yeah, and your costs will keep dropping the longer you keep the car....

I know I’m on the low end, but seriously, these costs are massively overblown.

Yes. But not by nearly as much as you’d think. After 15 years, a car is worth nearly the same no matter how many miles it has on it. And maintenance schedules aren’t always in the favor of low-mileage vehicles. I drive mostly city, which means more wear and tear in many respects than driving more miles but putting…

The article you point to refers to the average age of cars on the road - no the average lifespan of a vehicle. Those are two distinctly different things. For example, say every car lasted exactly 16 years and the distribution of ages was uniform, so you had, on the road, 1 new car, 1 car that was one year old, 1 that…

Absolutely absurd. These costs are supposed to be for an average sedan. $3,654 per year in depreciation? Sorry, but the average sedan lasts about 16 years. Depreciation isn’t linear, but over 16 years that would be $58,464. Even over just 10 years that would be $36,540 assuming no residual value. See the point? Even…

Sadly, the Yamaha V8 was one of the least reliable bits they put onto that generation of Taurus - and the mainline ones were pretty rock solid, if a bit eccentric. Are they sport sedans? No. But they handle better than a Camry and were more affordable, but the masses went for the dull.

Well, I’d consider all the delays to be engineering problems. And when it comes to the supply chain, I’d consider that to be an engineering problem, since they shouldn’t have allowed work to be moved around that would cause such problems. I’d also consider it an engineering problem that they designed a plane that…

The Airbus A380.

So the plane hasn’t been that bad in and of itself. However, consider the following:

And yet sadly people believe a lot of this nonsense - even though rollover rates were statistically identical in every other vehicle equipped with the defective tires, even when inflated at higher pressures.

And you can’t stand it on end. because the large lid is even leakier.

Who ever made that claim? The fact is that the default rate for high rated corporate bonds is near nonexistent. That’s also why a fair number of these companies have periodically had yields LOWER than US treasuries of similar maturity. When bond traders put 4% yields on 30 year corporates, they’re saying there is…

100% risk free? No - but do you know the default rates on them? Almost 0. If you spend your entire life chasing risk free everything, you’re going to end up poor in mind, spirit, and pocket. It’s not like I’m saying to go gambling in Vegas with the money. I’m saying take almost no risk and end up much better off.

Seriously? 10-20 year high grade (AA and AAA) corporate bonds will give you 3% or more - and they’re danged safe. The odds of not beating 3% (especially after considering tax treatments) even in an index fund are very low over the long haul.

If you still have student loans, odds are you’re pretty young. Even if we’re in a bit of a bubble, by the time you retire, the odds are extremely high that you would have averaged much more than 3% annual return.

You also should take taxes into account. Odds are that you can deduct some of that interest on your taxes,…

Only 50%? That’s a steal compared to the giveaways Kaisch hands out to political donors in Ohio.

You’re not confused at all. Home batteries make no fiscal sense for anyone where the grid is even the least bit reliable.

I’ve got 8.925 kW of solar generating capacity on my roof (a fairly large system). Like most people, I’m grid-tied and simply have a net meter. Whenever I’m producing more than I’m using, my meter…

This thing is a horrible, garbled mess from nose to tail...

I’m not defending his anti-GM stance, but while the US doesn’t have the lowest taxes, our effective tax rate on corporations is, in fact, below the OECD average. What we have is a complex tax structure on corporations - we have one of the highest statutory rates around, but the code is filled with special breaks and…

Exactly. The Big 3 are late to this game - Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes, BMW, etc - they’ve been pulling this for decades...

Cars are much more expensive in China than in the US.

Yeah, but you still have to arrive an hour before the flight to check in.

#couldswimtherefaster