S t r e t c h i n g To Buy More Than One Can Afford
hpmctorque
Member Posts: 4,600
It's perfectly legal. Some would say that it's the American way. Who could dispute that living above or beyond one's means was a major factor in getting us into the financial mess we're in? Most of us know someone - a relative, a friend, a co-worker - who bought or leased more car than he/she could afford. Maybe they even had it repossessed. That's when your car owns you.
Do you have an example you'd care to share? Why did they do it, and how did it play out? Did they learn a lesson?
Do you have an example you'd care to share? Why did they do it, and how did it play out? Did they learn a lesson?
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Living above the ability to pay is not the American Way. The minor example is the leasing of "over the top" vehicles including pickups.
The biggest example is the thousands of "wanna be's" who purchased real estate they couldn't afford, thus did not deserve, leading to massive Negatives in the housing section. And when they find themselves under water, they walk away from the mortage. The same agreement that they read, understood, & agreed to the terms, but now do not feel any remorse or guilt by walking away.
Have these scoflaws learned a lesson? I doubt it. :mad:
The classic $30,000 millionaire!!
lemko - in my book you are the one who really "nothing but the best for me" - you own those things you want. One day this girl is going to crash. You won't.
Of course she could marry a neurosurgeon or something and wreck my whole theory....
This is kinda sad, but whenever I hear that phrase, I think of National Lampoon's Vacation.
"REAL Tomato ketchup, Eddie?", Clark asks sarcastically at the cookout, when he sees the "ketchup" is nothing but squashed-up tomatoes.
"Nothin but the best!" Eddie replies, with a proud yet clueless smile.
And, I guess after leasing that Benz, buying the Prada handbag, maybe "real tomato ketchup" is all that chick can afford. Another word of advice to her... I don't know why they call it "Hamburger Helper when it does just fine by itself! I prefer it to Tuna Helper, myself!"
I haven't know anyone who took on a vehicle that was too much for their income, but I have known of a few guys with menial jobs driving cars like new STis and EVOs etc...but lazy trust funders don't count, I think.
These good-looking, well-dressed guys were at a club and met some very attractive girls. The girls asked what kind of cars these guys drove and they told the girls they took the bus. The girls immediately ditched the guys. The same girls later saw these same guys leave the club's parking lot, one in a Porsche 911 and the other in a Mercedes S63 AMG. Their jaws dropped. I guess these dudes wanted nothing to do with a bunch of materialistic gold diggers.
I am so cheap that I bought my Lexus only after one of the doctors in the neighborhood drove it for 10 years. And I am not really expecting it to help my image one way or another.
"About 1 in 4 needy U.S. families do not have a car, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. That's a serious handicap for the millions of Americans who don't have access to robust mass transit.
A nationwide survey of 353 people who bought cars with help from a nonprofit group called Ways to Work found that 72% reported an increase in income. Of those who were on public assistance when they acquired a car, 87% were no longer receiving it a few years later.
It's just a no-brainer that low-income families need cars.
If anything, the government has hindered the working poor's access to cars. The 2009 Cash-for-Clunkers program, for example, put 690,000 running vehicles in the junkyard, making the used cars that remained more expensive."
A hard road for the poor in need of cars (LA Times)
Give everyone a Tata and watch the unemployment rate drop (just think of all the new jobs that would be created for people fixing those rigs
The article seems to think that welfare lasts forever, but most people get cut off after four years since the reform legislation back in the late 90s.
The first two parts talked about the business side of the industry - the corporations (like JD Byrider) who have dozens or hundreds of lots across the country, and the financiers on Wall Street who look at the returns these companies are getting and encouraging them to expand even further.
The one think I took from the articles is that there are quite a number of non-profit organizations whose goal it is to get folks into their own transportation at low or no cost. There was a lady down South who bought a car for $1 so she could get to school to support her two young kids. She is now finishing a Masters in Nursing, is happily married and owes pretty much everything she's obtained to the car she got.
It's probably my sick sense of humor, but every time I hear their sponsorship on NPR and the blurb about helping children, I think their name is the Casey Anthony Foundation.
Annie E. Casey was the mother of Jim Casey who founded UPS. He had no children and started a foundation in his mother's honor (a widow in the 1890's/1900's raising 4 children).
According to aecf.org:
"The primary mission of the Foundation is to foster public policies, human-service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families. In pursuit of this goal, the Foundation makes grants that help states, cities and neighborhoods fashion more innovative, cost-effective responses to these needs."
Our thoughts were around getting 'everything' we wanted, rather than what we needed. However, we did spend half an hour on the motorway, trying to get the cruise control to work. So far, it still does NOT work!
While Matin played with the 'switches & knobs', I had my head lost in the driver's manual which genuinely is bigger than the local telephone directory!
When KIA delivered the car, it was a case of 'here's your spare, here's your ignition, here's the lever to fill up, here are your keys, enjoy your car!'
Oh, and don't forget, 'press this switch to fold your mirrors!'
Yeah, so maybe buying the top spec was not such a good idea if we can't even get the cruise control to work!
Will chat with KIA on Monday - no way for us to know if the cruise control simply does not work, or if it is so complicated to set it, that you need instructions on the windscreen!
Will keep you informed on how things work out!
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
Same here, and I'm finding that the older I get, the more adverse I am to spending large amounts of money on cars. Psychologically, it feels like the $7500 I spent to buy my Park Ave two years ago "hurt" more than the $22K that my Intrepid cost me, twelve years ago!
Yeah, but didn't you make payments on the 'Trep ($347.xx) and wrote one big check for the PA?
I'm guessing that if you decide to sell the PA to the roommate, dump the Silverado and get a newer DD you'll make payments, since everything you've been looking at has been between $15-25K.
Yep, the Trep was $2000 down and $347.66 (that number will probably stick in my mind for life) for 60 months. I was also able to psyche myself into justifying the Intrepid. I had just refinanced my mortgage a few months before, saving around $200 per month. And I estimated that, compared to the '89 Gran Fury police guzzler I had been driving, the Trep would save around $125-150 per month in fuel. So, right there, that just about covers the monthly payment. Of course, there were other factors, such as insurance on the Trep, and the fact that while the mortgage was ~$200/mo cheaper, that was also ~$200/mo less that I could write off on my taxes.
I was also still delivering pizzas back then, and in a good week, would make roughly that monthly payment. And I had the option to pick up more nights if I really needed to.
So, in the overall scheme of things, the Intrepid really didn't affect my monthly expenses, other than the initial hiccup of the $20000 down payment.
I'm guessing that if you decide to sell the PA to the roommate, dump the Silverado and get a newer DD you'll make payments, since everything you've been looking at has been between $15-25K.
Yeah, and I'm still procrastinating on that. I really don't want to get back into monthly payments. Plus, my automotive tastes have been all over the map lately. Heck, my most recent fixation is a 2006-2007 Lucerne V-8...even though initially one criteria was that whatever new car I get has to get better fuel economy than the Park Ave!
Oddly enough, I wouldn't mind having one so much these days. Maybe because there's no mortgage to worry about right now.
that could very well be. In my case, I've never felt the need to buy an expensive, flashy new car, but there are lots of old cars that I really love. But, I find that the older I get, I'm more and more content to look at them at car shows, rather than own them. It's kinda like being a grandparent I guess...you enjoy the grandkids for some good times, but then send them back to their parents who have to deal with all their problems!
Plus, I think I'm really starting to get into a wanna-be early retiree mindset, and a dollar saved is actually worth more than a dollar earned, because you don't pay tax, social security, and medicare on the dollar saved!
That's especially true with "classic" cars I think.
That's especially true with "classic" cars I think.
Back over the summer, when my '79 5th Ave blew its power steering pump, after I already put a lot of money into it, I had thought about retiring both it and my '79 New Yorker base model. I figured that even if I junked the damn things, they'd save me a lot of money in the long run, in insurance, registration, repairs/maintenance, etc.
But, a couple weeks ago, I paid a mechanic on the side to fix the power steering pump on his own time, in my garage, and after it was fixed, I gotta admit, it felt really good to slip behind the wheel of that beast again, and suddenly any desire to get rid of it, or the other NYer, totally slipped my mind.
But, who knows? As I get older, I might tire of them, eventually. I've decided, too, that my next old car is going to be a '61-62 Cadillac. That is, unless something else happens to catch my eye! :shades:
The way I see it now, I can have a car payment, or I can go on a couple trips per year, indulge myself in the old toy cars I like, and still have something left over.
From what I can see, if I moved to GA, I would need either a jacked up pickup, an Excursion sized SUV for off roading in the vinyl siding orchard where I'd live, or an old domestic boat on 26" wheels :shades:
My theory these days is my auto budget whether for a primary car or a primary and "fun" vehicle is that - I pay cash, and any extra $ to keep it on the road does not affect my lifestyle. That means the car does not affect if I go out to eat ... we do use coupons, wait for sales, and redeem all sorts of promotions. So there is no profligate spending.
But like I said - if it's even close to affecting my lifestyle, I don't buy it. So I've been putting off buying a "fun" 3rd vehicle for the family, and instead "invest" the tax and insurance savings in an extra cruise or vacation each year. I satisfy my car-art desire by looking at glossy photos and car shows. And I waxed my car on Sun. which I hadn't done for months, and I almost got that new car feel.
I do know one individual who drives prestigious cars and isn't a phony. He's a movie actor who must receive a pretty good monthly check from the Actors Guild or some such. At 85, a year younger than I am, he still acts in movies sometimes. He's American, born in Mexico, and pretty well known in Latin America. Currently he has a red F430 he bought new. He also wanted an open car so he bought a '95 Ferrari cab, but I don't know the model, plus a new VW wagon. He drives with gloves and a Ferrari cap, still races a newish French racing sailboat. Since I've known him (he lives across the street), he's bought and sold a new yellow Ferrari Marinello, a Mercedes S, and two new Boxster S's.
Even if I could, I wouldn't drive an expensive car during a time when 46 million Americans live below the poverty line.
After reading of the Honda Fit's surprising performance in Car & Driver's emergency lane change test, I bought a red 2011 Fit Sport 5mt, put on some 17" Kosei Racing wheels with 215/45 Kumho SPT's that were sitting in my garage from an '04 Civic, and ride with his Ferraris on our East County San Diego twisty roads. I'll leave it you to guess which car is faster.
This was just some meandering no one will read.
And especially if you buy gently used, you can get a nice highline car for the price of a more "normal" car or some dumb truck like you mention. Probably for most who post here, driving is part of the "experience" of life, and is worth the price of admission. You're lucky to have such a reasonable wife too
I don't imagine his kids are following that example.
His kids most certainly aren't following his example - especially his daughter Alice who is a hostile drunk who has been arrested for DUI umpteen times. That's the trouble. The man who worked hard and built an empire is gone only to have his spoiled entitled children squander it and stain his legacy. If Sam came back saw what became of Wal~Mart and his family, he would never stop throwing up.
Would twice be umpteen? IMHO, once is too much.
But it looks like she's at least done something with her money in terms of philantropy. She's quite different than some of today's young heiresses whose life revolves around shopping and celebrity.
BTW, Sam Walton stated in his autobioraphy that of his children Alice was the most like him but even more volatile than he.
Some of us remember "Sam's American Choice".