My Dad gave me the best advice when I was young.
A car is the worst purchase you will ever make, buy something inexpensive, good gas mileage, easy to fix and last a very long time. 30 years later only ever purchased a 2 door Honda Civic hatchback and don't have a car now.
Thanks Pops
I had a lease for a 2018 Kia Forte that ended in June of 2020, right when cars started to go way up in price. I was lucky enough to have $10,000 saved up to buy it outright for the agreed upon cost when signing the lease, even though it already had appreciated to $13,000 by that point.
If I had been stupid and signed another lease for another car, then I would still have a car payment and would not have nearly as much discretionary income as I do now. I still own the car, and intend to until it's not worth maintaining, but I hardly use it since I work remotely and my wife and I have e-bikes that we use for most trips.
This kind of lifestyle needs to be shared more. It doesn’t have to be a binary choice between owning a car or not. Many people need a car for certain aspects of life but we can choose to not use the car for the majority of short trips.
What you’re going to run into though is the r/antiwork conundrum. The original purpose of this sub was fuck ALL cars. Not just some. Now that we’ve reached the masses it’s fuck MOST cars but not all. Those ideologies don’t really mesh since the former tends to be more radical and latter is more… democratic liberal
I wish to live in a place that was not car dependent but that’s just simply not the case. My point is that we should be pushing this kind of lifestyle to all of the other people who also live in car dependent areas so that the idea of a bikeable/walkable city isn’t so terrifying to them.
I think this must be the default norm of mutual understanding for this sub. Intending to commit acts of terrorism against car owners or trying to run over cyclers with big stupid trucks will not make any side more righteous in their cause. My father for example, loves trains and trams since the time he lived in Kyiv, but must use his car because his job requires him to be around the city/region everyday. At the same time I am amazed with cars, how they work and how they look and also driving them, but would never live in a car centric place like the USA.
Yep I have seen enough comments about wanting to ruin the lives of car owners, while on the other side car owners want to run over cyclers just to "prove a point" .
There is no act of terrorism. I was talking about the radicalization of both sides of the coin and how it appeared in social media, plus an example from my own life. Idk why most of you guys failed to understand that point.
I saw someone comment that they wanted to beat up every car they see while cycling to work. Of course I used the word terrorism as an exaggeration to make it feel stronger, and the second one I saw in a vroomer Facebook group.
> buy something inexpensive, good gas mileage, easy to fix and last a very long time
Usually this boils down to "buy a japanese car". I have a 2015 toyota yaris hybrid, it gets me where I need to go quite affordably, maintenance is cheap and easy, and it just works. My previous was a mercedes A class, it was good, a ton of space inside, but man the maintenance was annoying on it.
Everyone I know with reliable cars drives Japanese. My best friend has a ‘97 Toyota, my family has an ‘09 Honda, my dad has an ‘88 Mazda and ‘00 Honda. All Japanese! Those things WILL NOT die.
We've only ever bought Japanese and never had issues outside of regular wear items. Except the time we owned a Mitsubishi Magna, what a piece of shit...
My dad was similar. He bought my sister and I shitty ford rangers when we were teens. They broke down all the time.
We always had the option to pay for a shop to fix them but if we just wanted to buy the parts he gave 100% of his evenings and weekends to teach us to do it ourselves. We did oil changes, brakes, brake lines, belts, axels, and the clutch on both trucks. We both became decent mechanics but, more so, he taught us that cars are an expense, not an investment.
As soon as I graduated college I sold that shit truck and moved to the city. Haven't owned a car since.
Bought a Toyota Aygo outright in 2010 when I needed a car for work, cheap by car standards, and I still have it today - though tbf it is maybe time to refresh again, if only there were cheap simple cars available now.
They are available and they’ve never been cheaper. Plenty of brand new Toyota Corollas for sale near me for $22k-$26k. If you’re willing to drive a few years old, 2021-2023’s are going for $16k-$19k.
Adjusting for inflation that means a brand new Corolla costs $16k today in 2010 dollars. Doing some research that’s apparently just a little higher than what Aygo’s were selling for new in 2010 with less tech and features and mileage and safety.
A new Corolla costs £30k apparently (https://www.toyota.co.uk/new-cars/corolla-hatchback), that is not what I'd call cheap. My (1 year old at the time) Aygo cost me £7k btw.
Wise advice! Dunno if I’m following it, but I’m about to spend $2k on my girlfriend’s old ‘09 VW Beetle (~150k miles), rather than buying a truck for my HVAC work (I’m not 100% certain I’ll be offered a company vehicle, and the tools of the trade can be quite large). I currently bike to work, but I’m moving cross country to be with my girlfriend and near her family, and I need a car in the area they live in.
$800 a month is hilarious.
It’s tragic, but hilarious.
Imagine adding $800 onto rent so you can live someplace walkable. Or take extended vacations.
For $800 a month you could quit your job and spend 3 months surfing in Thailand. Which is way cooler (and way more likely to result in getting laid) than having a Big Truck.
For $800 a month you could enroll in professional language lesson AND a gym membership AND go on like 4 dates a month.
For $800 a month you could do so much. And he wastes it spending it on a big car lmao. It isn’t even a powerful truck, it’s a v6. It’s barely a truck at all. It’s a really big sedan with a fucked up frame.
This is fun. For 800 monthly I’d: travel to exciting places, buy a new e-bike, start an at-home aquaponics setup, not sweat student loans, or just eat like a king 10x a month. Hell, maybe even save for retirement. The opportunity costs of vehicle ownership should be mandatory in Drivers ed and Common Sense.
Gotta have that tough guy image, even if the price is 85% of what you make in a year and payments are 20% of your income!
The fact that trucks are the most repossessed vehicles in the country really proves that people who buy trucks aren't the sharpest bunch.
Cars only depreciate in value, so it is whatever. I never feel bad for the guys that drive pickups. They are usually some of the most ignorant fools around.
When I learned how expensive pickup trucks are I started looking at them as luxury cars for manchildren rather than the working-class ideal that they market themselves as.
But don't you know they need a truck because they tow a boat once a year? (/s)
I live in small town Ontario, there's lots of trucks around and the vast majority are used just for personal transport yet their owners are also the ones who complain the most about rising fuel prices.
A VW Golf can tow a small boat. If you have a bigger boat you can afford renting a truck twice a year for towing. Or spend the money on permanent mooring
Eh, they are relevant here. If people are going to give him advice on whether he can resell the car for a certain amount, they need to know which version of the car it is.
There’s a huge range in prices between different trims and configurations. This guy is fucked no matter what but he is slightly more fucked because he bought an unpopular trim/engine combo and overpaid for addons.
Honestly if he knew what he was doing it's possible to not loose on cars, some a bit lucky might gain, but this is a thing for super expensive limited edition cars and classics.
New trucks might be the worst investment, around as bad as buying new luxury car, things like Rolls Royces and Bentleys are generally the most deprecieating cars.
However cars are still shit investment, it's generally way better to buy SMP500 and leave it there.
I know, right? It's no wonder that fewer people are getting married when there's such a high chance that your partner could steal your future to pay for their ego stroking land yacht.
It's literally a lifelong financial contract that you're EXPECTED to sign while you're horny. It's just a massively industrialized scam that society, for some reason, considers people's life goal.
It also lowers the barrier for how reasonable you need to be to "keep" your partner. Some non-married idiot buying a useless piece of crap for that price is more likely to be broken up with for shit financial decisions than someone whose partner is contractually obligated to stick by them or pay a fine.
I think they might be referring to the money she might be getting from the divorce. If it's he's the breadwinner and it's his money, then the debt should also be transferred.
Yeah, it is really crazy. I live in the Netherlands and nobody has a loan for a car. They just buy a cheaper car if they can't afford it. Or just don't have a car.
Unfortunately, here in the US, not having a car usually isn't an option even if you can't afford it. You are forced to take on a depreciating asset using a(often predatory) loan just so you can get to work the next day.
I hear you but unless you're getting something from before the year 2000, it'll still probably cost thousands of dollars. Over 50% of American dont have even $500 dollars in savings so they'll have to get a loan. Idk why people on this sub act like it's so easy to find and get a reliable car for pennies. Its not and even just looking at old/cheap cars for potential purchase takes time and money on its own.
> Idk why people on this sub act like it's so easy to find and get a reliable car for pennies.
Let's keep in mind that the original topic of this post is a guy making $90-120k/year who can't afford to pay for his $51k truck, when he could have bought a brand new Corolla for $23k (i.e., less than half the price of his truck).
Yeah you're right. I guess what I'm saying doesnt apply to the OP but to the average person so we aren't necessarily directing what we're saying at the same scenario
Leasing is the alternative if you can't afford a car in the Netherlands, that's 1.25 million of our 9.1 million cars. Either through work or privately (~250k).
Quite some of those suspiciously expensive cars you see around are private lease. Of course the difference is that the car is the property of the leasing company, so the driver doesn't bear the depreciation risk, you pay for that monthly.
nothing wrong if you're struggling working class person who needs your vehicle to get to work, so you buy a second hand Civic.
This payment is EIGHT HUNDRED A MONTH! if he had got a sensible car and put that money towards retirement, it'd be in the $100s of thousands of dollars
Maybe it's been a long time since I shopped for cars, but that seems ludicrously expensive for what you're getting. It's like he paid enough to get a kitted out BMW or something but instead got a poorly made Dodge POS.
If you ever want your jaw to hit the floor, take a look at the truck market and what they’re costing now. Hell, even the BMW market.
$51k doesn’t get you that much anymore. Sadly, there are many men out there in far worse situations that this due to the truck culture in America
I hate truck people so much. My douchebag neighbors have 5 trucks and they only park one of them in their driveway. They take up the rest of the street in front of other peoples houses with their stupid fucking trucks. And they have had them repo’d and stolen before. And they always speed in my neighborhood.
https://preview.redd.it/ye9ssufjzs1d1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6933164ace2316718c7b4242d4e3e0685046b077
This is a problem with having free street parking.
You could theoretically buy as many cars as possible and fill up the streets, yet still be following the law.
Tragedy of the commons
I thought everyone knew a car loses half of its value the minute you drive it off the lot.
Anyway that guy is in the comments mentioning unnecessary spending of his soon to be ex, while not understanding how his truck is one big huge unnecessary bill
It's stories like this why I say the car industry has developed the greatest propaganda campaign in the history of humanity. Because most people don't even see that the massive debt they take on is only a thing because a majority of folks have also bought into the propaganda. Cars are says to travel around and be a part of the economy. But they are only necessary because we have build in manner that makes them necessary.
$800 a month/car note (plus insurance, gas, registration) probably puts their total monthly expense as $1000 a month...to participate in the economy. I want to gently put my hand on their shoulders and say *"dude you have been duped by an industry that built the problem, lobbies to ensure the problem is forced on you and then sells you a solution...that costs money in perpetuity"*
But you tell people this and they look at you like you've grown two heads. Buying a big truck is just what you do, everyone has a car/truck/SUV and pays a constant payment on it.
Don't forget the "consumer confidence index" or whatever it's called. A metric of stupidity in cases like this guy who decide to "purchase" well above their means.
Right? And I hate that we call this "buying," because it really ices over the actual reality of the situation (they didn't actually purchase the truck, they intentionally went into horrible debt for it.)
I don't fully agree. In many places you need a personal vehicle to get to your job. But $51k for a new (immediately depreciating) truck is bonkers. I got my current car as cheap as I could even though I had to take out a loan to be able to afford one at all. (I did since pay it off, thanks to covid bucks!)
it's actually hard to buy cars in the US with cash, at least it was a few years ago. you go to dealers and they weren't interested. guess they were getting a lot of their commission from the financing company
We laugh but this type of thing is remarkably common in the US and people are so brainwashed that if you suggest that maybe a system where everyone is constantly in debt for a thing they need to leave their house is a bit dumb, they'll have a kneejerk reaction and act like you're a commie\*.
The number the car lobby has done to people's brains frankly needs to be studied.
I assume this story is happening across America. My sympathy is limited. The car companies sold us these expensive behemoths and we bought them, on the misplaced belief that interest rates would always be low. Now we find ourselves in a regular economy again, where money’s not cheap and giant-ass cars are worthless, and so many people are gonna eat it.
I pray that some of those people are the fucking executives who decided to sell us trucks and SUVs to the exclusion of anything else.
Some mistakes are expensive, and this looks like one of them. The best thing he could do might be to just let it get repoed and take steps to start credit score recovery. Defaults are increasing rapidly in the US for all kinds of debt and cars are right there with them for historical levels of default and repossession.
Buy what you can afford, not what you qualify for.
It’s understandable for a house or for education, two things that will grow in value or give you better earnings. But yes for a car I’d agree that you shouldn’t be going so much into debt, this guy could have outright paid for a cheaper and more practical car, I’ve got zero sympathy for him.
Not only in debt. Two of my friends have PhDs, one bought a car that is more expensive than their apartment and the other just drained their savings to pay $50k for a second car full of gimmicks. They both show off their decisions not realizing how stupid they are. Cars are such a scam, smart people keep taking in the emotional and social trap of defining their own identities through them
Unfortunately in many parts of the US and Canada a car is essential, whether you like it or not. Debt is simply a tool and is an important part of the economy, sometimes it is worth taking on debt and sometimes it is not, but borrowing to buy a sensible vehicle that is a sensible proportion of your income is not necessarily a bad thing.
This is true, but not everyone has enough cash on hand to buy an affordable used car outright. And you have to be careful with used cars, buying a cheap beater can work out more expensive in the long term than spending more on a newer used car (see also Vimes boot theory)
You can get small personal loans with the bank. In any case, if someone cannot afford to buy a second hand car, it tells you a lot about they cannot afford to keep any car running. I mean, we are talking about saving 4000-5000$ for a cheap Honda
That’s a a pretty wrong and generally broad statement lmao. If the interest rate is very low and the car price is also low your monthly payment won’t be anything crazy. When i had a car payment it was $120 a month and 1.99%
If you invest that cash instead of using it all at once you can make more than the interest amount. Also there is nothing wrong with getting a low interest loan for something lol.
I remember reading a post about a woman who got mad that her husband blew money on a truck he couldn't afford and was relying on the extra money coming in from marrying her to pay for it. Is this the husband of that story??
I'VE FINALLY MADE THE JUMP FROM $1500 SHITBOXES TO $3000 SHITBOXES. MY LAST CAR COST LESS THAN 2 OF HIS PAYMENTS AND IT LASTED 7 YEARS. I'M SALTY THAT I HAD TO SAVE UP FOR 3 WHOLE MONTHS FOR MY CURRENT MINIVAN. I CAN'T IMAGINE PAYING $800/MO AND FULL COVERAGE INSURANCE.
People when they hear for the 500th time in their life that cars depreciate massively the second they leave the lot, and are financial money pits that you are expected to pay out the nose for for ~70 straight years: 😮
They should simply start a side hustle bringing people's junk to the dump or whatever truck people pretend they need the tank they drive to safeway for.
Some people are good with finances and others not so much. I'm very lucky that my grandpa told me at a very young age how to deal with money. So I never bought anything on loan in my entire life and never owned a car or even paid a driving license (those are ludicrously expensive in Germany ~3500€). I'm currently not making much money at all but I run a very tight ship with no overburdening expenses. Sure I have to pay for food, accommodation, health insurance and my train ticket (30€/month) but at the end of the month I'm in the black/green. Frugality really helps a lot !
Used truck prices started skyrocketing and I had my suspicions these chickens were gonna come home and fuck a bunch of people up, and that’s precisely what happened.
At a risk of being downvoted he wrote that he couldn’t pay due to the divorce that’s coming up. So it was double whammy. He was clearly over leveraging.
i want to feel bad for the guy but taking on a $800/mo payment on a 50k loan with 4% interest is insane no matter how you slice it. I'm sad they're divorced but that truck wasn't worth it when u could afford the payments and now its a huge liability to payback.
At least now they'll learn their lesson of not taking out a 5-figure loan to buy a car.
lol
I have a Ram 1500. It's a 2001 that I picked up about 10 years ago for $600. Runs like a champ and I owe nothing on it. I barely drive it to the point that I have to remind myself to start it up now and then to use up the gas so it doesn't go bad and to keep the moving parts from turning to shit.
This guy is a fucking clown.
US tax code subsidizes big vehicles (over 6k lbs) Was built for farm equipment, now most SUVs fit that status. Avoids depreciation and allows you to write it off asap.
I know a lot of ppl who hate big cars but are economical that make these decisions
800 per month for a oversized crap ? No thanks .alls of that for a v6 and that thing now got 75k miles . No wonder it's lost that much value .
150 month for smartphone ????
200 month for insurance ?????
I never understood why people buy a car on loan. Now I have mortgage on my house, I couldn't rent the type of house I'm in for the mortgage I pay, plus the worth of my house increases. But the worth of a car generally decreases, and pretty fast as well. If you want to have a new car, well, buy an almost new car of 1-2 years old or so second hand. Since my wife needs a car for her work, we have one. Which is an almost 20 years old Corolla Verso. It's not pretty, but it's large enough for a family but not too heavy (tax is based on weight in The Netherlands). It's trustworthy. And to compensate I do almost everything on bike or public transport 😁. And I don't have to worry about credit scores 🤣
But but but I thought cars were freedom it’s no way that they financially cripple you. Why doesn’t he drive the truck to a job? Unlike those transportation folks who only work where the train or bus takes them or even WALK or BIKE to work, he has the freedom to go and work where he wants.
Dumb fuck buys what he can't afford and probably doesn't need. Expects others to do his finance for him. Gets mad when he learns that cars depreciate in value over time.
Problem right now is used cars are not cheap these days either with the chip shortages created by the pandemic. Not defending that OP's purchase at all, it's obviously stupid, but you're not likely to get a good deal going the used route right now or in the last 3 years or so.
I feel a bit bad for him, it’s a common mistake to buy something thinking “I’ll have enough for this” and then things return to the mean and you no longer can
But in general yeah don’t buy a car you’ll be paying so damn much for 💀
The key is to have lucky timing, I bought a $55k minivan in 2021 with 0% interest and it’s currently worth more than I owe on it, though I don’t care about the value or the loan because I plan on owning it til it falls apart.
Both of my cars MSRPd around the cost of what he's paid off so far. That's ridiculous. My current car was used but low miles for less than $25,000 with every feature you could want.
I am glad I didn't have to buy a car during the pandemic era. Interest rates are absolutely insane.
Bought mine 7 years ago, paid it off in less than 3 years even though it was financed for 5. Plan to drive it into the ground.
I didn't own a car til I was in my 30s because I literally couldn't afford it and never had the cash to buy one straight out. I have a really good gently used car now that cost under 10k, paid in cash, and we only use it when we ~*~need~*~ it (live in a city with good transit, my husband and I don't even use the car for commuting, just on occasions where a car is needed). I can't IMAGINE paying 50,000 dollars for a car?! Especially if I didn't have fifty thousand dollars cash? If I had that much money to throw around, I'd take a year off work or go on an amazing vacation or something. This blows my mind.
His wife must have had enough of his shit, I can't blame her for wanting a divorce. Hopefully she found a nice cyclist who doesn't take her income for bad financial decisions.
My Dad gave me the best advice when I was young. A car is the worst purchase you will ever make, buy something inexpensive, good gas mileage, easy to fix and last a very long time. 30 years later only ever purchased a 2 door Honda Civic hatchback and don't have a car now. Thanks Pops
I had a lease for a 2018 Kia Forte that ended in June of 2020, right when cars started to go way up in price. I was lucky enough to have $10,000 saved up to buy it outright for the agreed upon cost when signing the lease, even though it already had appreciated to $13,000 by that point. If I had been stupid and signed another lease for another car, then I would still have a car payment and would not have nearly as much discretionary income as I do now. I still own the car, and intend to until it's not worth maintaining, but I hardly use it since I work remotely and my wife and I have e-bikes that we use for most trips.
Man did you get lucky. In the most instances, Hyundais and Kia’s are worth less than their lease buy back. Your timing was perfect.
This kind of lifestyle needs to be shared more. It doesn’t have to be a binary choice between owning a car or not. Many people need a car for certain aspects of life but we can choose to not use the car for the majority of short trips.
What you’re going to run into though is the r/antiwork conundrum. The original purpose of this sub was fuck ALL cars. Not just some. Now that we’ve reached the masses it’s fuck MOST cars but not all. Those ideologies don’t really mesh since the former tends to be more radical and latter is more… democratic liberal
I mean getting rid of all is fine but we'd first need alternatives. Obviously cities have them but suburbs largely don't.
I wish to live in a place that was not car dependent but that’s just simply not the case. My point is that we should be pushing this kind of lifestyle to all of the other people who also live in car dependent areas so that the idea of a bikeable/walkable city isn’t so terrifying to them.
Struggling to see the connection here
I think this must be the default norm of mutual understanding for this sub. Intending to commit acts of terrorism against car owners or trying to run over cyclers with big stupid trucks will not make any side more righteous in their cause. My father for example, loves trains and trams since the time he lived in Kyiv, but must use his car because his job requires him to be around the city/region everyday. At the same time I am amazed with cars, how they work and how they look and also driving them, but would never live in a car centric place like the USA.
>intending to commit acts of terrorism against car owners wut
Yep I have seen enough comments about wanting to ruin the lives of car owners, while on the other side car owners want to run over cyclers just to "prove a point" .
Provide an example of this "terrorism".
There is no act of terrorism. I was talking about the radicalization of both sides of the coin and how it appeared in social media, plus an example from my own life. Idk why most of you guys failed to understand that point.
Then why did you say this? >intending to commit acts of terrorism against car owners
I saw someone comment that they wanted to beat up every car they see while cycling to work. Of course I used the word terrorism as an exaggeration to make it feel stronger, and the second one I saw in a vroomer Facebook group.
> buy something inexpensive, good gas mileage, easy to fix and last a very long time Usually this boils down to "buy a japanese car". I have a 2015 toyota yaris hybrid, it gets me where I need to go quite affordably, maintenance is cheap and easy, and it just works. My previous was a mercedes A class, it was good, a ton of space inside, but man the maintenance was annoying on it.
Everyone I know with reliable cars drives Japanese. My best friend has a ‘97 Toyota, my family has an ‘09 Honda, my dad has an ‘88 Mazda and ‘00 Honda. All Japanese! Those things WILL NOT die.
We've only ever bought Japanese and never had issues outside of regular wear items. Except the time we owned a Mitsubishi Magna, what a piece of shit...
My dad was similar. He bought my sister and I shitty ford rangers when we were teens. They broke down all the time. We always had the option to pay for a shop to fix them but if we just wanted to buy the parts he gave 100% of his evenings and weekends to teach us to do it ourselves. We did oil changes, brakes, brake lines, belts, axels, and the clutch on both trucks. We both became decent mechanics but, more so, he taught us that cars are an expense, not an investment. As soon as I graduated college I sold that shit truck and moved to the city. Haven't owned a car since.
Bought a Toyota Aygo outright in 2010 when I needed a car for work, cheap by car standards, and I still have it today - though tbf it is maybe time to refresh again, if only there were cheap simple cars available now.
They are available and they’ve never been cheaper. Plenty of brand new Toyota Corollas for sale near me for $22k-$26k. If you’re willing to drive a few years old, 2021-2023’s are going for $16k-$19k. Adjusting for inflation that means a brand new Corolla costs $16k today in 2010 dollars. Doing some research that’s apparently just a little higher than what Aygo’s were selling for new in 2010 with less tech and features and mileage and safety.
A new Corolla costs £30k apparently (https://www.toyota.co.uk/new-cars/corolla-hatchback), that is not what I'd call cheap. My (1 year old at the time) Aygo cost me £7k btw.
I love my 2010 Honda CRV. Guzzles oil like Hexxus from Ferngully though.
What a reference
It seems absurd that anyone would choose a new car over used but I guess someone has to create the supply of used cars.
Wise advice! Dunno if I’m following it, but I’m about to spend $2k on my girlfriend’s old ‘09 VW Beetle (~150k miles), rather than buying a truck for my HVAC work (I’m not 100% certain I’ll be offered a company vehicle, and the tools of the trade can be quite large). I currently bike to work, but I’m moving cross country to be with my girlfriend and near her family, and I need a car in the area they live in.
My parents advised me to buy a car even though I read to them this guy's story 😂 Needless to say I refuse to buy one
someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying
the divorce is the cherry on top of this stereotype
that comes standard with owning a truck
especially the DUImobile
Too much avocat toast /s
Have you tried eating cereal for dinner?
I eat cereal for breakfast and dinner! They’re also the same meal…
Eating? In this economy?
Egg based liqueur on toast?
Buy less candles?
turn your lights off every time you blink, the savings add up /s
You better copyright this right now, NY Times pitchbot is trawling the web just famished for content like this
My students loans are a fraction of the debt these people run up but yet I'm the idiot.
$800 a month is hilarious. It’s tragic, but hilarious. Imagine adding $800 onto rent so you can live someplace walkable. Or take extended vacations. For $800 a month you could quit your job and spend 3 months surfing in Thailand. Which is way cooler (and way more likely to result in getting laid) than having a Big Truck. For $800 a month you could enroll in professional language lesson AND a gym membership AND go on like 4 dates a month. For $800 a month you could do so much. And he wastes it spending it on a big car lmao. It isn’t even a powerful truck, it’s a v6. It’s barely a truck at all. It’s a really big sedan with a fucked up frame.
This is fun. For 800 monthly I’d: travel to exciting places, buy a new e-bike, start an at-home aquaponics setup, not sweat student loans, or just eat like a king 10x a month. Hell, maybe even save for retirement. The opportunity costs of vehicle ownership should be mandatory in Drivers ed and Common Sense.
for 800 a month i can literaly buy second hand ebike repair them and make a profit....
Plus 200 of insurance . Plus 150 for the smartphone .
Gotta have that tough guy image, even if the price is 85% of what you make in a year and payments are 20% of your income! The fact that trucks are the most repossessed vehicles in the country really proves that people who buy trucks aren't the sharpest bunch.
Also if those trucks are for "work", then how does getting your truck repossessed help with getting work done?
$800 is my mortgage without taxes/insurance. It's a literal house in the Pacific Northwest.
Mine are a lot more but at least my brain is worth more than it was when I started school
Huh,yeah ... education is for stupid people. 🙄
Cars only depreciate in value, so it is whatever. I never feel bad for the guys that drive pickups. They are usually some of the most ignorant fools around.
When I learned how expensive pickup trucks are I started looking at them as luxury cars for manchildren rather than the working-class ideal that they market themselves as.
This is the way
There was an aberrant post-Covid period when they inflated due to supply side issues. Sounds like this guy bought at the high end of that.
I think the peak was in 2021 and the trend has been down since he bought in 2022.
But don't you know they need a truck because they tow a boat once a year? (/s) I live in small town Ontario, there's lots of trucks around and the vast majority are used just for personal transport yet their owners are also the ones who complain the most about rising fuel prices.
A VW Golf can tow a small boat. If you have a bigger boat you can afford renting a truck twice a year for towing. Or spend the money on permanent mooring
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Explain like I'm five: what does "lone star" mean? I thought that was some Texas-related thing, but I am ignorant on the car side of the definition
It’s a trim level. Probably came with leather seats and a cool “Lonestar” badge.
It means he's a dumbass who overpaid for an expensive toy he couldn't afford.
That was my first impression too. He's running off the specs like anything beyond the value and payments were relevant to anyone else.
Eh, they are relevant here. If people are going to give him advice on whether he can resell the car for a certain amount, they need to know which version of the car it is. There’s a huge range in prices between different trims and configurations. This guy is fucked no matter what but he is slightly more fucked because he bought an unpopular trim/engine combo and overpaid for addons.
Honestly if he knew what he was doing it's possible to not loose on cars, some a bit lucky might gain, but this is a thing for super expensive limited edition cars and classics. New trucks might be the worst investment, around as bad as buying new luxury car, things like Rolls Royces and Bentleys are generally the most deprecieating cars. However cars are still shit investment, it's generally way better to buy SMP500 and leave it there.
Who the hell buys a depreciating asset that they can’t afford on their own?
The kind of selfish jerk who responds positively to the advice "Your debt is her debt."
I thought you were joking, and then looked that the original post. It really is the highest upvoted response. What. The. Fuck.
I know, right? It's no wonder that fewer people are getting married when there's such a high chance that your partner could steal your future to pay for their ego stroking land yacht.
It's literally a lifelong financial contract that you're EXPECTED to sign while you're horny. It's just a massively industrialized scam that society, for some reason, considers people's life goal. It also lowers the barrier for how reasonable you need to be to "keep" your partner. Some non-married idiot buying a useless piece of crap for that price is more likely to be broken up with for shit financial decisions than someone whose partner is contractually obligated to stick by them or pay a fine.
I think they might be referring to the money she might be getting from the divorce. If it's he's the breadwinner and it's his money, then the debt should also be transferred.
The average American
Yeah, it is really crazy. I live in the Netherlands and nobody has a loan for a car. They just buy a cheaper car if they can't afford it. Or just don't have a car.
Unfortunately, here in the US, not having a car usually isn't an option even if you can't afford it. You are forced to take on a depreciating asset using a(often predatory) loan just so you can get to work the next day.
Why not buy a cheap Japanese car then? You dont need to buy a gas-guzzling monster-truck
I hear you but unless you're getting something from before the year 2000, it'll still probably cost thousands of dollars. Over 50% of American dont have even $500 dollars in savings so they'll have to get a loan. Idk why people on this sub act like it's so easy to find and get a reliable car for pennies. Its not and even just looking at old/cheap cars for potential purchase takes time and money on its own.
> Idk why people on this sub act like it's so easy to find and get a reliable car for pennies. Let's keep in mind that the original topic of this post is a guy making $90-120k/year who can't afford to pay for his $51k truck, when he could have bought a brand new Corolla for $23k (i.e., less than half the price of his truck).
Yeah you're right. I guess what I'm saying doesnt apply to the OP but to the average person so we aren't necessarily directing what we're saying at the same scenario
Leasing is the alternative if you can't afford a car in the Netherlands, that's 1.25 million of our 9.1 million cars. Either through work or privately (~250k). Quite some of those suspiciously expensive cars you see around are private lease. Of course the difference is that the car is the property of the leasing company, so the driver doesn't bear the depreciation risk, you pay for that monthly.
Maybe that's related to the divorce?
Thousands of brainwashed folk, unfortunately
nothing wrong if you're struggling working class person who needs your vehicle to get to work, so you buy a second hand Civic. This payment is EIGHT HUNDRED A MONTH! if he had got a sensible car and put that money towards retirement, it'd be in the $100s of thousands of dollars
I love how they list all its specs as if they were proud of it
😁 "look at what I can't afford"
lol can’t afford now 💀
Yes! It was the first thing in the post. Just had to show it off even now
American's ability to buy cars becomes part of folks personalities.
Maybe it's been a long time since I shopped for cars, but that seems ludicrously expensive for what you're getting. It's like he paid enough to get a kitted out BMW or something but instead got a poorly made Dodge POS.
If you ever want your jaw to hit the floor, take a look at the truck market and what they’re costing now. Hell, even the BMW market. $51k doesn’t get you that much anymore. Sadly, there are many men out there in far worse situations that this due to the truck culture in America
I hate truck people so much. My douchebag neighbors have 5 trucks and they only park one of them in their driveway. They take up the rest of the street in front of other peoples houses with their stupid fucking trucks. And they have had them repo’d and stolen before. And they always speed in my neighborhood. https://preview.redd.it/ye9ssufjzs1d1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6933164ace2316718c7b4242d4e3e0685046b077
That sounds like a few laws being broken to me, contact 311 or the equivalent for your city.
Link to that research please. Would be cool to include that in my teaching
I got that graphic from this video: https://youtu.be/jN7mSXMruEo?si=QnJEQgdqDt1yA69n
Thanks. Bradsher, K. (2002). High and mighty: SUVs: the world's most dangerous vehicles and how they got that way. Too old now, will keep looking.
Can confirm. Was in a bougie strip mall in Palo Alto. Felt like I was gonna get run over by some Karen in their SUV every 5 seconds.
This is a problem with having free street parking. You could theoretically buy as many cars as possible and fill up the streets, yet still be following the law. Tragedy of the commons
It's a shame how many pipes we have filled with lead in America.
I thought everyone knew a car loses half of its value the minute you drive it off the lot. Anyway that guy is in the comments mentioning unnecessary spending of his soon to be ex, while not understanding how his truck is one big huge unnecessary bill
It's stories like this why I say the car industry has developed the greatest propaganda campaign in the history of humanity. Because most people don't even see that the massive debt they take on is only a thing because a majority of folks have also bought into the propaganda. Cars are says to travel around and be a part of the economy. But they are only necessary because we have build in manner that makes them necessary. $800 a month/car note (plus insurance, gas, registration) probably puts their total monthly expense as $1000 a month...to participate in the economy. I want to gently put my hand on their shoulders and say *"dude you have been duped by an industry that built the problem, lobbies to ensure the problem is forced on you and then sells you a solution...that costs money in perpetuity"* But you tell people this and they look at you like you've grown two heads. Buying a big truck is just what you do, everyone has a car/truck/SUV and pays a constant payment on it.
Don't forget the "consumer confidence index" or whatever it's called. A metric of stupidity in cases like this guy who decide to "purchase" well above their means.
But how would you prove your manliness without a big, shiny, expensive truck?
If you can't pay for a personal vehicle with cash, then you can't afford it. Regardless, imagine paying over $50k for a V6 truck.
Right? And I hate that we call this "buying," because it really ices over the actual reality of the situation (they didn't actually purchase the truck, they intentionally went into horrible debt for it.)
I don't fully agree. In many places you need a personal vehicle to get to your job. But $51k for a new (immediately depreciating) truck is bonkers. I got my current car as cheap as I could even though I had to take out a loan to be able to afford one at all. (I did since pay it off, thanks to covid bucks!)
it's actually hard to buy cars in the US with cash, at least it was a few years ago. you go to dealers and they weren't interested. guess they were getting a lot of their commission from the financing company
This is true, but it's totally possible to take their financing option and pay off the vehicle in the first few payments.
We laugh but this type of thing is remarkably common in the US and people are so brainwashed that if you suggest that maybe a system where everyone is constantly in debt for a thing they need to leave their house is a bit dumb, they'll have a kneejerk reaction and act like you're a commie\*. The number the car lobby has done to people's brains frankly needs to be studied.
I assume this story is happening across America. My sympathy is limited. The car companies sold us these expensive behemoths and we bought them, on the misplaced belief that interest rates would always be low. Now we find ourselves in a regular economy again, where money’s not cheap and giant-ass cars are worthless, and so many people are gonna eat it. I pray that some of those people are the fucking executives who decided to sell us trucks and SUVs to the exclusion of anything else.
>I pray that some of those people are the fucking executives Sadly, no executive is gonna struggle with a mere $800/month payment.
Some mistakes are expensive, and this looks like one of them. The best thing he could do might be to just let it get repoed and take steps to start credit score recovery. Defaults are increasing rapidly in the US for all kinds of debt and cars are right there with them for historical levels of default and repossession. Buy what you can afford, not what you qualify for.
People just dropping 60k on a vehicle is never not funny
Imagine being in debt for a car… If you need to take a loan, you cannot afford it.
It’s understandable for a house or for education, two things that will grow in value or give you better earnings. But yes for a car I’d agree that you shouldn’t be going so much into debt, this guy could have outright paid for a cheaper and more practical car, I’ve got zero sympathy for him.
He coulda got 2 used Hondas in good condition for 50k. Maybe even 3 if you get them in so-so condition.
Cars can be an enabler of better earnings too.
Sure a car is helpful or necessary depending on where you live, but not a 50k+ one.
Not only in debt. Two of my friends have PhDs, one bought a car that is more expensive than their apartment and the other just drained their savings to pay $50k for a second car full of gimmicks. They both show off their decisions not realizing how stupid they are. Cars are such a scam, smart people keep taking in the emotional and social trap of defining their own identities through them
Unfortunately in many parts of the US and Canada a car is essential, whether you like it or not. Debt is simply a tool and is an important part of the economy, sometimes it is worth taking on debt and sometimes it is not, but borrowing to buy a sensible vehicle that is a sensible proportion of your income is not necessarily a bad thing.
More affordable second hand cars exist.
This is true, but not everyone has enough cash on hand to buy an affordable used car outright. And you have to be careful with used cars, buying a cheap beater can work out more expensive in the long term than spending more on a newer used car (see also Vimes boot theory)
You can get small personal loans with the bank. In any case, if someone cannot afford to buy a second hand car, it tells you a lot about they cannot afford to keep any car running. I mean, we are talking about saving 4000-5000$ for a cheap Honda
More like $10-15k
Yes, but if you don't have cash and you have to have a car then a loan is the only option.
That’s a a pretty wrong and generally broad statement lmao. If the interest rate is very low and the car price is also low your monthly payment won’t be anything crazy. When i had a car payment it was $120 a month and 1.99%
Then you don’t « need » to take a loan. You profit from a loan.
If you invest that cash instead of using it all at once you can make more than the interest amount. Also there is nothing wrong with getting a low interest loan for something lol.
I remember reading a post about a woman who got mad that her husband blew money on a truck he couldn't afford and was relying on the extra money coming in from marrying her to pay for it. Is this the husband of that story??
Meanwhile, my 20 year old 2-door Tacoma is worth more than what I paid for it. No sympathy for these idiots.
I'VE FINALLY MADE THE JUMP FROM $1500 SHITBOXES TO $3000 SHITBOXES. MY LAST CAR COST LESS THAN 2 OF HIS PAYMENTS AND IT LASTED 7 YEARS. I'M SALTY THAT I HAD TO SAVE UP FOR 3 WHOLE MONTHS FOR MY CURRENT MINIVAN. I CAN'T IMAGINE PAYING $800/MO AND FULL COVERAGE INSURANCE.
I bought a uselessly big and expensive car and now I can't afford the loan, what do I do?????
50k? 50k?!! Is he insane?!
But, it has a big horn! A big horn!!!
People when they hear for the 500th time in their life that cars depreciate massively the second they leave the lot, and are financial money pits that you are expected to pay out the nose for for ~70 straight years: 😮
no no, they're money pits for 5-7 years, and then you're supposed to upgrade to the latest model
that’s just a perpetual money pit
They should simply start a side hustle bringing people's junk to the dump or whatever truck people pretend they need the tank they drive to safeway for.
He describes how cool his truck is like it's relevant. "It's a v6 4wd because I'm so cool"
Worst part is he bought a vanity truck that isn’t really capable of hauling much, so the value is crap.
If you look through the comments, this dude absolutely knows he fucked up and isn’t making silly excuses
It’s sad to see people argue on the truck specs. When your only culture is truck culture
Maybe he can just live in the truck and not pay a rent bill, problem solved /s Let them eat gas!
People bankrupting themselves over status symbols, a tale as old as time.
Why should a divorce affect his ability to afford his toys unless his wife was also paying for them?
Alimony and child support are pretty obvious reasons.
Some people are good with finances and others not so much. I'm very lucky that my grandpa told me at a very young age how to deal with money. So I never bought anything on loan in my entire life and never owned a car or even paid a driving license (those are ludicrously expensive in Germany ~3500€). I'm currently not making much money at all but I run a very tight ship with no overburdening expenses. Sure I have to pay for food, accommodation, health insurance and my train ticket (30€/month) but at the end of the month I'm in the black/green. Frugality really helps a lot !
I've paid about ten grand for the qualifications on my license. Quite mad when you think about it.
Used truck prices started skyrocketing and I had my suspicions these chickens were gonna come home and fuck a bunch of people up, and that’s precisely what happened.
Loanstar
At a risk of being downvoted he wrote that he couldn’t pay due to the divorce that’s coming up. So it was double whammy. He was clearly over leveraging.
i want to feel bad for the guy but taking on a $800/mo payment on a 50k loan with 4% interest is insane no matter how you slice it. I'm sad they're divorced but that truck wasn't worth it when u could afford the payments and now its a huge liability to payback. At least now they'll learn their lesson of not taking out a 5-figure loan to buy a car.
lol I have a Ram 1500. It's a 2001 that I picked up about 10 years ago for $600. Runs like a champ and I owe nothing on it. I barely drive it to the point that I have to remind myself to start it up now and then to use up the gas so it doesn't go bad and to keep the moving parts from turning to shit. This guy is a fucking clown.
Cars are the worst assets you can buy because of the instant value depletion. Even from a financial standpoint, r/fuckcars
Of course it's a fucking Ram.
Modern trucks are a wealth status symbol cosplaying as a salt of the earth working vehicle.
US tax code subsidizes big vehicles (over 6k lbs) Was built for farm equipment, now most SUVs fit that status. Avoids depreciation and allows you to write it off asap. I know a lot of ppl who hate big cars but are economical that make these decisions
Yeah this law absolutely needs changed. So frustrating
800 per month for a oversized crap ? No thanks .alls of that for a v6 and that thing now got 75k miles . No wonder it's lost that much value . 150 month for smartphone ???? 200 month for insurance ?????
Well, it’s not the dumbest truck! He could have gotten a Cybertruck instead, then he’d really be screwed
When it's so obvious that people buy your trucks to "compensate" that you straight up just name them Big Horn.
This guy is a dumb decision making machine.
Maybe if you bought an even bigger truck your wife would come back?
I never understood why people buy a car on loan. Now I have mortgage on my house, I couldn't rent the type of house I'm in for the mortgage I pay, plus the worth of my house increases. But the worth of a car generally decreases, and pretty fast as well. If you want to have a new car, well, buy an almost new car of 1-2 years old or so second hand. Since my wife needs a car for her work, we have one. Which is an almost 20 years old Corolla Verso. It's not pretty, but it's large enough for a family but not too heavy (tax is based on weight in The Netherlands). It's trustworthy. And to compensate I do almost everything on bike or public transport 😁. And I don't have to worry about credit scores 🤣
But but but I thought cars were freedom it’s no way that they financially cripple you. Why doesn’t he drive the truck to a job? Unlike those transportation folks who only work where the train or bus takes them or even WALK or BIKE to work, he has the freedom to go and work where he wants.
$50k and you still only got a V6? Jesus if you’re gonna do something like that at least commit and go all in
at 50k you can get like fuking amazing cars. sport one luxury ect. but a plastic puckup? why?
It's sad he got divorced but losing that much money on that adult stroller is A-tier comedy.
I doubt, I said I HIGHLY DOUBT, that OP would dare tailgate everyone and anyone on his way to a fro’ work in that dodge ram he can’t afford
Lmao I wonder if the $800/month vanity vehicle has anything to do with the divorce. It’s not his stupid debt, it’s *their* stupid debt <3 /s.
Dumb fuck buys what he can't afford and probably doesn't need. Expects others to do his finance for him. Gets mad when he learns that cars depreciate in value over time.
Haha this post made me smile. So sad.
I swear Americans are allergic to used cars.
Problem right now is used cars are not cheap these days either with the chip shortages created by the pandemic. Not defending that OP's purchase at all, it's obviously stupid, but you're not likely to get a good deal going the used route right now or in the last 3 years or so.
I feel a bit bad for him, it’s a common mistake to buy something thinking “I’ll have enough for this” and then things return to the mean and you no longer can But in general yeah don’t buy a car you’ll be paying so damn much for 💀
The key is to have lucky timing, I bought a $55k minivan in 2021 with 0% interest and it’s currently worth more than I owe on it, though I don’t care about the value or the loan because I plan on owning it til it falls apart.
Both of my cars MSRPd around the cost of what he's paid off so far. That's ridiculous. My current car was used but low miles for less than $25,000 with every feature you could want.
I am glad I didn't have to buy a car during the pandemic era. Interest rates are absolutely insane. Bought mine 7 years ago, paid it off in less than 3 years even though it was financed for 5. Plan to drive it into the ground.
i think this is biden/trump/ insert other politician here's fault becuase of taxes or something
that would explain why the dealership offered a third of its retail value - the bumper sticker
I didn't own a car til I was in my 30s because I literally couldn't afford it and never had the cash to buy one straight out. I have a really good gently used car now that cost under 10k, paid in cash, and we only use it when we ~*~need~*~ it (live in a city with good transit, my husband and I don't even use the car for commuting, just on occasions where a car is needed). I can't IMAGINE paying 50,000 dollars for a car?! Especially if I didn't have fifty thousand dollars cash? If I had that much money to throw around, I'd take a year off work or go on an amazing vacation or something. This blows my mind.
I wonder if he's getting divorced because his wife is sick of him doing things like spending money they don't have on useless shit they don't need.
Biggest dumbest truck? Nah, could be worse. He could have bought a 2500 or 3500 or worse, a cybertruck
When I sold cars in 2013 we called anyone with a payment over $480 a fucking idiot. "We sell loans, not cars"
average "middle-class" American man
His wife must have had enough of his shit, I can't blame her for wanting a divorce. Hopefully she found a nice cyclist who doesn't take her income for bad financial decisions.
I guess go back in time and don't make such a dumb financial decision.
Oooof I’m sitting happy in my little ‘09 Nissan with no payments 😅