I know I’m going to get a lot of hate for this but I’m going to say it, I don’t get peoples love affair with Wagons. I just don’t. Wagons were the cars that parents drove in the ‘70s and uncool at the time, only to be replaced by minivans in the ‘80s & ‘90s. The only thing that baffles me more is that people, who…

Paul Krugman, former Enron economist and current NYT Writer, predicted a recession every year from 2002 to 2008. Eventually a broken clock is correct. And some day a recession will happen. But I put absolutely no faith in anything an “expert” tells me about economics.

1. Private Party ‘95 Impreza wagon for 2600. It had oil leaks but not bad and was a very good car for several years, until somebody hit it in the street in front of my house.

Interesting theory. The counter argument would be that recession predictions are a self-fulfilling prophecy. Upon news of the impending recession, individuals and business put off large purchases and start saving money in preparation. The economy starts to slow as sales drop, which confirms the predictions, which…

I’m right there with you. I’ve had pretty good luck with used beaters, but the two times I bought a CPO car were both total shit shows. One of them I only owned for 3-1/2 months. During that time it spent 31 days in and out of the shop for various problems. Traded it in on a new vehicle in 2006 that I’m still DDing.…

Large corporations (like GM and Ford), control far more money than an average consumer. They are already preparing for a recession.

Lots of the stock market gains in the past few years were due to financed stock buy-backs and tax cuts, and the tax cuts are done spent.

I mean if the studies are true that about 40% of Americans can’t come with $400 for an emergency, how are are millions preparing for the economic downturn?

Or it could become a self fulfilling prophecy. 

Except a recession can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. If enough people remember the last one (2008), they will ‘tighten their belts,’ hold off selling their houses, buying a new car, etc. and, sure enough, we’ll get a recession.

Yeah as soon as the talking heads start saying “well maybe the good times will actually last forever” - that’s when the recession will come. The next recession probably can’t be avoided entirely but it can be blunted if people keep staying prepared.

That’s kind of what happened in the U.K. Q1 major companies were placing huge orders to stockpile supplies for brexit and that was used by some to say, things were just great and nothing to fear. Meanwhile q2 is a swing back to reality.

Exactly this

I don’t get the American sales model at all. Why fill dealer lots with cars no one wants, like a Soviet planning economy? So much more efficient to just build cars to customer spec, like in Europe, ain’t it?

Friend of mine in HS had a Mennonite-owned Chevy Celebrity that had flat-black painted bumpers. That was Western Berks county, I’m from Reading originally.

We have a pretty large Mennonite population in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, used to work at a Toyota dealer and this girl came in and bought a new Corolla, and 2 days later she brought it back to get the more base model one because her grandfather threw a fit that it was “too fancy”.. It was an LE and at that time…

My dad grew up in Reading, and half my family still lives around there :-P 

I don’t care about the convertible aspect, but we need that Honda sports coupe concept to become a production car.

Interesting. I think that practice has essentially ended, but I’ll watch for it. Black bumper Mennonites are way less common than plain, although black cars are still extremely popular around here...