I’m not missing anything. I’m flat out saying - it doesn’t matter. I showed it with basic math. Add up all the costs it takes to run ALL the dealerships for a particular brand and say it’s equal $E per day/month/year/decade. Whatever makes you happy. There is no reason on the planet to think making ZERO changes to the…

What do you do with the old tires?

Everyone has their personal experiences that say “Blah Manufacturer exploded 15 minutes after I left the parking lot and Blech Manufacturer still runs 4 decades later without 5 minutes in any shop for literally anything at all.”

Toyota is in the enviable position of everyone knows what a Toyota will be. It’ll be boring but you know what? It’ll boringly get you from your boring start place to your boring end place and it’ll be a ‘meh’ trip the whole way there and back again. It will do that for years and years and then you’ll probably go get…

They wouldn’t. That’s the point. From a manufacture’s standpoint, the current “market” is whatever price they sell to dealers. The rest is just free extra profit. At the absolute worst case scenario, consumers pay EXACTLY what they’re paying now, and that ain’t MSRP.

Nowhere and thank god for that.  Dealerships don’t work for free you know.  Where do you think is paying their profit? (HINT: It ain’t Ford or Honda... it’s coming out of your pockets 100%).  

I haven’t seen my prices change much in the last 5 years.  Is, say, Netflix more?  Sure.  But guess what?  If Netflix raises the price $1/month than I’m willing to pay, I just cancel Netflix.  Now I’m saving $8/month (or whatever).  Multiply that by all  the streaming services and it’s nothing but savings for…

There is absolutely no reason to think this is remotely true and every reason to think this is 100% false. What we know is the manufacturer sells the car to dealers at $X. The dealer does not do what they do for free. We know the amount consumers pay is greater than $X in almost all cases. We also know that the dealer…

It’s exactly like the ‘a la carte cable’ argument - cheaper for consumers, bad for middlemen. What’s not to like if you’re not a middleman!  I’ve saved literally hundreds over the last 7-8 years since I went a la carte.  

Anyone that believe direct sales of car would only be at MSRP is a moron. Full stop.

...has there been any indication that they actually plan on selling it that way? It feels like this’ll just be a minivan.

And Hispanics! They were part of the reason too! As always, US racism is multifaceted.

a horde of ambitious little Boy and Girl Scouts.

That’s really more an argument for why security clearances are just a pseudo-scientific load of crap.  Someone sits down, looks at your file, and makes a gut reaction.  Are you a security risk?  Nobody knows.  They’re just guessing.  It’s why the major spies often get away with it for so long - present ‘normal’ and…

But then you still have to cough up what you owe in taxes. You’d be effectively doubling down on what you owe. Take the median income of $50,000 a year - that works out to $3,600 in taxes (ish). You don’t get a magic check at the beginning of the year.  You’d be sticking $300 into something you can’t get the money…

This probably makes much more sense for most Americans.  Given the savings rates of most Americans, too many people are going to be left owing more than they have in savings.  Just let the IRS keep the money.  The amount of interest lost is next to nothing.  

And when you’ve done that for 5-6 years, you’ll be able to afford a pizza!  Single topping only.  Better pick it up because you won’t be able to tip the driver.  

That IRS checkup tool flat out sucks. I owe money this year, so I used that tool to figure out how much to withhold next year. It’s best estimate is I should hold DOUBLE what I owe this year. My income isn’t changing this year, so unless the tax rates are jumping massively in 2021, I’m going to end up paying almost…

Yes, take that money and put it into short term savings so you can earn.... what? Something like $5.50 in interest over a whole year, especially considering the last 20% of your pay periods won’t be in the account long enough to earn much of anything? Why bother? And that assumes you can accurately guess your tax…

This all sounds great until you’re faced with a 4 digit tax bill due on a specific day, then you can either drain your savings OR accept a monthly payment plan with associated interest and penalties tacked on. Then you’re not only paying this year’s taxes, but LAST year’s taxes+interst/fees. Sure, you can stick it on…