It certainly seems like your main complaint is that she bought a Chrysler. I’ll admit that I found her choices a bit gaudy and silly, but that’s all personal preference - I prefer a more practical Jeep myself, but that’s me. You’re also coming off as jealous of someone who certainly seems to be doing quite well for…

Why couldn’t it have been cash? Saving up 20k isn’t that hard, especially if your COL is low, and no one has a lower COL than a high-school student. I had that saved up at that age, but I was building computers for people and already doing consulting work.

Getting a job serves the purpose of letting me ~do as I wish~. It’s called independence and self-reliance. This is a car blog; we are car enthusiasts. This is our hobby. It’s no worse or better than any other hobby. If all you’re living for is saving money, then I’d make the overly trite argument that you’re not…

So you’re not going to let them make their own choices with the money ~they’ve~ earned, even if it’s all theirs? Precisely what lesson is that teaching them? What do you expect them to do when they turn 18, and you no longer have a say? Responsibility is a gray area with more than one right choice often enough,…

As a product guy, sure. As a business guy, he was a failure every single time, capped by GM entering bankruptcy. Now I’ll grant that wasn’t entirely his fault, but he’s responsible for the poor car choices and designs through the 2000's that contributed as well.

I made that much back then easily. It’s not that hard if you want to put in the effort, you just have to decide you want to.

Ah yes, because ANY purchase outside of the core Maslow’s Hierarchy is a waste. She’s 16. She wanted a car. She worked, saved up for, and bought a car. This is what you’re supposed to do. You don’t have any idea what her long term plans are, what her career aspirations are, or what her financial situation is outside…

Including, effectively, his own. There’s a reason he’s a “former auto executive.”

A lot of leased luxury cars are business expenses. I get ~450 a month in car costs from work, after subtracting our gas

This will help. But not enough. The car just isn’t good enough yet for that. Closer, but not quite, especially since most people leasing these don’t care abou that kind of small change.

Wait what?

I would have, but the stick was only in a down-option model. :(

Wasn’t the ILX cancelled?

They’re putting a torsion beam rear on the base 3. They’re pulling a VW instead. Mazda is dead. Long live Mazda.

Yeah, I apparently confused it with another car >_< Dammit, reading about the Jetta and the coming MZ3 as well (which is also moving to garbage mode).

The turbo had a multilink rear, just not a good one.

I seem to remember making a comment about vacuum hoses and terror when you first bought this...

$500 to get major paint damage fixed? Come on. Even at $1000... sucks, but that’s what having some savings is for. Especially on something like a model S.

Macan? F-Pace? Etc? This is normal. This is fine.

Wanted one so bad. Got a 2004 SVT Focus instead, which in hindsight was a mistake. But probably saved me a ton of money. It was the exact opposite: handling over all, zero power. No aftermarket really either.