Luck would certainly be in your favor to get a Chrysler Corp. product to last that long. :)

Fords and GMs, with a few exceptions here and there, do tend to be good bargains used.

Accounting supernerd answer:

Depreciation of assets comes out before you report profits.  It doesn’t hit your cash flow, but it does count as an expense.

Because in your model your costs are GROSSLY unstable. Your accounting methods would have that person seeing huge costs for a few years and then nothing at all for years afterwards. This would be an inappropriate and illegal way of accounting for assets for a business, and its inappropriate personally, too. Ignoring…

So you know some self made/rich people that have expensive cars. Ok. That’s some. I never said NO rich people drive expensive cars. I just don’t know any. In my experience, most people will buy fancier cars up to a point, then they tend to go cheaper again at higher levels of income.

Do you know how many rich people…

You might get a depreciation curve more in your favor, but you also will likely end up spending more for a compact luxury sedan over the life of the vehicle than a quality midsize mainstream sedan, even if the depreciation curve looks better.

I agree. You have to simplify your arguments sometimes.

That said, if you buy a loaded Chrysler 200 AWD used, you had better plan on it having a lifespan of 10 years rather than 15-16 for something of quality. :)

Sigh...

So you admit that depreciation matters - just because you don’t see it flowing out of your pocket that instant doesn’t mean the cost isn’t there.

A new Accord doesn’t have to be anywhere near $32k.

Depreciation absolutely matters.  You have to account for the capital investment in buying the vehicle somehow.  It’s a fair way of doing it - that or what your monthly savings needs to be to replace it eventually.

Or he’s grossly overestimating taxes. I know countless coworkers who do that - all claiming that they pay 50% of their income in taxes.

But around here, the max in state and local income taxes combined comes to about 7%. These people are generally in a 22% federal bracket, so that puts them at a 29% marginal tax rate,…

Gas, maintenance, repairs, and insurance, I’m somewhere around 1.6%. Add in saving to replace the vehicles eventually, and I’m about 3.4% (depreciation is almost negligible on my vehicles, so that’s why I look at what I’m saving instead).

Most areas of the country, $250k buys a pretty decent house -that’s solidly 10% above the national median

I know similar people... and no - no retirement savings or college funds. They actually state they would never do that because “that’s the guvmint telling you what to do with your money”.

I just don’t understand it. They give you an OPTIONAL break on your taxes for saving in a private account and you refuse to do it…

Ok.... for the young’uns, follow this closely:

Don’t buy an expensive fancy vehicle with a huge loan when you get out of school. Buy used. And older.

Think something like this -

I don’t think I’ve ever met a rich person with a new fancy car. Sure, some CEOs/execs I’ve met rode in fancy cars, but generally prescribed by their board. Most people I know who truly were self made never bought themselves a fancy car. Heck, I met one person who started at the bottom of their company and rose to be…

With how little manual labor is used for a car nowadays, that’s not much of an excuse.

Any decent plant will use ~30 hours of labor for stamping, engine assembly, transmission assembly, and final assembly combined.  That makes labor costs a small percentage of vehicle costs.

No one is forcing them into those overpriced behemoths.

They’re being irresponsible and doing that to themselves.

Sadly, most people can actually afford a $25k-30k brand new car. It isn’t really that hard - it just takes some self control. Get out of school, buy a cheap used car. Pay it off and then start saving what you had put towards the payment instead as a fund to buy your next car. In just a couple years, you’ll have a down…

Neutral:

Frankly, my 9 year old Mazda6 and 14 year old Ford Fusion are both seemingly in perfectly good working order. An occasional fix here or there, but nothing warranting a new car.

So no, I have no plans to take advantage of any downturn just yet.  I’d rather use the money at this point to finish off my mortgage.

Parts network so you can DIY?

How about a parts network so they can fix things themselves, even?

I mean, there shouldn’t be too much standard maintenance on an EV (though their maintenance costs imply they still charge a fortune) - but I know someone who damaged a couple rims on some potholes and it still took nearly 4…