What is a good strategy then if one expects to need to buy a vehicle in the next 6mo?
Make sure it really is a need and not just a want.
Used car market gets even more bizarre
311–320 of 340 posts
Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre
#312My truck is worth more today then when I bought it 4 years ago... Crazy that automobiles are now an appreciating asset...
The thing is, cars aren’t actually worth more today than they were 4 years ago, it’s just that your money is worth less and assets like cars+housing are where inflation is most visible.
Only if wages have been keeping pace with inflation. I don't think that has been the case.
Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be honest, not being allowed to drive your own vehicle is probably a good thing. See e.g. https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/global-road-safety/index... . From the first few paragraphs: Road traffic crashes are a leading cause of death in the United States for people aged 1–54 More than half of those killed are pedestrians, motorcyclists, or cyclists. Drivers risk other people's lives, hence, other people have a…
>> If someone wants to do some old school driving in 2040, go have fun on a private racetrack or whatever This reminds me of how only rich people could afford to fly places in the 1940s; then the upper-middle class could afford airline vacations in the 60s-80s; then by the 2000s, it was available to everyone so everyone had to be treated like scum/cattle, and once again if you wanted to take a nice vacation you had t…
I have the opposite view: driving doesn't feel like freedom to me. It feels like a necessary evil forced upon my by prior generations. Using a self driving car to get around sounds a lot more free to me as I'd be free to do something other than stare at the road and listen to podcasts.
Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
Worth to whom? Have you listed it for sale? The market for used Tacomas and 4Runners is off the hook.
Someone left a post it note on my friends 2002 4Runner with their phone number in case my friend wanted to sell it. In northeast USA, after 20 years of salted winter roads.
Especially 3rd gen 4Runners. Source: bought a 3rd gen 10 years ago, now has 250k miles and the value has more than doubled. $6k -> $15k.
Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre
#315Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be honest, not being allowed to drive your own vehicle is probably a good thing. See e.g. https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/global-road-safety/index... . From the first few paragraphs: Road traffic crashes are a leading cause of death in the United States for people aged 1–54 More than half of those killed are pedestrians, motorcyclists, or cyclists. Drivers risk other people's lives, hence, other people have a…
>> If someone wants to do some old school driving in 2040, go have fun on a private racetrack or whatever This reminds me of how only rich people could afford to fly places in the 1940s; then the upper-middle class could afford airline vacations in the 60s-80s; then by the 2000s, it was available to everyone so everyone had to be treated like scum/cattle, and once again if you wanted to take a nice vacation you had t…
I certainly don't buy that your car is freedom trope sold to our parents to buy the latest car back in the sixties. Most cars are dailies and only ever drive between home, work, store ad nauseum. So the rosy tinted idea that cars are freedom just means more traffic, complaining about fuel, complaining about tires, complaining about insurance, and the forgetful fact that humans are driving around a metal and plastic box with several dozen litres of flammable fuel at 100km/h - while listening to shitty breakfast show radio.
No thanks.
I'd rather we do away with the car is freedom trope. Most cars arent even useful, just signals to your nieghbours and friends that you are, in fact, balling. No thanks. Uber had the right idea. Don't own it, go where you want and pay up. Should be cheap when it's automated. Don't like that then take public transport...and if you can - just walk. What happened to just walking?
Right...you can't because our spaces are designed for car travel, not people. Do you see my point?
Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre
#316Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> If someone wants to do some old school driving in 2040, go have fun on a private racetrack or whatever This reminds me of how only rich people could afford to fly places in the 1940s; then the upper-middle class could afford airline vacations in the 60s-80s; then by the 2000s, it was available to everyone so everyone had to be treated like scum/cattle, and once again if you wanted to take a nice vacation you had t…
I certainly don't buy that your car is freedom trope sold to our parents to buy the latest car back in the sixties. Most cars are dailies and only ever drive between home, work, store ad nauseum. So the rosy tinted idea that cars are freedom just means more traffic, complaining about fuel, complaining about tires, complaining about insurance, and the forgetful fact that humans are driving around a metal and plastic b…
Cars were my freedom. People live different lives, you know?
Did you drive 100+ miles, one way, for epic parties when you were in high school? I did. That's how rural Arkansas works.
My first tech job required me to go 130 miles one way for months before I could afford my own place and move closer. How would I have done that with your rules?!
Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre
#317Anyone know if this is happening with used cargo vans, e.g. the Amazon-branded delivery vans, or something larger e.g. the smallest Ryder box trucks? I was considering getting a new or used pickup in the next year or so, but one of those babies would serve me even better.
I think so. Trying to find a Transit or Sprinter right now is hard enough.
Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre
#318Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just unplug the GPS/cell antennas if you're that paranoid? Newer cars will not be made without them anyway because they are actually safety features.
Being spied on is always a safety feature. That's why North Korea is the safest country in the world. No one ever dies there. Not a single case of covid!
Believe it or not, trying to tell people they don't want someone else just a voice command or push button away in the case of an accident, is actually a hard sell. It might be seen as a privacy invasion to some (whether it's used as such in practice is another story), but to others it might actually save their life.
Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre
#320Everybody's discussing the effects of what's happening, but where did this demand come from? Sure, a bunch of people sold cars during Covid last year (but those cars went to someone else, they weren't destroyed), but lots of people who WFHd last year are still WFH this year.
Why does everyone suddenly need a car? Cheap credit is definitely at least in part fueling it.