Wall Street wakes up to 'peak car'

Business Insider ^ | 06/01/2019 | Jim Edwards

[TexasKamaAina]

For the auto business, "The pain is just beginning," according to Nomura analyst Masataka Kunugimoto and his team. "We now expect global auto demand to be down 3%," year on year, in 2019, he told clients recently.

He is not alone. At bank after bank, analysts are coming round to the idea that the world may have passed "peak car," and that in the future humans will need fewer personal vehicles.

[wally_bert]

A 65 Willys jeep that runs but barely drivable, a fixer upper CJ7, and for short term a dead 79 Blazer.

I’ll have them operating someday.

[Vaduz]

And high maintenance costs because of all the bling trash.
It’s cheaper to by a restored car that will last longer and it will retain it’s value and looks a hell of a lot better.

[central_va]

Plus I can work on a restro rod myself.

[Vaduz]

Indeed no computer garbage to fail no CPU to fail and best of no metric parts.
Detroit steel or nothing.

[SunkenCiv]

S/B, "Partisan Media Shill Tries to Semantically Transform the Auto Market Cycle".

[central_va]

I can repair almost any car made prior to 1972.

[Mr Rogers]

“Manufacturers can take some of the blame for making cars ridiculously expensive to repair.”

Government regulation, to include mandatory gas mileage. And pollution controls that go way beyond sanity - and BTW, I think the Clean Air Act was wonderful. It is just everything has gone past the point of added value.

[Cobra64]

Well, look at the crap on the road. Almost every car is Lexus-ugly. Nissan, Mazda, Lexus, Toyota all look the same. Little dumpy, frumpy, dopey demolition-derby finalists. The front ends look like they ran head-on into a forklift.

[GOPJ]

...and the guy in front of you weaving all over while texting and the woman to your right putting on her mascara and the guy to your left typing on his laptop with his head cradling his cell phone while driving with his knees.

All true - but the difference is that inconsiderate American jerks usually have car insurance.

Illegals don't.

Why that matters is if you're totally disabled by a car accident with an illegal who doesn’t have insurance you won't get a dime for decades of lost work caused by injuries. In Florida the most important insurance is ‘uninsured motorist’... so much so that our legislature created a law requiring insurance companies to offer it if they wanted to do business in our state.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“uninsured motorist” - we have the same coverage in California.

[caltaxed]

In california with tax and License the loaded F150 is about $77K.

Nice looking trucks but after spending nearly $80K I would't want to do any real work with the truck like hauling gravel, bricks, rock, etc.

[GOPJ]

I’m sure it’s an add-on in many states or all...

A lawyer friend told me years ago it was the most important insurance to have in a state with a large number of drivers not carrying car insurance... (And Florida’s a ‘no-fault’ state...) She explained the ‘whys’ (most I’ve forgotten) but since it’s not that expensive I’ve always added it - - and encourage my kids and grand kids to do the same....

[Fightin Whitey]

Good. More for me.

[Dr. Sivana]

And I still have most of those tools.

Yeah ... but do you still have the Nash?

[Dr. Sivana]

f-150 loaded is 70 grand.

Yes. And it rides like a luxury car. I was astounded with the room in the rear seat of a 2014 model fully decked out.

That said, can you even get a stripped pickup truck anymore? Preferably one with a straight bench (seats three)?

[Dr. Sivana]

I had a good experience buying my wife a 2018 Toyota Avalon with 23K miles at Hertz in Phoenix. MSRP $34,000. Lowest price I could find $31,000. I paid $20,000. Not a bad discount for one year and 23K miles. It is hard to find late model used Toyotas that WEREN’T rentals. People don’t turn them in every three years.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Yeah ... but do you still have the Nash?"

Mores the pity.....no. But the one I really regret letting get away was a 1965 Falcon Futura two door hardtop with the 200 CID 7-main bearing six cylinder. Easiest engine in the world to work on. I swear that someone, somewhere is still driving it. I put 150K on it.

[Sparticus]

There are fewer reasons for people to drive these days. You can get any kind of product delivered to you via online retailers. No reason to go to the movies when you have a 10 foot wide TV and Netflix. Kids use Uber to meet for dates as they can get drunk and not need to drive. The list goes on.

[Dr. Sivana]

How is the Ford inline 200 easier than a good ol’ Mopar 170 or 225 slant-six? Or for that matter, the VW Beetle engine that fits on a workbench?

[Wonder Warthog]

Not having worked on the Mopar or slant, I can,t say. I say easy, because you drop the oil pan, take off the valve cover (and head if necessary), disconnect a few hoses, and you can completely rebuild the engine WITHOUT removing it from the car.

I know, because Dad and I did exactly that one weekend. The car had been showing some evidence of oil smoke, so the wife and I drove home from LSU one Friday afternoon. Bright and early Saturday, Dad and I drained fluids, disconnected hoses, dropped oil pan and pulled the valve cover. At that point, we found that the oil smoke was due to the valve stem gaskets getting brittle. But....since we already had the engine completely apart, we decided to go ahead with a rebuild (rings, inserts, valves (and new gaskets).

The wife comes out, sees the car parts all over the garage and semi-panics ...."are you sure we will be back at LSU by Monday."

We drove home Sunday afternoon, as always (but without oil smoke).

I suspect the slant six would be similarly easy, having at least seen one of those in my roomies Plymouth Barracuda.