Conservatives believe that only people who deserve them have rights. And it should be “obvious” who those people are.
They’re still at least 10x overvalued.
You still hear plenty of Tesla bros saying they are a battery/AI company and the car is just their proof of concept/testing ground. I think that was also part of their value - that one day we would all being using Telsa robots/AI for everything and powering our homes with solar and Telsa batteries (plus taking the hyperloop to work).
I feel like a big part of the allure of Tesla’s was that they retained their value (and often could be sold for more than the purchase price). If the secondary market is dumping, I think it’s going to really hurt sales for new Teslas.
I never realized how different my upbringing and mindset was until I moved out of the midwest to the west coast.
Apparently, driving cars until the wheels fall off and/or the engine falls out isn’t really a thing out here, and things like the resale value of a car is something people actually pay attention to?
It still boggles my mind that people just get a new car every few years even when their existing one is perfectly serviceable.
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When you spend four hours a day on your car, you’d like it to be comfortable and reliable.
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If you read some of the Tesla boards, lots of them are upgrading every two years or so. It definitely makes it easier to do so, when you can resell your used car for as much as you paid for it.
Why get a new car that you have to break in when you’ve got a perfectly fine car that you’ve molded to fit your body and lifestyle?
Just feels like a superficial desire for status symbols and conspicuous consumption.
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That would be like a 3x multiple!
Australian guy living in a city here. I don’t understand the car upgrade thing either.
Over the past 15 years since I have had my licence I think I have had 3 cars that were really mine. I did get my licence using a really old manual hatch that I borrowed for 12 months.
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2007: Manual/stick learning car I got as a gift from my parents for getting to uni that was ~10 years old when I got it. CD player!!! Car eventually began to fall apart and had too many reliability issues which is a concern when driving 250km/150 miles to visit family.
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2012: a 2003 auto that was actually my Mums when she upgraded. CD player!!! still the height of entertainment. That lasted to approx 2020 before similar issues with regards to reliability.
Since then became a one car household with the girlfriend. Now ex, now in the market to buy again, but since I work fly in fly out at a mine site, I am rarely home and don’t drive that much so won’t be looking for anything to fancy. Will likely go another 5-8 year old second hand car for not much.
I don’t understand these people upgrading every 18-24 months.
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Australian and definitely this. The trading in shit just seems like an American thing to me.
I’m only on my second car (had to sell the first when I moved countries) but I reckon I’ll take the same approach as with phones.
Buy something good with all the features you want so you love it. Dont look at anything else until you’ve driven/used to old one into the ground… repeat.
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I think a lot of the people who trade in are leasing.
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Some folks aren’t particularly keen on frequent breakdowns and the time/hassle involved in fixing stuff all the time. Especially since no car = can’t get to work.
That isn’t to say most people replace every 12-18 months, that’s definitely a pretty extreme cadence. But every 5 or 6 years is standard where I am, instead of waiting until you experience enough costly failures that you can’t take it anymore.
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Had one reliable Honda Civic I drove for 15 years in SolCal. Now going on year seven of the used car I paid about $5000 cash for in Japan.
That said, starting to feel like an upgrade would be nice at this stage of my life.
Cars used to be made to wear out more quickly. It made some sense to trade-in your old car for a new one every couple of years before it dropped too much in value. Industry did what it could to encourage it. It became part of the culture.
It didn’t really work on me though. My last two cars I bought new and cumulatively they lasted over 35 years. I may never buy another one.
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If you borrow
5 years of payment, low maintenance
Then ~3 years of moderate maintenance, no payment
After that it’s high maintenance eventually combined with unreliability.
Obv varies by car and how you use it. I did the hold until it croaked for along time. I’m somewhere in the middle now.
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In most of North America no car = can’t get to anything. By design all if life is car dependent.