Posted on 10/11/2016 10:09:56 AM PDT by Brilliant
Of course now they make cars virtually impossible to maintain without taking them to the shop. So nobody wants to be a fixer-upper anymore.
I grew up in the time frame where families went from having one car to having two cars.
Pickups used to just be for farmers and carpenters.
They became the choice for the second vehicle for the family.
They were versatile. They lasted a long time. They let Dad think he was a cowboy.
I have recently been looking at new vehicles and I honestly don’t know how many people can afford one.
Another change has been the standardization of what used to be luxury accessories.
Try finding a vehicle without an automatic transmission or air conditioning or power door locks.
Hard to find them.
s/b Buy a fixer-upper.
Kind of like houses, hard to find a good 1500 sq foot house, it’s a McMansion or nothing.
You can get a new mustang for close to 20k. For 36k I got my fully loaded gt with performance package.
I have a 2011 V6 premium Mustang 6 speed stick. I have an aftermarket CAI that puts it around 325 HP at the flywheel. It gets 30MPG on the highway. I test drove a 2015 Ecoboost and a 2016 GT. I own mine outright. Couldn’t find a reason to trade it in for a payment.
Actually, If you invest in a code reader you can pretty much repair anything.
OFF TOPIC: I live 12 miles west of Gainesville.
Yep.
It’s hard for a young person to justify buying a new Mustang.
The Mustang is a great car, just hard for them to justify getting one.
The ones I really don’t understand are the guys paying over $100,000 for an old muscle car.
The new Mustang is a much better vehicle than the 68 Fastback, but guys will spend tons of money to have that 68 sitting in their garage.
I personally don’t get it.
It sort of needs to be to get the price down. :)
Dad worked for GM.
I remember those days of temporary layoffs. They were not fun when you have kids to take care of.
Yes, 72 months. That’s another crazy thing.
I frequent a few of the classic auction sites. They’ve convinced themselves that certain cars are “investment grade.” They’ve been able to turn around and sell them for more in a year, for several years now. But, collector cars go through peaks just like everything else. Two-seater Thunderbirds, for instance. They were sky-high a decade ago, now you can get a pretty nice one in the twenties. There’s a generational aspect to the peaks and valleys, too. Collector cars peak as the people who remember them and always wanted them reach their peak earning years, then the price falls off as younger people don’t quite have the same level of interest.
1. It’s a passion.
2. You have a unique vehicle.
3. It may be worth more in the future.
I was just going to say that. I am so pissed that my being responsible and trying to live frugally and save money for retirement is going to be punished (assuming they don't take my 401k just because).
He was a terrible driver. Even worse when his wife was in the car with him!
He was a WW1 vet. Lived to 103.
When he was about to turn 100, I asked him how it felt, and he said, “It’s not 100 I’m worried about. It’s 101. That’s when my drivers license expires.”
(And got it renewed when a friend pulled some strings for him! Eventually his wife had his nephew come and take the car away, without telling him, and he kept looking for the car in the parking lot of the retirement community. He knew he parked it somewhere!)
In my little city, they are building some small houses.
I’m talking two bedrooms, one bath, single story houses.
I guess the thinking is that young people will buy them to try and get equity and tax breaks.
Honestly, that’s pretty much what the wife and I are looking to move into.
But in a warmer area.
I test drove the GT Blackout addition. It was $41K. Beautiful car. The Ecoboost was $35K. The V6’s go for around $22, but Ford decided you can’t get any options on the V6. The V6 is better than the Ecoboost, but Ford wants you to buy a decked out Ecoboost because they make more money on them.
The interior is a little more “polished” than my 2011 and there were some options, like a backup camera, but other than that, I couldn’t justify the payment.
Engine power improvements in recent years, more crowded roads, leaves a world whereby a “muscle” coupe or convertible is not very practical, or easy to enjoy.
Smaller sporty SUVs, crossovers, wagons are the trend in SoCal, the automotive trend capital of the US. (Most automakers have design studios here)
when i got into driving in the mid 70s 100 thou was done
Here, there’s a smattering of new construction that are entry-level 3 bedroom, two bath vinyl ranches, but most of the construction is 3,000 sf and over, McMansions again, not sure who’s confident enough to be buying them. The economy here hasn’t recovered to the extent that some other areas have, and population is actually declining slightly unlike other areas of North Carolina.
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