Metal recyclers do that.

Call me cynical, but the scrappers taking these stolen converters have to know they aren’t coming from the local auto shop because they had a lot of exhaust jobs this week.

I grew up in the area, people have been hitting that bridge for decades.

Lots of arguments here for and against buying a car. I think there is value in having a reliable car when you are starting off. The OP doesn’t mention the condition of their current ride, so I’d assume it isn’t horrible.

As opposed to the Aston that is priced for the everyman?

No information in the ad, and it appears to be wearing temporary tags?  What is going on here?

There isn’t much to this “article” at all. It is basically just stating the obvious. “Finance a $60k truck, and your payments are going to be $1,000+”.

Yeah I’ve been seeing a lot of <1000 mile “used” cars at big dealers. Some of them are odd, because they aren’t really in demand models. There is a Nissan Kicks with 15 miles mixed in with the GR Corolla with 10 miles (for $53k), Bronco Raptor with 11 miles (for $104k), base Maverick with 12 miles (for $33.5k), and…

Yeah so I guess it really is more of a “party bus” than a RV.  I mean it looks like a rolling “lounge” with the bar and couches.

A buddy of mine had one of these. It was pretty damn bad. His was “loaded” so it had leather...which is a kind word to use for the plastic-like feeling material that covered the seats. They would have been right at home in a base model pickup truck from 1974 with a vinyl bench seat. Door, dash, etc. materials were…

These were the worst.  I drove a WK Jeep (which is really bad) and plenty of 90's/00's GM.  The Caliber was the cheapest feeling vehicle I ever sat in.

Agree. I like the idea here. I want a gauge cluster and some buttons though.

This thing could be a 1 of 1 special edition, and it’d be ruined with all these mods.  It is just another modded Miata now.

Yeah, the more I think about it, if it isn’t a Toyota or a Honda, I’m not sure I’m willing to roll the dice on it. And a Toyota would be fine if they just had any for sale. Maybe Volvo, but a Geely car with a turbo + supercharged motor, hybrid system, etc. does make me nervous.

As much as I’d like to talk myself into a GTI, Golf R, or S3/S4/S5; I’ve seen so many posts over the years about the nightmare of owning a VW/Audi vehicle (including a bunch already here) that I don’t think I’d ever roll the dice unless I decide to lease or extended warranties are half off.

Yeah, I keep looking at alternatives but they don’t really exist. Even started looking at Mercedes E450 wagons, but then I might as well get the XC90 PHEV. And then I should probably just buy the XC90 because the PHEV has like a $10k price increase and that is a lot of gas...even at $5-6/gal.

I keep coming back to Toyotas, Toyotas that are difficult to find to even test drive. So plenty of dealer shenanigans ahead.

It is pretty demoralizing to start looking around and just seeing all this nonsense they want you to pay for to get a car. Markups, warranty junk, $1,000 worth of floormats, USB cables, and “door edge guards”. I’d love to say screw it, but I can’t make the current car bigger.

Just looked up one of the (now) shadier dealers I’ve seen with markups and such. Their small print is the following:

Supposedly solid state batteries are “close”.  They are supposed to be a big step forward, particularly in recharge time.