Yep... entirely doable.

The key is that the interest rates on these subprime loans are often horrendous. An earlier article on this subject pinned the rates at well over 20%.

But let's consider 20% interest on a 7 year loan, $0 down, on a $20k vehicle. The finance company borrows money to make the loan. Let's say…

If you do the math behind these loans, at the rates that they're charging, you only lose if the buyer defaults almost immediately. If they default a year down the road, their payments are generally easily enough to cover depreciation AND your cost of capital.

Attention Lincoln: Tweak the headlights and taillights a bit, and here's your new Lincoln Continental...

(double post)

The tie rods on my Camry lasted a good length of time - and so did the ones on my Taurus. I was using that as an example that the claim of superiority in Toyota parts is nonsense - BOTH used nearly identical TRW parts as OEM.

The strut mounts on the Camry, though, are abysmal. The BEST I have ever received out of a…

I disagree. The suspension hardware on my Camry has been average at best, miserably bad at worst. I had a tie rod end need replacement at the same time as I needed one on my old Taurus (1 year older). The parts were almost identical - same danged supplier, same materials, etc. Lasted about the same length of time,…

No, it won't make you invisible, as everyone figured when this tech first trickled into the public consciousness.

Back in the '80s, we did indeed tout our secret missile-destroying Strategic Defense Initiative. It was mostly a bunch of land-based missiles, kind of setting a foundation for today's Iron Dome. That didn't stop people (Americans and Soviets) from thinking it was all about orbiting space lasers.

Tim Mooney Ford in Tuscola, IL - the sales manager there at this tiny dealership gave me a set of dealer plates and told me I could take any vehicle on the lot for a spin. No copying drivers licenses, no annoying ride-alongs, nothing. When I chose what I wanted, their first offer was thousands below MSRP, and…

#WeGotThoseGeckos

Creditors want Detroit to sell the art since the value is nearly $5 billion (!!!!!!!), but people don't want to see it go since it's part of the city. Toyota's donation is nice start to keep it in the city.

Mercedes-Benz just upped its stake from 4% to 5% in storied British carmaker Aston Martin. That may not sound like a lot, but it's a big burst of cash for Aston. This might not all sound like much, but I think Mercedes is going to buy Aston outright sooner rather than later, and here's why.

Or this:

Northwest has a computer crash for their entire system handling regional flights, so instead of flying passengers, they decide to bus them. Ok, I give them credit - its the Christmas season, and they're getting people to their destinations rather than stranding them... Here's the problem: By the time the…

How about this:

I arrive at OHare on a flight from BWI with a connection to CMI. I'm getting in at the end of concourse K, the connection is at the end of concourse G. We're late, and I have less than 5 minutes to make the connection (connecting flight is listed as on-time, but still boarding) Crew on the flight…

Odds are, as with most modern GM cars lately, the next Volt will be vastly better than the one it replaces, which was by no means a bad car at all — just kind of an expensive and awkward-looking one. I think that if they do it right, they have the chance to expand the Volt into a whole family of vehicles and take the…

I've driven around Ann Arbor in an Aston Martin Vantage Volante and never saw a person even give it a double take.

I get far more people looking at my 16 year old Camry. Maybe that's just the rattles and noises, though. I mean, which sound would get you to turn and look... this:

I wouldn't go that far. There are actually quite a few government programs that are very efficient and do good work. The key is to simply keep politicians from meddling with them. Take NASA, for example - when they have a mission and funding, they're almost never stopped. But on the human spaceflight side, every…

YES, WE CAN! :P

Actually, we have, in the past. A lot of people point to Reagan and Kennedy as having cut taxes. Well, there's a whole lot less truth to that than they really want to believe. They cut the statutory rates, but effective rates barely moved.

For example, in 1982, the highest tax bracket dropped from 70%…

I should also add that I think the world should be organized such that:

corporate effective tax rates << personal effective earned income tax rates < corporate effective tax rates + dividend /cap gain taxes.

Right now I think we have it backwards. We typically tax corporations higher rates than people. That gives a…

In the world of effective tax rates, there actually isn't. Tax laws don't change quickly. And our effective tax rate in the US is currently below 13.4% - it hit a 40 year low in 2011 of 12.1%, actually, that would have had us below every country in that chart above for 2000-2005 except for Germany.