Stability favors the meek. Fortune favors the bold. On the flipside OP already made his fortune.
Sell when Basic Warranty Expires
- Thread starter Al
- Start date
AZjeff
$50 Site Donor 2023
The answer has to be since they don't have much wealth or income they assume others don't as well. Also the POV depends on where one is in life.
I don’t see a problem with driving newer vehicles with a warranty. We like new vehicles too. It’s OK to enjoy yourself a little - life is short.
On the topic of inheritance, I doubt my parents are going to leave me a dime and I’m fine with that. Both have said they plan to spend it all. I don’t care about the money, I care about them. My wife and I do plan to leave our kids an inheritance. However if it is only $100K each vs $1M each cause we enjoyed ourselves a bit I guess the poor souls will have to manage.
On the topic of inheritance, I doubt my parents are going to leave me a dime and I’m fine with that. Both have said they plan to spend it all. I don’t care about the money, I care about them. My wife and I do plan to leave our kids an inheritance. However if it is only $100K each vs $1M each cause we enjoyed ourselves a bit I guess the poor souls will have to manage.
The very most important thing is that you survived your "exciting Saturday night". No visit to the ER. No jail time.Thanks for defending me Astro. But seriously I certainly did not expect many to agree with this "plan". Looks like it turned into a good discussion and really I hoped it would.
But the idea of a Lease may be worth pursuing. I may do that. Thanks
In the mean time, I had to visit my psychologist due to Skyactive's comment about abandoning my adult children by spending their inheritance.
I'm 67 and just bought possibly my last car, in my signature. I drive no more than 4k miles a year, living where anything I need is "around the corner". If it was a Ford I might buy their best extended warranty, 10 years 48k miles $100 ded for $1,000. Honda maxes out at 8 years with 100k minimum for a lot more money so not worth it for my usage. I'm all for Al following his plan as that's the one for him. I'm turning that coin over and planning this car to take me through the remainder of my driving days. Others will have other plans and ideas. The certainty is your plan will be best for you and YMWV (your mileage will vary).
I wasn’t defending oil pan or criticize OP. I do think people misunderstood oil pan but his statement was so crude that he basically open a internet dojo in the hood to incite challengers.
I do support OP’s approach to later life car ownership even though I think it’s a ruse for getting different cars all the time. We all have ways to justify our purchases even if we more than deserve it.
I personally would just get one nice car and use Turo for any vehicle I like a few times a year. For example, I love BMW but wouldn’t consider owning one unless my current mechanic suddenly got his son interested in taking over the backyard repair shop with focus on European makes; the father charged me $150 for labor to replace brake rotors and pads for both axles and replaced one sway bar for my 2002 Honda Accord. And his work is as good if not much better than shops because I get to have someone of master mechanic skills and experience working on it instead of a junior or trainee.
There are people who have already spent the “inheritance” that they expect to receive from their parents.
They view their future financial success as a responsibility of their parents - not themselves.
I had to face this reality in 1991 when my father died at a very young age. My sister, wanted “her share of the inheritance” and at the time, my mother was 52. A breathtaking display of entitlement, and self absorption was on display.
I realize then, as I do now, that my sister’s “share of the inheritance” was zero. That whatever money dad left behind at a young age, and it wasn’t much* was to go for my mother’s health, care, maintenance, and support.
My mother is now in her mid-80s. I will travel up to Maryland to visit her tomorrow, and we are going over her estate plan.
Whatever money she has at this point should properly be spent on her. She has done well to survive the 33 years since dad‘s death.
Part of growing into adulthood is accepting responsibility for yourself and your future. My sister had not yet made that transition, and evidently, some people here have not made it, either.
In other posts, I have articulated the degree to which I sacrificed to get my kids where they are today. I don’t think I’m on trial here, though the attempt has been made to place me on trial as a self-serving narcissist who doesn’t care about my children or my legacy. Questioning my commitment to my children is an argument that simply cannot be supported.
But, my situation is off-topic.
The point is, that the original poster has arrived at a point in life, where he chooses to spend his money in this way.
We should all be so lucky. Lucky that we had the foresight, planning, and discipline, to arrive at 78 years old with enough money to buy a new car if you choose. To choose a lower stress approach to automobile ownership.
I think the only appropriate thing to say at this point, is “well done”.
*Dad had just finished putting all three of us through college. He was in sales, and a recession was brewing. Sales had been down during the Gulf War, but Dad never wavered in his commitment to us. We had no idea that he had had to take out a third mortgage on the house to cover my brother and sisters college expenses. Further, my sister was in the process of getting a second bachelors degree after graduating from Mount Holyoke three years prior. I think paying for one degree, and allowing her to graduate without student loans, was a reasonable extent/execution of dad‘s responsibility to her. The subsequent extra three years of rent money, tuition and expenses, that she received from him while getting an art degree at the Mass College of Art in Boston, was a Luxury, for which dad had paid. He had already granted her his “legacy”, but she was just too entitled to see it, and wanted more.
Some people consider 30 mins in a nice vehicle better and cheaper than therapy. It certainly is cheaper than going to a bar or cigar lounge in my case. I drop around $100 each time I go to the lounge. Even though I thoroughly enjoy each trip and had built up a nice and unique collection via it, I no longer desired it as the clienteles are not of my social class so I don’t gain financially from being there. A cigar lounge I can benefit from has $100k membership deposit and a $25k annual fee. I definitely wouldn’t join unless I go there a few times as guest and make several hundreds thousands dollars from it first. I go with a few around here with a family friend because his friends in the industry gave me their assessment on the then pending menthol ban and I acted according based on all of my research and gained $30k from it; therefore, spending $100 and increased my collection, at shop marked up prices, 5 times this past 8 months is well worth it.
Oh wait, I just look OP’s car list. These are good reliable car except for the unknown issue with Subaru going from gasket leak to other issues as they seem to manage to always find a way to use inferior part or material to have planned obsolescence. These are not even middle class vehicles. Just lease them and move on to other important things like spending time with grand kids snd do things one really want.
I somehow was under impression we talk about Bimmer or some European exotics where post-warranty ownership is sketchy.
I somehow was under impression we talk about Bimmer or some European exotics where post-warranty ownership is sketchy.
I feel the same. I can't think of a single vehicle that fits my needs and isn't wildly over-priced and/or doesn't have well-documented serious issues. No car payments are nice but what I fear most is totaling one of my vehicles and being forced to buy something different and modern. The kids drive a 2022 Kia Soul that I actually love and even with all the issues Kia has in general if it came in AWD I'd probably buy one for myself if I had to since it'd take me at least 10 years to go 100,000 miles and be out of the powertrain warranty. At that point I'd be paid off for 6 or 7 years and even if worth nothing, who cares?
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'22 Soul, '20 Tundra and '19 RX350 aren't modern?
Looking over my fleet - his seems pretty late-model to me… but none of them are fancy.
They all have managed to meet “requirement” vs. “desire”. An important lesson that most people fail to learn.
To be honest, now that the kids are out of college, and my wife and I are enjoying life a little bit more, we have a couple of “fun” cars.
No requirement for a convertible, or a four-door V-12 luxury sedan in our lives, and I freely admit that they are for fun.
But the nice part of achieving some degree of financial independence, is that you get to choose how you spend your money.
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The Soul is current, the Tundra is the same basic design from 2007 and the RX 350 came out in 2015. I fear vehicles released and built in the past 4 years both for price and look what Toyota did to the Tundra - for almost 2x the cost I get a vehicle that is half as reliable. No thank you!
I make a distinction between pre and post-2020 which seems to be a real turning point in vehicle design and manufacturing. There is a transmission guy on TikTok who is really very reasonable and he was just saying he can't even trust OEM parts anymore and that he's spending all his time doing in-house QC. Castings with cracks in them, parts that are out of spec right out of the box, and the list goes on. He's been doing this for a long time and said he's never seen so many QC issues with parts in his career. This is of course just one aspect of what things are like now and it doesn't even delve into the actual design issues or the problems with how these parts are being put together.
+1 there is definitely an argument to be made for a high end everything included lease if your annual mileage is low, you don't want to get involved with any mait. or repairs liability ESPECIALLY for higher end high risk (ie BMW) this also takes away all the trade in variable/risk.
Leases aren't all that. Yeah, they're great with a new whatever for "only" $279 a month for a 36 month lease. And yeah, that's a good number. But. $3999 due at signing. That's $111 a month for 36 months. So it isn't $279 a month it is $390 a month and for a new whatever that's no bargain at all. And some have other gotcha fees and numbers also due so it's $400 a month or more actually for the $279 lease car. Lease, code for take more money out of suckers pockets.
At the age of 78 and being financially good (not wealthy) this method is not for everyone.
I did this with a '16 Spark, '19 Crosstrek, and '22 Forester. If I am still alive, next up will be a'27WRX.
My '22 needed tires- I buy top end tires so $1300+, CVT oil change (+400), Walnut blasting in the 1 year future. Also the Basic warranty. Its hard to put a price on that. So all in all this method keeps me with new vechicles, latest safety and zero repairs.
Why am I posting this? BC its an exciting saturday nite.
Al, I say good for you. You worked for it and earned being able to drive vehicles that are newer and lower mileage. Of course doing this goes against what most financial advisors would recommend, but you didn't ask for financial advice in the first place.
If I remember correctly, didn't you gift your Spark to a young relative in need? For my kids we started doing the car hand-me-down so they can focus on student loan debt and saving.
Off-topic examples of what can happen as we get older.
My father passed a day before his 48th birthday (I was 21 and finishing my senior year of college) and left my mother very little. She continued to work until she couldn't in her mid-60's. I've paid for all my schooling at public universities and made my way in the world on my own. My mother is still alive, she lives with a long-term "companion" in Ohio because together they can manage with two social security incomes but neither one can afford to live without the other. I help a lot.
My wife comes from wealth. Her father unexpectedly passed away 3 years ago leaving assets of several million dollars and no debt to my MIL. My wife had no debt coming into our marriage after attending one of the most expensive small liberal arts colleges in the US. Her two sisters attended similarly expensive colleges. My MIL still lives in her multimillion-dollar home of 45 years in Darien, CT, and in her late 70's, she could afford to live her life as usual but has seemingly reverted to life before she was married and wealthy. Having grown up poor on Long Island in a house with 7 siblings and a mother who worked herself to death after my MIL's father passed when she was 8 or 9, we go to her house to find the AC is not on even though it's 90F, the heat is set at 58F even though it is 10F outside, the cable has been turned off, the memberships to the two country clubs she belonged to with her friends for +40 years are now gone. She is used to traveling to Europe multiple times per year and has not traveled since his death. I think it gives her a sense of control or as I said she has simply reverted back to what she remembers from pre-married life. When we question her about it she keeps saying she doesn't want to waste any money that could be better used by us when she's gone. We keep begging her to turn up the heat, turn on the AC, and live her life without a care for what she does or doesn't leave us. We're all doing well, we're all going to be fine without a dime of inheritance, we just want her to enjoy her life. I plan my life as if she isn't leaving my wife anything and if she does, cherry on top, but there is certainly no expectation because it isn't our money.
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I would lease in OPs situation.