I just went on a uni exchange trip to San Francisco and I was shocked by how many people I talked to were financing new cars. So many people talked about owning a first car like it was this massive hurdle of debt they had to clear.
Is this just an American thing? On top of that, the cars the wanted were things like Golfs, Audi A4s and and Mazda 6s. What is with this obsession with people absolutely must having a current year model car and paying through the ass to get it?
A persons first car should just be a banger that is cheap and easy to maintain. Why did I see so many people talking about and DRIVING things like bmws and benzs when they’re only in university?
Its all about keeping up appearances. Which is very important if they want to land a job. You can't just be better qualified than the 178 other people who also applied, you have to be cooler and more politically correct to hire.
Ayden King
My first few cars were $400 dollar beaters. I think a lot of these kids are worried about the social implications of driving a normie car, like a 2001 civic. Maybe they just think that old cars are bad and won't be reliable. Try to remember those car stereotypes you may have followed before you were a car guy.
Anthony Barnes
Building credit is important. It affects everything from buying or renting a home to getting a job.
Aaron Lewis
I'm putting a spreadsheet together now comparing the total cost of ownership of various brand new vehicles (financed), slightly used (financed) or shit boxes. Taking into account taxes, depreciation, ins, gas, everything I can think of. The vehicles I'm looking at hold their value much better than most. The time range of useful life for a new or slightly used vehicle in my analysis is 15 years because that is my goal and what I've done in the past. Your time range might vary. But ballpark findings so far is the premium paid on a reliable vehicle is surprisingly less than a shitbox. It's about $9k cost of ownership in the first year for a 4Runner vs $4-5k for an older Civic, but it gets to be within about $1k by year five and at that point you need to be prepared to replace the shitbox if you haven't already.
Tl,dr I'll be buying a new vehicle (financed) when my shitbox dies and drive it until it dies.
Gabriel Ortiz
This. Because of rampant conservatard ideologies throughout America, Americans are basically slaves to this invisible and arbitrary figure called credit.
Liam Perez
How does it affect getting a job?
Asher Ward
If your employer sees your bad credit history, they won't hire you because they'll be afraid you won't be able to pay your taxes/union dues/401k/etc.
Ryan Wilson
They cannot afford a house, so in the eventuality of having to live in their car, the youngsters are splurging out. If you were homeless, would you want to sleep in an old shitbox that smells of twenty year old farts or a brand new car that smells of fresh machinery and German sweat?
Caleb Gonzalez
For €400 a month you can drive an S-Klasse Mercedes. And you get ta new model every 5 years.
Leasing makes sense. Financing a depreciating asset is stupid.
