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 ...
Under Bi-dumb’s economy I can’t afford to get rid of my old beat up 2003 Ford and get something nice.
They’re too damn expensive that’s why.
Answer: make cars people want to buy. I know it’s a revolutionary concept , but there is the answer for automakers everywhere.
I can afford a new car but no thanks. I’m still driving my 2004 Mazda B2300 with 5-speed manual tranny 4 cylinder truck with only 18k miles. It still had the original Continental tires which were really dangerous when I got it. Bought it in 2019 for $2,000 through the old guy grape vine. I was going to flip it but totalled my ‘08 F250 so I’ve been driving it ever since.
Everywhere I go people try to buy that truck from me.
“some corporate/Unionized greed has ruined the industry.”
Everybody tries to make money, that’s not greed. Money isn’t a zero-sum game, there’s plenty for everyone and anyone can produce unlimited amounts of it. Car companies can build whatever they like, I don’t have to buy.
“Poor people are poor because they live like they are rich, and rich people are rich because they live like they are poor.”
-PJ
Lol. My 85 year old father in-law took his newish Honda car to some shop and they told him to “get that thing out of here!”
I think it’s a hybrid. Not sure
“Tacoma came with a 12 YEAR powertrain warrantee “
Lexus dealer was advertising a lifetime warranty.
Require All scheduled maintenance to be performed and at a Lexus dealer.
I have a 2001 VW Golf with under 60K miles on her. A few dents and scratches, but she gets me where I want to go. She’s my ‘Summer Car,’ but she’s currently on pasture awaiting brake parts - no supply chain issues. Yay!
I’m sure in the coming years I’ll be giving her a number of new parts, but she’s a gem. :)
What do I win? LOL!
I hear you with those German vehicles and their maintenance costs.
I spent a good amount of time in Germany when I was active Army, and I bought a nice new BMW 3 series in 2004 in Germany.
It felt like buying a Ford in the US...both in price and maintaining it while in Germany.
But when I brought it back to the states, holy crap, oil changes, tire replacement, basic maintenance, etc... went from reasonable to stupid really quick in terms of price.
I love BMWs, but I wont own another one in the States because of this regardless of how good the deal is.
I’m about to turn 70 and I can’t find anything I like more than my 19 year old Mustang. My wife says it’s my mistress because if I spend $1,000 on it I have to spend $2,000 on my wife.
“Most are not even practical, useful or desirable. More of a nuisance than a luxury or even benefit.”
Which ones?
“yes, they could make them much better.”
How?
For me it was just oil changes at a Toyota dealer to keep the warrantee up.
The little weasel slips his agenda in there.
Yep, exactly right.
Even some of the “human factors engineering” (i.e., user interface) on the ten year old Mercedes are exceedingly stupid. To change the brightness of the dash lights you have to use the arrows and “enter” button on the steering wheel to navigate about five layers deep in the commands. Then you have four or five fixed brightness levels. My wife likes bright dash lights, I like them dim. So we are BOTH constantly having to remember the awful, arcane menu structure to change the lights. Of course, you have to take your eyes off the road to hit the very tiny arrow buttons on the steering wheel.
In the old days, you grabbed the push/pull light switch and rotated it. You could do it by touch and change the dash brightness in 0.1 seconds without ever taking your eyes off the road. Today it takes 30 seconds to figure it out with eyes off the road.
Don’t get me started on the Mercedes fan speed for the cabin air. It’s another very tiny black button with a faint white speed icon buried down low on the dash by the console. I can NEVER find it and you cannot see it because it is black on a dark part of the dashboard.
I swear these car makers never, ever think about ease-of-use.
The Three Mile Island nuclear accident decades ago was eventually attributed mainly to poor human factors engineering. The operators were confused by the signals, the panel layout, and the location of controls. Seems like the people that designed those control systems all went to the auto-makers.
Still driving my 2006 Honda CRV with 112,000 miles. Runs like a top, never breaks down. Mr. GG2 is still driving his 2003 Dodge Ram 2500 6 spd manual with Cummins engine.
That’s what the WEF and the left want. They don’t want people driving in 2019. First make it expensive then take away the fuel.
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