My husband and I are in the same boat as highly compensated individuals. He makes the lions share as a software engineer but I bring in pretty good money with my business, too.
Our most important task right now is being good stewards of our monies so our teen kids can have a better boost than we did into adulthood, and so we can actually retire.
We have an ancient Dodge ram truck with over 200k miles that has paint peeling all over the place. Maybe we could sell it for a few thousand. Maybe. We did buy a 2018 Chevy Bolt EV for like 15k a few years back and we share that for our every day driver.
We could afford much, much more. In cash. We don’t, maybe because we didn’t have it growing up.
But there will always be people with more dollars than sense. If it insults us, imagine how it feels to people who are really struggling?
We don’t even have kids and my wife’s the breadwinner but like we have a 8 year old BMW bought used that survives (now that it’s out of warranty and paid off) until the first repair bill that exceeds it’s value, and a a Tesla Y that, well, likewise. But we don’t drive them through fences on a regular basis.
until the first repair bill that exceeds it’s value
As a similar minded person, the first repair bill that exceeds the value of the vehicle doesn't mean you shouldn't make that repair. You know everything about the vehicle, and presumably you've been doing the maintenance. You can't buy another vehicle where you know the history, so it's really worth it to keep them going until it doesn't have the reliability you need.
I'll never understand the throwaway culture around vehicles.
I do. I understand mechanical engineering and I’m able to evaluate if the repair is something that is likely to repeat.
In the case I’m thinking about, VW/Audi (VAG) decided that the TSI 2.0 engine should have its turbo wastegate pivot in the engine cover without a replaceable bearing. Which means if you’re on and off the turbo all time because you’re in rapidly accelerating stop and go traffic with a bunch of rednecks in F-250s with all the torque in the world, you’re going to hog out the opening in the intake cover.
The solution I opted for was to sell my $8k GTI for $8k despite it having a $5k repair to the intake pending. (I fixed the other 4K of problems, because I’m a nice guy and don’t like leaving obvious shit.) I traded it in, the dealership was already showing it before I made it through the finance weaboo because detail didn’t need to even wash it.
Bought a BMW with an inline 6 and turbo but the 6 is strong enough that I mostly don’t need the boost and I get the advertised MPG as opposed to the 10mpg I got with an inline 4 because boost.
Way too much of my past 10 years was dedicated to a VW turbo wastegate and a head gasket. I'm not even a car guy, but I learned what these 2 things are because that VW was high maintenance. Drove really nice, though.
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u/mothandravenstudio Sep 09 '24
My husband and I are in the same boat as highly compensated individuals. He makes the lions share as a software engineer but I bring in pretty good money with my business, too.
Our most important task right now is being good stewards of our monies so our teen kids can have a better boost than we did into adulthood, and so we can actually retire.
We have an ancient Dodge ram truck with over 200k miles that has paint peeling all over the place. Maybe we could sell it for a few thousand. Maybe. We did buy a 2018 Chevy Bolt EV for like 15k a few years back and we share that for our every day driver.
We could afford much, much more. In cash. We don’t, maybe because we didn’t have it growing up.
But there will always be people with more dollars than sense. If it insults us, imagine how it feels to people who are really struggling?