There is some wisdom here, but for me driving to and from work, it is a minimum of 25 miles, lasting about 40 minutes per day. That is 200 minutes per standard a week, not including any other driving. Over 50 weeks, that is 10,000 hours, or the equivalent 7 24-hour days of driving, not including other driving around town, road trips, etc. There is something to be said for good seats, ride quality, safety, and a few bells and whistles to make that time more enjoyable if not less unhealthy. Not at the expense of financial security, and certainly not at the expense of having to work years longer.
I commute a good distance. When it’s time for a new commute car I find the cheapest new car in the United States on autotrader and confirm they will sell it to me at that price, then I ask dealers in Iowa if they are willing to match. My last two commute cars cost less that $20,000 combined.
I suppose you could say that about anything in life. One needs to spend one's money on something.
Our RAV4 does that. You can turn it off. I do like the adaptive cruise on interstates. Only down side is sometimes I look down and realize I am going slower than I want because I settled into the right lane just going with flow.
True, but personal finance seem to be some so many people are clueless over. If people saw a spread sheet of what $200 a month in an index fund would do over 40 years they would shit and possible scale down vehicle.
I would mostly agree with this, but you do not know what their spouses make or if they have other sources of wealth. For example, I make many multiples more per year than my wife but she drives a nice car. But, if the family is pay check to pay check, agreed.
You are preaching to the choir on that. I keep a massive Excel workbook with a spreadsheet for everything imaginable. I not only have the full amortization schedule for our current mortgage, but also a reality check worksheet amortizing a mortgage with a different interest rate and principal amount, and adjusting for higher property taxes. I could do the same thing where we would pay cash for a new house instead of putting/keeping those funds in the market. Our current PITI is only about 6% of our income, so whenever I get wanderlust on zillow I run the numbers to remind myself the staggering sums at stake when you compound it monthly over the years. That truly could be a difference of about a decade of projected retirement date. Maybe more. We've stayed intentionally relatively modest in our lifestyle with this in mind.
To say the least, vehicle choices are great places to look when finances are not where a couple wants them to be.
A transmission replacement costs less than a years' worth of new truck payments. AINEC.
The Chevy Vega was once Motor Trend's Car of the Year. Bought one. Didn't turn out well...
Their resale value is high because the initial price is high. The SIL's Tundra turned out to have rusting issues and it was the roughest riding truck I've ever rode in. He's got a Titan now, much better appointed, ride and cost...
I’m not sure of the trim level of the Mazda. We have the adventure level of the Toyota. I’m sure it’s personal preference. I didn’t like any of the drivers assistance stuff in the Mazda. The lane keeping and the nav was awful. Cruise control wasn’t user friendly. Perhaps if I’d been in it longer my opinion would change. The sound system wasn’t nearly as good either.
To be fair, the nav in almost everything is terrible, and one is much better off using waze through car play. I think it is what you are used to on the other stuff (other than stereo quality). We have had a couple of 4runners when we visited my parents and I didn't like how everything related to cruise control, the stereo, etc. was set up.
I get what you’re trying to say here. You said many people. We just bought a brand new 70k truck. We save a lot for retirement. Basically 25%. I hate it when people say that to me. I’m 58 years old. I want a truck to pull the 5th wheel I also want . I work hard and I can afford it. Leave me alone.
I would agree that if it were preventing you from avoiding a collision because you didn't signal then that would be a problem.
