New Ford F-150 STX: $42k
Posted on 06/07/2024 11:36:29 AM PDT by karpov
It’s not just the political class. America’s fleet of cars and trucks is also getting long in the tooth. Last month a study by S&P Global Mobility reported the average age of vehicles in the U.S. was 12.6 years, up more than 14 months since 2014. Singling out passenger cars, the number jumps to a geriatric 14 years.
In the past, the average-age statistic was taken as a sign of transportation’s burden on household budgets. Those burdens remain near all-time highs. The average transaction price of a new vehicle is currently hovering around $47,000. While inflation and interest rates are backing away from recent highs, insurance premiums have soared by double digits in the past year.
Many buyers are now surfing on waves of vehicle depreciation, picking up used and off-lease cars and trucks still under warranty for thousands less than new. That’s smart. Your Dutch uncle approves. But lately another, stranger element is showing up in the numbers: a motivated belief among consumers that automakers’ latest and greatest offerings—whether powered by gasoline, batteries or a hybrid system—are inferior to the products they are replacing.
That’s different. Americans have been trained from a young age that the New is better than Old, especially coming from the car industry, the people who brought you tail fins, planned obsolescence and generous trade-in allowances. Who are these wild-eyed dissidents?
In fact, new-car deniers form a broad coalition of the unpersuaded. Some fear that new, digitally connected vehicles could expose their personal information to the Chinese—or worse, to their insurance agencies. Other modern marvels people seem eager to avoid include stop/start cycling systems, which shut off engines to save fuel when vehicles are stationary, now all but mandatory in new vehicles; continuously variable transmissions (CVTs), commonly found in compact vehicles with small-displacement engines
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
And now GM and Ford don’t even make sedans (according to what I’ve read).
2024 Corvette E-Ray is hybrid. I’m pretty sure Lambo has or is developing one, too.
“I won’t buy a non ICE in my lifetime if I have the choice.”
A hybrid has an ICE. The ICE CRV I had reserved wasn’t on the lot so Budget gave me the hybrid. Averaged 38 mpg for the week of mixed driving.
I can live with a hybrid though.
“So everyone will get a hybrid unless you’re buying a corvette or a Lamborghini”.
Lambo is designated HPEV, High Performance Electrified Vehicle. Rated at over 1000 hp.
Those modules are what make a lot of the 90s and newer automotive technologies possible and actually make the cars more reliable and easier to troubleshoot and maintain. If not for the CAN BUS that those modules communicate through, the huge bundles of wiring would make it difficult if not impossible to trace and troubleshoot problems, incredibly heavy and on the whole less reliable. Because of the CAN BUS you can plug a diagnostic computer in and figure out most of the problems in the system. If a failing module is taking down the whole car, a good diagnostician can quickly isolate and identify the cause.
The downside is that because those modules are so specialized, and their function is difficult and expensive to copy or duplicate they will ultimately doom the car as it gets older. After a few years the only way to get a replacement for a bad module is from the used or reconditioned parts market. As those markets dry up over the years, and especially for lower production run cars, you ultimately will not be able to keep the car going at any reasonable cost. That said, my cars range from 16 to 32 years old and I still have been able to get any module part I need.
I am not opposed hybrids, but the environmentalist lobby does not like them. They are also a lot more complicated and expensive due to the duplication of powertrain functions for the two modes of operation. I do believe that to have any possibility of making these new economy standards, automakers’ fleets will have to be all hybrids and pure electric.
I am 69 and just leased a brand new SUV for $151 a month.
We’re not going to be able to stop the environmentalist lobby. The best we can do is to vote for Trump. That’ll buy us four years, then what? Even buying a hybrid is going to be more expensive. But that is what the American people voted for. We are serious about saving Earth.
Go jerk off to an oversized electric golf cart
What is it and insurance?
“No One Wants a New Car Now. Here’s Why.”
2024 US sales predicted to be almost 16 million ...
Had another person ask me last week if my car was for sale——IT IS NOT.
Truck is 49 years old.
Car is 46 years old.
The average transaction price of a new vehicle is currently hovering around $47,000.
********
A new pickup truck is $70,000.00.
New Ford F-150 STX: $42k
on many cars yes, on others you have to take it to the dealer and they have to program the computer to give it what you might want.
That would not affect me because I can do car computers and like to mess with them, but I know lots of people who don’t and would never spend money on proper tools.
Cvt transmissions suck
Timing belts suck.
Both are designed to fail spectacularly or require expensive replacements to keep the car running.
Avoid both if you can
That’s very true - I don’t know anything other than what the article says: “which shut off engines to save fuel when vehicles are stationary.” I mean, driving a 20-year-old car, I don’t have a clue about a lot of things. lol
The price of new ICE vehicles reflects the loss the manufacturers take on EVs. EV cost shifting...you’re paying for someone else’s car too.
Per GM:
System is not activated until engine warms up.
System is not activated till you reach 15 mph after last stop.
System is disabled if engine is needed for AC.
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