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It's rational to choose your vehicle based on worst-case rather than average-case needs. Buying, insuring, and garaging multiple vehicles for multiple purposes

It's rational to choose your vehicle based on worst-case rather than average-case needs. Buying, insuring, and garaging multiple vehicles for multiple purposes is ludicrously expensive. Renting only a little less so.

vel0city 2y ago
> It's rational to choose your vehicle based on worst-case rather than average-case needs. I guess it's rational for me to buy a 25' box truck to daily drive since I used to rent them every couple of years for moving apartments.
- closeparen 2y ago
  Moving trucks are in a sweet spot of impractical to own, incredibly cheap per hour, and only a few hours needed at a time. Passenger vehicles with enough back-seat room for adults, a third passenger row, more cargo room, or 4WD capability are expensive and inconvenient enough to rent + cheap and practical enough to daily-drive that the use case would really have to be pretty rare.
acdha 2y ago
You can’t say that without considering the relative costs. If you buy a pickup truck because you might move, you’re paying at twice as much up front and close to that in ongoing costs for the life of the vehicle even before you get to things like the inconvenience of finding parking. In that case, it often doesn’t make rational sense unless you move unusually frequently. If you’re buying one to haul building supplies every weekend, of course, those rental costs add up and it makes more sense. The problem is that for all we like to claim to be rational, most people make those decisions emotionally and rationalize as needed to explain it. That’s how you get 90% of SUVs never leaving a paved road because the owner thought it was a lifestyle accessory which made them look richer, but talks like they’re suddenly going to start taking 6 friends backcountry camping year-round.
- steveBK123 2y ago
  Most SUVs are not actually 4x4 so taking them off-road was never the plan. Yuppies driving Range Rovers in Manhattan is a whole different discussion though.
  - acdha 2y ago
    How often are they advertised with someone driving them in some beautiful area? They’re not targeting people who have strong opinions on the difference between AWD and 4WD, they’re selling the image that you _could_ be the kind of person who goes on adventures.

vel0city 2y ago

> It's rational to choose your vehicle based on worst-case rather than average-case needs. I guess it's rational for me to buy a 25' box truck to daily drive since I used to rent them every couple of years for moving apartments.

closeparen 2y ago
Moving trucks are in a sweet spot of impractical to own, incredibly cheap per hour, and only a few hours needed at a time. Passenger vehicles with enough back-seat room for adults, a third passenger row, more cargo room, or 4WD capability are expensive and inconvenient enough to rent + cheap and practical enough to daily-drive that the use case would really have to be pretty rare.

acdha 2y ago

You can’t say that without considering the relative costs. If you buy a pickup truck because you might move, you’re paying at twice as much up front and close to that in ongoing costs for the life of the vehicle even before you get to things like the inconvenience of finding parking. In that case, it often doesn’t make rational sense unless you move unusually frequently. If you’re buying one to haul building supplies every weekend, of course, those rental costs add up and it makes more sense. The problem is that for all we like to claim to be rational, most people make those decisions emotionally and rationalize as needed to explain it. That’s how you get 90% of SUVs never leaving a paved road because the owner thought it was a lifestyle accessory which made them look richer, but talks like they’re suddenly going to start taking 6 friends backcountry camping year-round.

steveBK123 2y ago
Most SUVs are not actually 4x4 so taking them off-road was never the plan. Yuppies driving Range Rovers in Manhattan is a whole different discussion though.
- acdha 2y ago
  How often are they advertised with someone driving them in some beautiful area? They’re not targeting people who have strong opinions on the difference between AWD and 4WD, they’re selling the image that you _could_ be the kind of person who goes on adventures.