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Want: I drive a 2011 Toyota Corolla. It’s a decent four cylinder. Reliable. Runs smooth. Gets me from point a to point b, mainly to pick up my prescriptions the

Want: I drive a 2011 Toyota Corolla. It’s a decent four cylinder. Reliable. Runs smooth. Gets me from point a to point b, mainly to pick up my prescriptions these days though I suppose I could have them delivered. Now I was never really a car person. I see all these people buying fancy cars. I tell ya, they’re money pits. Especially the German vehicles. I have family members that trade in every few years, rolling in their negative equity to the new car, and making car payments in perpetuity. Yes sir call me an hypocrite, but after a friend picked me up in his Lexus, I want one. This was a Lexus GS sedan. Very comfortable, quality ride. Night and day different than my Corolla. I want to buy one and take it with me beyond my retirement and to the grave. And the Lexus is just a souped up Toyota anyway, so figure I can splurge for once. I spoke with a Lexus dealer about purchasing a new IS, since it’s all they had on the lot. Despite a very high credit score and my house being paid off, they quoted me a > 7% interest rate. And they wanted me to pay $3000 for paint protection and some other useless stuff. No thanks, bunch of clowns. I got up to leave, and I couldn’t! I had given them my car keys because I thought about figuring out what my Toyota might be worth. But god damn they didn’t want to give me the keys back. The sales manager also came out trying to convince me why a 7% rate was more than good enough and how some stupid plastic film on the door that they’re charging me $800 is worth it (it’s not). I haven’t made time to talk to a different lender. Might just wait a year and see if there’s more vehicle inventory with this god damn recession everyone keeps talking about. I’m waiting for the stock market to crash so I can hopefully buy a fewer things for cheap. Where I live, cost of housing and goods is insane because of big tech companies. The bubble starting to burst is music to my ears. My former employer is one of them, and I pray they crash and burn with what a horrible work environment they’ve created. That’s another story.

gautamcgoel 4y ago
1. Interesting, I hadn't heard that about German cars. Well, BMWs had that reputation, but Porsche's are supposed to be fairly reliable, I thought. 2. The story about them not letting you leave is creepy af, sounds borderline illegal to me.
BrentOzar 4y ago
Never buy a new Lexus. They’re incredibly reliable. Let someone else eat the depreciation, and buy a 2-3 year old one instead. Get an account at PenFed, apply for a used car loan through them, and you can use it to pay for vehicles from dealers or independent third parties. PenFed is a credit union that anyone can join with a donation - you don’t have to be a former Pentagon employee. Don’t use them for your primary banking needs though. Their tech is a dilapidated nightmare. Just use them for auto and home loans.
- WheelsAtLarge 4y ago
  Nice tip. You can say the same about Toyotas in general. They are made to last.
drstewart 4y ago
>I’m waiting for the stock market to crash so I can hopefully buy a fewer things for cheap. >Where I live, cost of housing and goods is insane because of big tech companies. >My former employer is one of them, This has real "you're not stuck in traffic, you are traffic" vibes
- ozzythecat 4y ago
  Maybe. But I’ve been quietly saving for retirement. I haven’t been bidding $50k over asking price on houses or giving business to $30 post gentrification burger joints. I live in the same house I bought in 1997. My vehicle is over a decade old. I save, sometimes invest. Im definitely not someone driving over bidding $100k-$500k on houses and paying in cash. That being said, I am certainly not proud of where I used to work.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
factsarelolz 4y ago
- ozzythecat 4y ago
- dang 4y ago
  This crosses into personal attack. That's not allowed here, so please don't. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
WheelsAtLarge 4y ago
>I’m waiting for the stock market to crash so I can hopefully buy a fewer things for cheap. This is wishful thinking. It's next to impossible to buy at the bottom because you never know when the bottom is hit. Your best bet is to to average your costs over time. Pick a period, monthly, weekly, or whatever and buy a consistent amount of an index or your favorite blue chip stock(s). Over time you'll do better than trying to time the bottom or the top.
WheelsAtLarge 4y ago
>I’m waiting for the stock market to crash so I can hopefully buy a fewer things for cheap. This is wishful thinking. It's next to impossible to buy at the bottom because you never know when the bottom is hit. Your best bet is to average your costs over time. Pick a period, monthly, weekly, or whatever and buy a consistent amount of an index or your favorite blue chip stock(s). Over time you'll do better than trying to time the bottom or the top.
justinlloyd 4y ago
Two things on how to get a better deal, which is how I have bought my cars since forever. First, bank line of credit, or credit union loan to cover the cost of the vehicle. Usually far better rates, no early payoff penalties, they cannot repossess the vehicle if you stop payments because the loan/credit line isn't secured against the vehicle. And a line of credit can also be used for other purposes. Second, Hertz fleet sales. Two or three years old. Top notch quality. Aim for the higher end or boring vehicles (higher end Audio & BMW, Lexus, Toyota Avalon, Range Rover) and they will have low mileage. Kia and the budget cars always have high mileage even on the newer vehicles. In forty years we have only ever bought one "new" vehicle, and that was the off-lease company car that my wife had through her job - so we owned the vehicle for five years, then bought it for a song. We purchased 2018 Toyota Avalon with all the optional extras at the tail end of 2019, under 20K miles, for about $18K. We just paid it off last month. Our credit union was happy to give us the loan and very happy for us to pay it off early, and there was no early payoff penalty.

gautamcgoel 4y ago

1. Interesting, I hadn't heard that about German cars. Well, BMWs had that reputation, but Porsche's are supposed to be fairly reliable, I thought. 2. The story about them not letting you leave is creepy af, sounds borderline illegal to me.

BrentOzar 4y ago

Never buy a new Lexus. They’re incredibly reliable. Let someone else eat the depreciation, and buy a 2-3 year old one instead. Get an account at PenFed, apply for a used car loan through them, and you can use it to pay for vehicles from dealers or independent third parties. PenFed is a credit union that anyone can join with a donation - you don’t have to be a former Pentagon employee. Don’t use them for your primary banking needs though. Their tech is a dilapidated nightmare. Just use them for auto and home loans.

WheelsAtLarge 4y ago
Nice tip. You can say the same about Toyotas in general. They are made to last.

drstewart 4y ago

>I’m waiting for the stock market to crash so I can hopefully buy a fewer things for cheap. >Where I live, cost of housing and goods is insane because of big tech companies. >My former employer is one of them, This has real "you're not stuck in traffic, you are traffic" vibes

ozzythecat 4y ago
Maybe. But I’ve been quietly saving for retirement. I haven’t been bidding $50k over asking price on houses or giving business to $30 post gentrification burger joints. I live in the same house I bought in 1997. My vehicle is over a decade old. I save, sometimes invest. Im definitely not someone driving over bidding $100k-$500k on houses and paying in cash. That being said, I am certainly not proud of where I used to work.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

factsarelolz 4y ago

ozzythecat 4y ago
dang 4y ago
This crosses into personal attack. That's not allowed here, so please don't. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

WheelsAtLarge 4y ago

>I’m waiting for the stock market to crash so I can hopefully buy a fewer things for cheap. This is wishful thinking. It's next to impossible to buy at the bottom because you never know when the bottom is hit. Your best bet is to to average your costs over time. Pick a period, monthly, weekly, or whatever and buy a consistent amount of an index or your favorite blue chip stock(s). Over time you'll do better than trying to time the bottom or the top.

WheelsAtLarge 4y ago

>I’m waiting for the stock market to crash so I can hopefully buy a fewer things for cheap. This is wishful thinking. It's next to impossible to buy at the bottom because you never know when the bottom is hit. Your best bet is to average your costs over time. Pick a period, monthly, weekly, or whatever and buy a consistent amount of an index or your favorite blue chip stock(s). Over time you'll do better than trying to time the bottom or the top.

justinlloyd 4y ago

Two things on how to get a better deal, which is how I have bought my cars since forever. First, bank line of credit, or credit union loan to cover the cost of the vehicle. Usually far better rates, no early payoff penalties, they cannot repossess the vehicle if you stop payments because the loan/credit line isn't secured against the vehicle. And a line of credit can also be used for other purposes. Second, Hertz fleet sales. Two or three years old. Top notch quality. Aim for the higher end or boring vehicles (higher end Audio & BMW, Lexus, Toyota Avalon, Range Rover) and they will have low mileage. Kia and the budget cars always have high mileage even on the newer vehicles. In forty years we have only ever bought one "new" vehicle, and that was the off-lease company car that my wife had through her job - so we owned the vehicle for five years, then bought it for a song. We purchased 2018 Toyota Avalon with all the optional extras at the tail end of 2019, under 20K miles, for about $18K. We just paid it off last month. Our credit union was happy to give us the loan and very happy for us to pay it off early, and there was no early payoff penalty.