Current Events > Cars are such a fucking scam, lol

(+) Yeah! (+)

Like how people buy new or semi new cars way above what they can actually afford, only because they can just about squeeze in the monthly loan payments.

Some of my co-workers are car people. They make fun of my car a lot. It's a 2008 VW passat with like, 180,000 miles on the clock. I mean it's not perfect. It's a pretty old car, it has some quirks. It has a big rust spot on the roof. Sometimes I get electrical problems. It's the butt of so many office jokes, but it's really not that bad. Passed every MOT with no major problems.

It also cost me $3k to buy 4 years ago, and each year since the total servicing costs have been less than $1k a year. That's including regular perishables, like brakes and oil changes.

Most of these motherfuckers are paying that much just in their car loan every 2-3 months. Do they really feel like their $500 a month not including servicing justifies being smug about having a slightly newer, slightly more reliable vehicle? I've taken this car up and down the country on a weekly basis and it runs smooth as butter.

In summary, the culture of taking out a loan on a vehicle where the total pre-interest cost is like 40% of your annual paycheck is fucking nuts and I have no idea why people normalise it.

If you got weird insecurity vibes from this topic you're probably correct. Goddamnit stop making fun of my car, it's a practical choice.

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/04/1152932192/yo-yo-car-sales

Most of us would be confused too. But odds are good that in the paperwork you signed when you bought your own car, there was some legal language saying the sale may not really be final. It often asserts that if the car dealer has trouble with the financing on its end after the sale, it can later cancel the deal, try to get you to agree to different terms, and take the car back if you refuse.

I run old cars into the ground until I get a newer old car. I've always been that way, if a 200k mile car runs, I'll use it until it doesn't.

Kim_Seong-a posted...

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/04/1152932192/yo-yo-car-sales

The whole dealership thing is the mother of all scams. Like totally obsolete in the modern world, but still a thing.

Imagine if we had to buy literally anything else like this. Like you need to get some groceries and you have to speak to a sleazy guy in a cheap suit who will certainly lie his ass off about what you need to buy and waste your time.

I got lucky with my dealership experience the one time I bought a car off a lot. They didn't do in-house financing, so couldn't try to sell me on that. They did offer extended warranties, but just gave me a pamphlet with the details and didn't push it at all. I also got really lucky that I just happened to buy it a few months before Covid hit, so prices were still decent.