It's been a while since my last post, so sorry to my loyal fan base for leaving y'all hanging. I am still processing the few comments about what to do with the Bronco I just bought. Most said to fix the mechanical things first but check this out, I will get the bodywork done with the money I have saved. Then I will fix things it needs with the un-budgeted funds because my wife won't let it just sit broke; genius!
Well enough about that. What is up with the price of cars these days? I am not that old and the cost has increased dramatically in the past 20 or so years. I know that the price of everything is up but cars seem to have surpassed the cost to income ratio by leaps and bounds. For instance a 91 Mustang 5.0 cost about $15k new but I just bought one for $2600. A new Mustang 5.0 (yes they brought it back) base price is $30k. So in 21 years it doubled in price. Some other things have gone way up as well, such as gas...that kind of goes hand and hand, especially when we're talking cars with V8's in them. A dollar and fifteen cents for a gallon of regular gas in 1991. It's about $3.85 or more now. That's worse than the cars but we will stay on subject.
So if the price of a car doubles in 20 years but then decreases about $2000 as soon as you buy it and $600 per year all you can hope for is it keeps running till you pay it off. Then if you keep it in really good shape for at least 25 years hopefully the value will start to go back up if you bought a desirable ride.
Another issue is the crushing of cars. If you don't have a "restore worthy" ride the manufacture of new parts for your aged auto will soon fade away. I have a 1999 Mercury and needed a tail light, needless to say they do NOT manufacture this part any longer so I had to get it from the salvage yard. So, you could imagine a car from the 80's that you wanted to keep running, instead of putting yourself in debt, would be even harder to find parts for. Oh and thanks for the "cash for clunkers" Obama! All those great cars crushed and more people in debt for a car with a little better mileage. So now I can't get as many parts from salvage for my Bronco or Mustang but they are desirable so there is an aftermarket for them. There will not be an aftermarket for 1999 Mercury Villagers, trust me. My point is the market and Government has driven people to buy new cars and the difficulty of repair has made a lot of people scared to keep these new cars past warranty. So if you are a manufacture with a long warranty your smart. The average age of cars on the road is 10 years which is a record high because the economy has tanked. You companies that took bail outs can kiss my butt, lower your prices because a clunker trade in can't save the world from exuberant prices.
My advice is never buy new! I would like to see these big companies lower or sustain their prices for at least a decade. The government puts all these gas mileage restrictions which sound great for the environment but the bottom line is they mandate and we pay for it in research, technology, and retooling. We don't need a new model every year and we are not going to make up the difference in gas savings while paying a $500 car note. All the while your new ride is wearing out and depreciating. I'll stick with what I have! The government puts regulations on fuel prices so why not step in on all the other expenses we have?
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