I think where you live matters a lot for this.

In the midwest, You can get a really really nice house for $150k.

So if you take home 100k/year, living in a 150k house is reasonable.

if thats the case though, then you have a LOT of left over cash at the end of the year. Living expenses + house cost about 30k? so now your…

I spend more than 3x on my vehicles than I do on my home :) and I bet as a jalop, I’m far from the only one!

Thats hard to answer.

I owned a 2nd gen Cadillac CTS.

You have to take off the front bumper to replace the DRL.

I’m not paying 5 hours shop time- or spending 8 hours of my weekend- just to replace a daggone DRL.

So I let it ride until I was ready to sell the car.

Now I don’t know about all of them, but here’s what I can tell you about GM DRLs:
1…

I’ve had so many!

I just bought a used Dodge Durango from a franchised Honda dealer 3 weeks ago though. Freaking weird story.

Asking price was $18,990. I test drove it the day it left PDI. liked it- but it had a few little issues that I could deal with (Broken radio button, some chips, etc) so i thought it was a hair…

Hey guys!

So there’s this jerk with a porsche in our neighborhood, and we put a sharpie next to it and a sign that says “Leave inspirational quotes”.

BEST PRANK EVER. 

I always targeted 6-8k.

6-8k will get you lots of quality low mileage cars, from mazda 3s (we sold my wifes with 87k miles for 7500) to Cadillac CTS, and lots of things in between.

8k will buy you a 2015 Hyundai Sonata, which is a GREAT car with under 100k on the clock, or a 2008 Ford F150 with 130 on the clock which is…

I bought my last BMW because I was too poor to afford the fuel economy on a luxury full size truck despite the price being similar. When I have more disposable income, a full size truck is my preferred luxury car.

I don’t think I’m the only one, but this is a significant shift in the truck market. Its no longer…

I don’t disagree.

Funny you say that about the x5... I had a similar experience with my BMW e90 3 Series. I got so irritated about having to take it to the dealership all the time I sold it and bought a cadillac.

Not saying the cadillac was necessarily “more reliable”, but I could fix everything in my garage, so it…

I see you are angry and consider him a scumbag. I actually consider him an incredibly ethical car dealer and I have bought from him a couple of times.

I don’t think he’s doing anything wrong. He’s not selling cars and hiding problems- fixing them with duct tape or something crazy... its more of the fact that “How much…

I on the contrary buy new-to-me cars all the time, but just because I love it. I can’t say its a rational decision ;)

touche!

In your scenario though, I’ve got to ask what the owner was thinking?

I know you can psychologically take a $500/month payment for 72 months, but shouldn’t you put $200/month into a “repair account” for your asset, so that when it breaks you just pay for it like you planned?

Not being able to cover a $1000 repair on an…

I don’t disagree!

I used to believe that, until I realized how often my dealer used NON OEM parts. What was I paying a premium for?

Who cares what a car is “worth”.

I’ve dealt with so many people who are like “Its a $1000 repair on a $2000 vehicle!” OK who cares.

your options:
1. Sell your $2000 car for $500, and buy a new $3000 car which will have the same problems in 6 months.
2. Fix your $2000 car for $1000.

Option 1- Your wallet is $2500 lighter
Opt…

I don’t have a good source except that when I research efficiency issues with rotary, it refers purely to high RPMs, because of a fundamental issue in thermodynamics. (including the first articles that come up on the google!)

Therefore my logic- which could be flawed- is that if we know the “Average” efficiency is…

The one real drawback of rotaries are compression and thermodynamic efficiencies

These can be solved largely by a variable compression rotary.

theoretically its very possible and it would still be a less complicated design than a piston motor....

In fact I just figured out the design for one and I think I might have to…

This could solve the NUMBER 1 and NUMBER 2 issues of EVs, and could be HUGE.

the motor is 3-4 times more powerful per pound, and is much smaller, allowing it to be placed in some really interesting places. it is a very simple design, and for a “rarely used” piece of a car (Range extender- a lot of the i3 guys say they…

I thought Rotary Engines were more efficient at lower RPMs, but less efficient at higher RPMs. In other words, if you can use a computer to manage the RPM range, it could be more efficient than a piston engine.