a few hundred feet away (yes, even on clear days with good weather!). Today is the yearly yard sale and as I type this people are driving up to a house, getting out to look at what is being sold, getting back in their car, and driving to the next house (and the lots are not large!). That's just one of the problems with suburbs in general. They acclimate people to driving everywhere, so they think that they need to drive everywhere, even when it really is perfectly walkable.