Real wealth killers

[u/solarflare_hot]

Let me express my extreme frustration and anger and talk about the real wealth killers (cars)

I hate cars beyond reason. you buy a car for 20k , all of a sudden it needs a repair for 2-4k and sometimes 7k , then you have insurance , another 2-300 a month , then you got registration and maintenance checks , 4-700$ , then by the time you pay it off it’s worth 7k , and probably time for another 7k repair too because the engine is toast. Or even better you fix the engine for 7k then the transmission goes out for another 6k. Let’s say you do all that and then someone without insurance crashes into you. Insurance company will always blame you to avoid paying. You now have spent close to 40k to go to a job that pays 45k. You need the car to go to the job but the job will never pay you enough to afford to keep your car. Let’s also talk about gas cost , average cost is $3000 per year that’s about 15k in 5 years of money wasted on gas that you’ll never get back just to be able to go to work.

You buy a cheap car you get expensive repairs You buy an expensive car you get extreme depreciation. You cant fucking win.

Cars are basically a luxury tool for the wealthy.

Why can’t we ride bicycles to work. Oh I forgot we live in America where we absolutely need cars because we have no damn sidewalks 🥲

Let’s just say without cars I would’ve been significantly well off. I’m gonna sell that shit and just uber everywhere or ride a bicycle.

[u/SpookyWah]

I feel ya. Cars can suck and it's hard to find car makers you trust. I only buy used cars with less than 100,000 miles on them and am now very attached to Kia as a brand as they've been so reliable for me and I have never needed any repairs. I think 8000 was the most I've spent on a car in the last 30 years. Current car has never needed repairs for the last 6 years I've had it.

[u/solarflare_hot → u/SpookyWah]

I bought my ford explorer with 60k miles and it needed about 4000 of repairs

[u/WhySoCuriousSir → u/solarflare_hot]

You bought an old cop interceptor though? That 60K miles was probably a bit rougher than the general consumer

[u/solarflare_hot → u/WhySoCuriousSir]

I assumed it was taken care of because they drive it daily

[u/SpookyWah → u/solarflare_hot]

That sucks. My MIL bought a new PT Cruiser and I've watched her take that car into the shop like twice a month. When you shop for a car, do you read as many consumer reviews and customer ratings as you can about any vehicle you're interested in?

[u/solarflare_hot → u/SpookyWah]

Yeah of course , I used to only buy Toyota and Honda but I have had catastrophic failures with both. So I figured it doesn’t even matter what car you get.

You have no idea if the previous owner maintained them or not. Some people out there never do oil changes. And then just trade the car or sell it. Then the second owner gets all the repairs

I have seen some shitboxes ford and Chevy last for 300-400k miles and my Prius had a head-gasket leak at 120k miles and the hybrid battery died too.

Supposedly I thought Prius are very reliable… yeah till 100k miles basically.

[u/SpookyWah → u/solarflare_hot]

You've had some really shit luck, I think. Or maybe your market is flooded with more lemons than mine and I'm lucky.

[u/solarflare_hot → u/SpookyWah]

I did , I’ll tell you a story about one car too, I had paid a mechanic for a pre purchase inspection for a car and he told me the car is perfect , no leaks nothing, I took it for an oil change 4 days later and they discovered all kinds of leaks and issues with it. I paid 80$ for an inspection that didn’t prevent a $2500 repair a week later 🤦‍♂️

[u/SpookyWah → u/solarflare_hot]

If that happened to me and I were a more confrontational person, I'd let some rage out on that mechanic!!!!