Same here! While almost all the cars I’ve owned have sunroofs, being bought used and loaded, I never ever open the damn thing. It’s a vulnerable point on the roof, it adds weight, and it reduces headroom (not that I’m tall enough to be affected, but still). Plus opening it would bring about the risk of bird droppings…

Even local Chinese aren’t going to get in trouble if they’re using VPNs to access Facebook in China and post photos of their morning coffee. If they’re trying to organize dissent of any sort though, and the censorship police find out and manage to trace them back, they’re screwed.

My phone supports both Asian and North American LTE bands, but I’m a cheap bastard so I opted to just use the free 2G-speed roaming when I visited China (also a T-Mobile user). It was amusing to see “LTE” on my phone but have atrociously slow speeds due to artificial throttling. However I was indeed able to access…

In your case, you seem to get a lot of enjoyment out of using a truck as an actual truck, so by all means get a truck :)

I feel ya, used to live in the Bay Area and 500k will buy you barren land big enough for a shed, if you’re lucky. Part of the reason I moved to MI.

I live in MI. Even in the nice suburbs you can find an ok house for < $200k and if you do a 30-year mortgage, the payment can be that low.

True, but if too many people can’t actually afford what they like yet buy it anyway, that creates a very dangerous bubble with severe ripple effects.

A 7 year loan is likely to leave you underwater before the end. Even a 5 year loan can do that especially for German makes.

It was real. Lower population then so land was cheap. Cars and homes were also built to MUCH lower standards back then.

Tech/finance salaries and low interest rates. The people who buy $1M homes in those cities are making at least $200k a year combined. Also, wealthy investors from overseas are a large portion of luxury home buyers.

Yep, that is also why small cars bound for the US are increasingly being offshored (e.g. Focus moving to China, Trax/Encore sourced from Korea, Corolla to Mexico, etc). Doesn’t make sense to build in the US if there is low demand.

Culture - driving a hulking pickup is seen as “manly” and successful.

This! I drive a Ford Fusion Energi with a nearly useless trunk. Friends and family kept telling me that I “need” an SUV or truck because of space and utility and whatnots.

Also, statistically speaking you’re more likely to lose the damn thing in an accident than you are to lose your house to an accident. Would really suck to be in a 5+ year loan and then lose it during the first year (I know there’s gap insurance but still...). And even if you can get it repaired and running, the lost…

When everything is understood as a monthly payment, that’s what happens. People pay for TVs and couches in installments too. Oh well, keep it up so I can get used stuff for cheap :)

This. Market demand dictates what we get. It’s the reason why stick shifts are so limited in the US.

Talking about internal conflicts that disrupt their own oilfields. Saudi Arabia’s proxy war in Yemen doesn’t hurt Saudi exports.

If I were rich I’d absolutely buy new cars... more specifically I’d factory order them to my specific preferences. You get the full warranty and the pleasure of knowing that no one else wore out and farted in the car before you did.

Very true. The system already works for most automakers, so there is nothing to gain from suddenly splitting off the joint ventures.

Venezuela doesn’t have much effect on global prices. Their output has been steadily falling due to incompetence and mismanagement, even during the boom times.