51–60 of 93 posts
The problem with this is that I think it plays on good nature of people. Ford right now says it's for leased cars but it feels like a step to normalize restricting and milking people later on. It also open a whole new attack vector these companies are not ready to secure
Yup. Today Musk bans people from using Twitter, tomorrow (I know it's a Ford patent) he can ban people from their Tesla's if they piss him off.
So as an individual who loves cars, guiltily, although I find such inventions creepy, I also recognize these things as the sour medicine required to heal the planet, and the greater good.
Financing is a cancer upon many industries, and cars are no exception. If we really cared about poor people we would seriously reform the dealer system, outlaw predatory sales and lending tactics, and seriously curtail the parameters on auto loans. I think limiting the term on loans for new cars to 5 years would be a good start. It would eliminate a lot of foolish purchases and auto makers would be forced to offer mo…
> Financing is a cancer upon many industries, and cars are no exception I agree. Debt itself is poison. > auto makers would be forced to offer more affordable vehicles. There are multiple cars on the market in the US that you can buy for $20k or less. Adjusted for inflation, I don't think cars have ever been cheaper than that. It's hard to see how they could pare the cost down much lower.
Financing is a cancer upon many industries, and cars are no exception. If we really cared about poor people we would seriously reform the dealer system, outlaw predatory sales and lending tactics, and seriously curtail the parameters on auto loans. I think limiting the term on loans for new cars to 5 years would be a good start. It would eliminate a lot of foolish purchases and auto makers would be forced to offer mo…
Give people the information they need to make a smart decision, but we should let people choose bad loans if they find it to be the best choice for themselves.
So given that they have the legal right to come to your house and forcibly take a leased car from you if you miss payments, a few nag features honestly seem like an improvement. I would just want to be sure as hell that a car I own outright wouldn't even have the hardware available to do such a thing.
There's very few things left that we "own outright", unfortunately. That's the whole problem with acts like this one.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Financing is a cancer upon many industries, and cars are no exception I agree. Debt itself is poison. > auto makers would be forced to offer more affordable vehicles. There are multiple cars on the market in the US that you can buy for $20k or less. Adjusted for inflation, I don't think cars have ever been cheaper than that. It's hard to see how they could pare the cost down much lower.
The low end of the market is fine. The high end is insane. And 9 year loans are making the high end accessible to people that shouldn’t, but this also applies upward pressure on prices at the high end.
Buying a new car's pretty dumb, but leasing? LOL get outta here.
There is this weird thing going on here in Australia where you buy a new car, drive around for a year or two, and sell it second hand and make a profit. I think people must assume that second hand cars are cheaper and not actually checking what price they can get on a new car. Perhaps they just check the advertised price and not realize you can get the dealer to knock off thousands if you pretend you are not interest…
I bought it pre-covid, though, and I know that used car prices became insane during the pandemic. But they'll settle back to norm (if they haven't already).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The low end of the market is fine. The high end is insane. And 9 year loans are making the high end accessible to people that shouldn’t, but this also applies upward pressure on prices at the high end.
But people who are poor aren't (unless they're very foolish) buying at the high end of the market.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's very few things left that we "own outright", unfortunately. That's the whole problem with acts like this one.
I don't think this is true, yet. Literally everything I have, I own outright.
You could say that people who can't afford a mortgage and are hence forced to rent (I'm part of that group) are then not part of the "not outright owners" discussion, but I don't know if that makes the situation better for them, to the contrary.
What if my landloard decides to remotely stop some things working around the house if I happen to be late with paying rent some months? Such as the AC not being available anymore. Or one of the clothes cabinets not opening. Because that's what's happening here with Ford and its leasing clients.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've already decided my next car will be something built before 1984.
Back when I owned cars, they were always pretty old, and it was an endless job replacing various parts as they wore out. These days, I just walk, it's faster.