True, and the options these days especially for a decent used car in the, say, $2000 range are vanishingly small, especially to the lay person that doesn’t know what exactly to look for to not get screwed. Add to that finding a decent mechanic that can work with someone like this to keep an older car running…

“buying Kia Optimas likely have some financial literacy”

I agree that the Optima is a very decent (underrated) midsize entrant, replaced now by the uglier K5(?) or whatever they’re pitching now.  But Around here Kias and Nissans are the “most likely to get financing” and cars you will see dicing through traffic with…

This is tongue-in cheek presumably, although go to poorer parts of town and you’ll see the DUI crowd zipping to the liquor store on their 50cc rigs lol

Sold it for $1500 more than I bought it for 7 years and 50k miles ago lol.  Fantastic truck, just didn’t fit our needs any more.

No but there’s a whole lot of people in a perpetual lease payment that would be perfectly served by a 1998 Camry that will live to 300k quite easily. Is a Forte or Sentra that much better of a car? Hardly. Getting the average family unplugged from their lifetime $500/mo new car habit would do a lot to put some…

“It doesn’t take a Warren Buffet to invest that money and earn a return beyond the interest rate on a car loan”

How many people leasing Kia Optimas and “murdered out” Silverado Customs(pick your stereotype) are doing this though? Almost none.

You’re projecting financial literacy onto a vast percentage of the population…

“Putting your money to work more productively, plus driving a nicer car at the same time, is a small price to pay for that 3% loan.”

You realize you’re talking about a vanishingly small percent of the population here? Might want to check your privilege bub.

I think it’s that super soft throttle that Toyota successfully implemented in the sense that it got people to drive slower/more efficiently.  Try out a 4.0L Nissan truck with a 4.0L/5A and it leaps off the line, much sharper throttle mapping

Yeah no idea what he’s talking about.  The domestics absolutely dominate the fleet/work truck market.  I’m in the Midwest and the only Tacomas used for work are the really old ones driven to construction sites and the junky yard and such.

The throttle calibration is super soft. A 4Runner driven flat out 0-60 clocks in at 7.5 seconds, on par with a Grand Cherokee with the 3.6+8spd. And believe me a newer 5.7L Land Cruiser/LX570 driven in anger would flatten your Jeep off the line

Agree completely.

No the 4.0 definitely feels a good bit stronger down low. Don’t forget the 3rd gen also gained on the order of 300ish(?) lbs. That and the loss of the low end punch makes for a sad-sack performer. IIRC TLFtruck drag raced a 1st gen 5spd+3.4, 2nd gen 4.0+5A, 3rd gen 3.5+6A), the 1st gen easily walked the other two and…

Agreed 10x.  Hell the old 3.4L+4spd is a much happier pairing than the 3.5+6A

The ‘16s+ are a BIG regression over the old 4.0+5spd setup, that made the 2nd gen Tacoma actually feel kind of peppy and fun to drive. Couldn’t stand my rental, was happy to get back into my ‘96 4Runner with its down-by-100hp-and-two gears 3.4+4spd which miraculously doesn’t need to downshift on every tiny hill and…

Bullshit lol, there’s at least as many pristine TRD-Offroads cruising around.  Sure Ford sells a metric crap load of supercrews as dressed up family rigs, but there’s vastly more domestic fleet trucks getting hammered around the country than Tacomas.

Spot on. I mean I get why people by them: legendary reliability and insane (INSANE) resale. You can drive one for almost free it seems like.

...2WD

*sad trombone*

I’m inferring with a fair degree of confidence what the financial backstory is because I’ve seen it a hundred times.

I was with you until the Macan lmao

“she wants to reward herself for getting through a grueling doctorate program and securing a well-paying job and your answer is no”