You’d also be an idiot not to take 0% for 84 months, as is being offered now.

None of this surprises me. My brother and sister-in-law are typical, uneducated, working poor. They have two full-size Chevy trucks that they bought used, on 6yr loans (and overpaid for at a dealership). And because they have shitty credit (of course), even with my Mother co-signing they are paying like 12% interest.

I wonder if one of the eventual effects of this pandemic will be a decrease in the average price of a vehicle. I can’t help but think that people might actually not be ok with a $35k car for the next couple years.

Being upside-down is only an issue if you don’t have the funds to cover the negative equity. If you’re getting <1% interest and have healthy savings, you should put the minimum amount down and get the maximum term, i.e. maximize upside-downness.

I think that you are right about that.

So I can do my part by taking out a second car loan at like 48 month to help lower the average, right?

Shitty boomer David Ramsey advice. I’m not going to tie up $12k in some used car if my credit union will finance it at 2.75%.

Hi, wasn’t your feature piece on a very very expensive Audi just yesterday?

0% for 6 years for us. I would have been crazy NOT to take it. If anybody wants to loan me that much money with no interest for 72 months then I’ll be 100% all over that 😀

Yes, because if his mom comes up positive he’s been exposed, and therefore all of us have, too. You have to treat this shit like the plague, if anyone on the chain is exposed to it everyone is, and we are not in the business of killing our customers.

To be honest, I spent a lot of time wondering the same thing, but I assumed that the reason would be a lack of business or a government-mandated shutdown. We were down about 50% overall, but it was still worth staying open.

Yeah, god forbid they actually act like responsible corporate “citizens” by paying their workers a decent wage, setting aside a little money for a rainy day, and not greedily lapping up huge tax cuts and spending all the money on stock buybacks to artificially inflate their value to keep Wall Street happy.

That sucks, sorry to hear. Hopefully not closed for good.

I could only imagine all the childish articles that would be written about “MANUFACTURE X, THE OVERLORD CORPORATE ASSHOLES, HAVE $XBILLION ON HAND BUT CONTINUE TO UNDERPAY THEIR AMAZING WORKERS” etc if these companies actually did pocket tons of money year after year. Is there a world where auto unions don’t endlessly…

Neutral: As of today I am unemployed, because the restaurant I’ve worked at for 25 years is closed thanks to the stupidest kid that ever walked the Earth. Apparently his mother wasn’t feeling well, and he offhandedly told one of his coworkers that she was being tested for Coronavirus, like it was no big deal. It never…

I feel ya.

As every vehicle I own (10 vehicles) is incredibly fuel efficient, idling them for an hour has a negligible impact on fuel level. We’re talking a fleet of four smart fortwos and a handful of motorcycles here. And of course, I daily a few of them on a rotation, so only the garage queens and summer toys need batteries…

You're right. Even motorcycles will top up their batteries in about an hour. Instead of having ten battery tenders I just run my vehicles for an hour once or twice a month. Always does the trick.

The vehicle charging system is not programmed for max charge rate and won’t use every extra electron to charge the battery. It is programmed to charge the battery in the most gentle, get the job done so we can start again, but be careful to not damage the battery so we have warranty costs, kind of way.