boemMore Than 80 Percent Of Americans Can’t Afford New Cars
Even the economy d class cars in America are about 3/4 of my yearly pay.
Average lease right now is about $725/mo
My first ever apartment that I paid for all by myself cost 550 in bum fuck Georgia 15 years ago I’m pretty sure it’s still the nicest and largest apt I’ve ever had. I can only imagine what it costs now when this glorified hallway I live in now is 1850
My last house was $1300/mo, which was considered high for my area. Now I’m paying $2500/mo for a place that’s falling apart.
I paid $550 in rent for a 550sqft apartment in a nice neighborhood in a midsize southern city just 6 years ago. Heard from a friend that’s still there that new signups for the same place cost $1100 now.
We’re careening towards the tipping point where the commute to my area to work will make it not worth it.
Jobs around here pay $16-18/hr and I have a couple coworkers who drive 1hr20m each way for that $16
Meanwhile rent anywhere near here is $1600/mo
It’s already almost unjustifiable for people to commute to this area to work, and you can’t live around here on the wages these places offer, so everyone is desperately hiring.
These retail companies are going to fold like a house of fucking cards. And honestly they fucking deserve it. These big chains enjoyed decades of insane profits without raising wages at all, now they have to raise wages for people to even exist and they’re still raising prices on goods to offset their new wage expenditures.
God forbid these corporate subhumans sacrifice 1% of their profits each year so that the entire economy doesn’t collapse.
Assuming that’s about a 60 mile commute and they average 30 miles per gallon, that means it costs your friends 1/8th of their income just to drive to work.
2 gals x $4/gallon = $16. That’s an hour of their eight hour shift that they have to work just to be able to work.
Yet the most popular new cars sold are V8s that weigh 2.5 tonnes and are the size and shape of a brick shithouse. In this country, you can’t even buy a small, economical hatchback new anymore, even if you had the money.
Fuel costs in the 1970s were never anymore than 40¢/Litre, yet that was the “fuel crisis” and the driving force behind econo-boxes. Now at $2.20/Litre, Ford of Australia only sell two whopping big utes, a van, and three ugly SUVs.
Thank the EPA for that, not consumers.
So many corporations are about to start losing money in their pursuit of being greedy and fucking us over for more money. Like at this point I have enough money for food. That’s mostly it.
BappityI have a friend in America who has to take 2-3 jobs just to be able to afford rent and basic living. It’s shocking that things have gotten to that point
MontaggeIt's been that way since I graduated highschool back in the early 2000s. It just been getting worse since then.
GhostalmediaMarketplace on NPR yesterday was boasting about how job creation was outpacing population growth, and they claimed that the US was employing more people.
My ass was thinking “that logic only works if it’s one person, one job. And that isn’t the case for many Americans these days.”
Yep, Biden is making a huge mistake by leaning into the whole ‘actually, the economy is great according to these indicators we’ve picked!’. People know better from personal experience.
Landrin201The thing is that according to liberal ideas, the economy IS doing great.
Anyone to the left of Joe Biden recognizes that it isn’t, but liberals are the majority of the democratic party. To them the “traditional” economic markers are the most important things to track, and those numbers all look good.
“Liberal” economic ideas have nothing to do with the living conditions of the average person, they have everything to do with the capitalist class being happy and “opportunity” being available to the working class. That’s why the economy in the 1910s could be described as healthy even though people were literally forced to live in tenement houses and were being locked into factories. That’s also why many liberal economists say that it’s possible for unemployment to get too low, because apparently that’s considered bad.
The question Joe Biden is answering when he says the economy is doing well is “are the capitalists happy and continuing to expand capitalism to extract as much wealth as possible from the working class,” and right now that answer is clearly yes.
Liberals don’t want employment to get too low, because that would give the working class actual negotiating power over working conditions without even having the need for unions.
I think that sentiment is shared by politicians on both sides of the aisle. Just look at all the smear articles from the last few years claiming workers are greedy and ultimately the problem.
Yeah, Republicans are not even pretending to care about workers. I wasn’t implying they’re better in any aspect.
And Trump is taking advantage of this. Motherfucker has zero shame in lying to workers, telling them that his presidency will make their lives better, and then never say how that will happen. His platform is “trust me, I’m a rich guy.”
Uranium3006the problem with capitalism is eventually you run out of poor people's money
InfynisThat’s certainly the problem I’m having
BizarrolandMy question is, what is the advantage of buying a brand new car? It loses 20% of its value when they hand you the keys.
I don't know about you people but I can't afford to take a $10,000 hit on a $50,000 purchase the instant I make the purchase, and anyone who can afford that isn't buying a $50,000 car
Semi-Hemi-DemigodI bought a car that was 6 years old three years ago because it was 30% of the price of a brand new car end first major service is due. If it's too much I'll just sell it and buy another used car and have a decent trade for it. My father taught me this method from his father before him, and the only time I deviated from it the car was recalled due to dieselgate.
Unless your get certified pre owned with a full warranty, the warranty on a new car is quite valued in my eyes.
I’ve had two different bought new cars with their original warranties that have both needed major work done just before or right after the warranty expired (just after was handled anyways).
But that was also when new car prices were much more reasonable.
I bought a new car earlier this year. I got a Toyota. I intend on being its only owner (I will drive it until it is totaled). With the reliability I expect to get out of the car, that means I could be driving it for 15-20 years if I treat it right. Since I figure I’m going to be owning it that long 1) I wanted to get a specific configuration that I like 2) I was okay with spending a little bit extra (when you consider the intended lifetime of the car) to get it brand new.
Since I don’t ever plan on reselling it, I don’t care about the value of the car decreasing after I buy it personally.
Buying used is just a better deal all around. The amount of 2 year old sub 20k mile cars available is huge and that’s such a small amount of their life. Most anything can last to about 150k miles these days. You can get even more out of them, but bigger maintenance costs are going to be more likely.
There weren’t even any new cars 2 years ago
My current main driver is a 2020 Malibu. It's fast, it's sporty, it gets great fuel mileage, and I bought it secondhand. I let somebody else put the first 30,000 miles on the car and in exchange for that I paid like $12,000 less than the cost of a brand new one.
It was also like a year and a half old when I got it so it wasn't even that old of a car. This is the first car I've ever had payments on, all of my other cars were bought with cash, and I still have the pickup that I got in 2008 in the middle of the crisis for $3,000 cash with 350,000 miles on the odometer and she runs great.
The only reason I don't drive the pickup instead of this car is because it is slow and clunky and doesn't get good fuel mileage and it's an old beat-up pickup truck.
I also have an old jeep that is a project car that I'm working on. Paid cash for it, it cranks and runs.
That is accounting value and not real life resale value. If you could buy a car with 500 miles for 20% of the price, no one would buy new cars
They are out there, but few and far between. I’ve bought 3 dealer loaners of the previous years model year with an average mileage around 5k. 2 of them were a while ago. The most recent was a 3 row KIA sorrento and it was nearly 30% off MSRP. Hard to find those kind of deals though, and warranties are shorter.
Brand new previous year models go on sale for that cheap every year when new models are released. If you want a killer deal on a brand new car, start looking at the handful of 2023 models still sitting on lots now that 2024 models are out.
The only benefit I can think of is being able to get something with all the features (and none of the pointless add-ons) that you want. Unfortunately 99% of dealers will want you to buy from the lot, which negates that pretty effectively.
watsonThey all also come with touchscreen infotainment systems and track everything you do. I’ll sell you a 2023 Subaru Legacy. I’m looking to buy something pre-2010.
I’ve been looking to replace my car this year. The used cars I’m looking at (2-3 years old) are almost as expensive as the new cars. Maybe I will save $5000-7000 on it. So why buy a used car with dubious history?
Ember UshiThis is something I ask frequently. Who’s buying 2 or 3 year old used cars? If the previous owner didn’t like them after 2 years why will you?
The 10 year old used cars for $3000 total is where it’s at.
So for GM cars, they have a standard 3 year or 36,000 mile warranty. People would trade in their cars when the warranty expires. They’re might not be anything wrong with it, but they have the income to buy another new car and don’t want to deal with out of warranty repairs.
Tons of those 2-3 year used cars were a lease. It’s possible to find great deals with them.
Ever since covid it’s made sense most of the time to buy brand new for exactly the reason you state. I sure wouldn’t buy a 2-3 year old car to save 10%. If someone treated it poorly it may require expensive repairs or not last as long.
I can’t afford a used car either so I’m driving this Subaru until it’s unrepairabe. It’s nearly old enough to vote.
JaysynMy Subaru will likely outlast me anyhow.
squibletPersonally I can't handle all the chemicals and death wax in a new car. I rented a nearly brand new Nissan, and the agent acted like "wow, you're lucky, this one only has 400 miles!" Oh... great... yep, had to have the windows down the whole time and basically drive with my head out the window.
Yes we can! Just get it at 15% apr over 96 months. What’s the problem?
Why don’t these people just make more money!?
The economy sure is doing well /s
You cant afford a new house. You cant afford a new car. Healthcare costs are the single largest cause of bankrupcy and financial strain is the single largest cause of divorce. But at least the billionaires are thriving.
seaQueueMy Accord is old enough to vote and I’ll be driving it until it dies.
sigmaklimgrindsetHey, my Accord could start high school! Congrats to us 🤡
0110010001100010I’ve always driven cars until they die…or in the case of my 2007 Accord a my son totals it. 😑 I do as much of my own work as possible too.
I truly don’t get the point of getting a new car just to get a new car.
Not trying to tell you how to live your life, I totally understand the mentality, but for me it was a revolutionary jump in technology.
From having to drive in stop and go traffic to just letting the car do it has been magical for me. I can now do a 6+ hour drive and no longer be absolutely wrecked at the end. Not that I do it often, but it’s usually for a family thing or a vacation, so both things that I kinda want to be cognisant for.
That plus all the safety stuff like a backup camera, the beeping when getting close to stuff, etc. has made my driving life so much better
There are few things that have changed my life overnight, but a (much, much) newer car with updated tech was totally one of them.
I guess for me it doesn’t matter. I work 100% from home and drive very, very little. I keep an SUV for hardware store trips and an occasional foray out for lunch (or family vacation). That’s still a 2015 Honda Pilot so not exactly new, lol. Wife drives a small Focus and my son has a Mazda3.
Maybe if I was driving hours a day on the regular it would matter. Though honestly I’m not sure it would. It’s a method of transportation, not the latest smartphone. I may be in the minority with that.
I will add, not sure it’s relevant, that I’m in the percentage that would have no problem purchasing a new car. Depending on the price-point I may even be able to pay cash. Again though, I don’t need brand-new vehicles.
Totally fair, cars are more and more like smartphones these days…with all the good and bad that comes with it!
My car is old enough to have kids my age, but at least I’ll never have to take it to a mechanic. No computers means I can do everything from valve timing to gearbox rebuilds myself, and parts are dirt cheap because they’re being thrown out all the time.
I’m in the market for a work truck right now, and it ain’t pretty.
“Eat the rich” is honestly where we’re headed. And I don’t mean literally eat I mean TAKE THEIR WEALTH.
Until billionaires are made illegal, and “real estate investment” (i.e. predatory price gouging on homes/apartments) is made illegal, everything is gonna continue getting more fucked. It’s too little too late though, greed has destroyed our planet. We’ve got front row seats to the downturn of human civilization.
I’m stocking up on canned food, and I’ve never been the doomsday prepper type. Honestly I think we’re about to enter a protracted global depression that makes ‘08 look like a speedbump.
The immigrant crisis around the globe is also at a tipping point. Climate change and corporate greed have fucked many places in the world out of habitability.
Immigrants aren’t going to stop coming because the alternative is a slow and miserable death or the threat of cartel governments. Now western countries don’t want to take care of them and don’t want to deal with them at all, because immigrants demand resources and we need all that money to hide in congress’ ratholes.
Well if we hadn’t fucking destroyed the planet in the blink of an eye maybe they wouldn’t all need to come to europe. If we hadn’t waged this stupid fucking war on drugs then maybe south americans would be able to find opportunity and not need to flee cartel zones for fear of their entire village being beheaded and dumped in a pit.
America and Europe are only beginning to reap what we’ve sown over the last 50 years and we already want to throw in the towel.
Shit is going to get far worse, everywhere, imminently.
Gsus4Maybe it will get worse in the future, but what resources do immigrants require? They don’t need nannies or childcare or schooling…they just work, consume and pay taxes like everyone else. Has this ever been a problem for the US? Up to the 1930s, the US had an immigration of over 11% of population, the same as it’s been since the 2000s. migrationpolicy.org/…/immigrant-population-over-t…
I won’t even mention the EU, we’re in demographic suicide here xP
'08 never actually ran its course. They kicked the can in the hopes they would be able to not have it actually bear its foul fruit.
The derivates market is overleveraged, some entities over 30X. They are holding the hot potato and hoping it will cool off as they hold a blowtorch to it, as a manner of business.
CALIGVLAAnd I don’t mean literally eat I mean TAKE THEIR WEALTH.
Why not both?
Because people who scream eat the rich, also scream ban firearms…you need those to be able to eat the rich.
Pitchforks and torches work well enough. They’re more fun also. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You're confusing liberals and leftists