nairb

Buying cars

I hate buying cars. You always feel like your getting ripped off, even when you do all the research in the world. I can't think of another item that we purchase that costs so much and is worth so little just a few years down the road. In fact its worth drops the moment that first wheel leaves the lot. I actually wonder if the worth drops before the pen is lifted from the gigantic loan you just took out to pay for such a car.

Don't you love hearing Bill Gates analogy of cars and computers? I don't either. While it's true I use a computer far more than I do a car, if it crashes no one dies. I know it may feel like it, but they don't. I actually expect to buy a new computer every few years to keep up with technology. This is not how I feel about cars. I want to drive them into the ground. Before buying our last two cars our previous cars had 170,000 and 145,000 miles on them. I still have the later car and continue to drive it some. Unfortunately, depending on the nature of the break-down, I now consider a car a throw-away similar to a computer. Our Explorer spawned transmission troubles a couple of years ago just before we got the van. We spent over $3000 to get the transmission repaired. We barely got it home before the transmission flaked out again. I know we should have taken it back. Instead I asked my wife to meet me at the dealer. If we were lucky the transmission would be flakey as they drove it to the back of the lots for valuation. It didn't, we got a decent price for it and traded it in on the van.

You know our parents paid less for their houses than we do for our cars and I am not talking about buying a Hummer, just a regular new car.

posted by nairb @ 8:37 AM