Prost had no chance in 1990. Yes, Senna crashed him and ended the championship right there, but Japan was not the last race and Prost was not leading the standings.

Couple of thoughts:

Over the whole of their McLaren partnership, Jenson had more points than Lewis.

Well, Stroll had at least 3 issues that I can see. The team set the car up for wet weather and to get a lot of heat in the tires. That is why Racing Point was way better on the full wet stint.

Schumi also had a 2nd career with a largely uncompetitive car.

You might think, without running the numbers, that it would be “lots more expensive”, but at least in my state, Care by Volvo is actually quite a bit cheaper over a 5 year period.

So that’s pretty anecdotal. The number of companies who offer DB plans for new employees is essentially zero. I’m also not really sure what your point was in posting - you and your wife found jobs which offered DB plans 15-20 years ago. The landscape has entirely changed since then and there is a pretty good chance…

Most retirees own their homes/cars/other major assets and have no outstanding debt.

There was no Golf R until 2010 (arrived in the US in 2012). The VW model with the VR6 engine was called the R32. There was no manual transmission option for the equivalent generation to this TT (the Mk5 R32) - it was also DSG only.

You’re assuming no salary expansion. 22-30 is, percentage-wise, the time of greatest salary expansion for almost everyone in the labor force.

Exactly. Depending on how much you contributed, a married couple could draw $4k-$7k per month from social security. If you own your house, cars, etc. and live in a low cost of living area, it is more than enough.

Not necessarily. In a low cost of living area, you can survive off social security alone.

It’s difficult also because for most people, late 20s through mid 30s are the time when your earnings expand the most dramatically.

No, you have spent $36,000 more and have a $28,000 asset to show for it. The 5 year cost to own the vehicle is $81k, not $53k.

There are additional savings from the Care by Volvo program. 5 years of maintenance and insurance works out to $13k+ in savings.

Here’s how I look at it in the case of the XC90 with 15k miles per year - the most likely one for me. If you compare over a 5 year period, it actually makes sense.

I think you missed the point re: maintenance. The proper comparison is to a 5 year loan. Maintenance and insurance is quite a lot in those cases, so an inclusive number is actually a sizeable savings.

Not really apples to apples if you compare a now money down lease and this no money down program to buying a car with money down.

Yeah, I posted elsewhere in this thread that it has to be a hard sell for a new Harley or similar touring bike when there are so many low mileage examples for much cheaper on the used market. There are a lot of Boomers aging out of their bikes and the used market is rather saturated, I would think. If not now then…

I don’t think there is a “long term” really. A lot of the older Boomers who bought bikes are beginning to age out and sell (my uncle, for example, who turned 72 this year) and the relative take rate for Gen X and millennials is probably 10% of what it was for Boomers.