so are ya moving in the future like my uncle, and dad did. from Fremont and Newark and capitalizing on there 700k 1200sqft box...
WHY do vehicles depreciate so fast?
- Thread starter CharlesInCharge
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No; I really like it here, and there is no reason to move.
Have you seen what older restored 60's and 70's trucks are going for lately? I read an article that real statis at the Country Club isn't an Escalade or Denali it's a mint fully restored 1970 F150.
People own cars until the cars drive them crazy. It could be expensive repairs, but those are sometimes forgivable. Unpredictable, car-stopping breakdowns aren't. Repeat repair attempts due to bad diagnoses can also make you trade.
From a planned obsolescence standpoint, some people will tolerate a window motor with a 125k mile lifespan if the car still gets them around. Same with clunking bushings or weeping seals. But when you have access to a car that doesn't do any of that it puts the first one to shame.
And if the car doesn't drive you crazy, you get bored of it. Typically the quality is there so the resale value is worth it.
Get outta here with that logic, common sense, and rationalism. This is BITOG!
Yeah, but straight 50w with a little Slick50 works better than 0w20 in everything!
No Lucas additive? BZZT WRONG
Supply of desirable homes and build worthy land is limited while supply of used and new cars generally is high so they depreciate.
Supply and demand?
Many people like getting a new car every few years, so there is a ready supply going onto the used market—but it can only absorb so much. When the market is saturated, prices fall. When it’s starved, prices go up. Used car prices at the moment reflect this, apparently lots of demand, and now more than a few members here have indicated their vehicles appreciated on trade-in!
I’m sure the current situation will change, and may approach where it used to be (steep depreciation followed by gradual).
Many people like getting a new car every few years, so there is a ready supply going onto the used market—but it can only absorb so much. When the market is saturated, prices fall. When it’s starved, prices go up. Used car prices at the moment reflect this, apparently lots of demand, and now more than a few members here have indicated their vehicles appreciated on trade-in!
I’m sure the current situation will change, and may approach where it used to be (steep depreciation followed by gradual).
Remember Cash for Clunkers and then the used cars prices went up a few years later on low end stuff? Supply and demand coupled to money in hand 
Too many variables which cause obsolence and damages. From an professional accounting perspective, most vechicles aren't used to generate an income (depriciable capital property) and due to mass production, aren't complex or difficult to build.
You do have rare occasions such as collectable cars, but that's an outlier for the industry as whole and those prices are more so dictated not by "demand" but more so by subjective things such as emotions. Also keep supply and demand in mind.
You do have rare occasions such as collectable cars, but that's an outlier for the industry as whole and those prices are more so dictated not by "demand" but more so by subjective things such as emotions. Also keep supply and demand in mind.
you ever owned real alfa romeo? you could literally hear them rusting
No rust issues with the newer stuff, just general quality issues. I would not own one out of warranty
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Well, I’ve never seen someone wonder/question why a car depreciates faster than a house, but I’ve got a couple suggestions as to way.
Movable parts — Houses, for the most part, don’t have them. Cars do, and they wear.
Land — Land goes with the house, and they’re not building anymore land, so there’s real value in that.
Life — You have to live in the house, you can’t survive without a roof over your head. There’s value in that.
Cars — Depreciate instantly because of wear...scratches, rust, component wear. A car literally wears every single day. You don’t have to worry about people Driving their car into your house, usually. You don’t have to worry about someone slamming their car door or carriage into yours in a parking lot (leaving you a $1,200 dollar ring).
House “repair” — Most of the time it’s actually improvement, unless we’re talking a roof. And even then it’s usually a 25 year roof. You do your kitchen over and it increases your value. Your bathrooms? Increase value. Nothing on your car is going to increase its value, it’s just a continuous never ending battle of failure/wear/expense. And heating, lighting you’ll get rebates for nowadays as well. And you can rent your house out for thousands per month (I do that with my rental properties) I can’t really do that with a car (well i
Road Salt - Always on a car in winter...slowly eating away at it. Never on a house.
Major component failure — Once you’ve reached the mileage point where major components fail (engine/transmission), you will also have to deal with EVERYTHING else ALSO needing repair/replacement. Car is done. I don’t people realize that paint, tires, brakes, windshields, everything on that car WEARS. Some things you can put off and deal with/ignore, but others you just can’t. You can go with bad paint, but other things? Not really. And that paint job? That’s $3,000 easy. More if you want a nice one. Less if you want to wrap it. Zero if you just drive around in an eye sore.
Movable parts — Houses, for the most part, don’t have them. Cars do, and they wear.
Land — Land goes with the house, and they’re not building anymore land, so there’s real value in that.
Life — You have to live in the house, you can’t survive without a roof over your head. There’s value in that.
Cars — Depreciate instantly because of wear...scratches, rust, component wear. A car literally wears every single day. You don’t have to worry about people Driving their car into your house, usually. You don’t have to worry about someone slamming their car door or carriage into yours in a parking lot (leaving you a $1,200 dollar ring).
House “repair” — Most of the time it’s actually improvement, unless we’re talking a roof. And even then it’s usually a 25 year roof. You do your kitchen over and it increases your value. Your bathrooms? Increase value. Nothing on your car is going to increase its value, it’s just a continuous never ending battle of failure/wear/expense. And heating, lighting you’ll get rebates for nowadays as well. And you can rent your house out for thousands per month (I do that with my rental properties) I can’t really do that with a car (well i
Road Salt - Always on a car in winter...slowly eating away at it. Never on a house.
Major component failure — Once you’ve reached the mileage point where major components fail (engine/transmission), you will also have to deal with EVERYTHING else ALSO needing repair/replacement. Car is done. I don’t people realize that paint, tires, brakes, windshields, everything on that car WEARS. Some things you can put off and deal with/ignore, but others you just can’t. You can go with bad paint, but other things? Not really. And that paint job? That’s $3,000 easy. More if you want a nice one. Less if you want to wrap it. Zero if you just drive around in an eye sore.
I dabbed non matching paint on mine, to try to seal up the rock chips. Rustoluem Rusty Metal Primer. Worked pretty well. My other car looks ok from 25 feet, much closer and everything sticks out. Not about to fix the paint on either.
I appreciate all the replies. I barely mentioned houses as a for instance, not meaning a direct analogy. I think folks really missed the point and fixated on a contrast which was not the point.
A new $50,000 car will be a $25,000 car pretty quickly, even if accident free and well maintained and even looking and driving like new with no necessary maintenance on the horizon, no issues, etc. The focus of the discussion is the reasoning behind this. In a ~5 year period, there are not sufficient advances in any categories to warrant a 50% loss in value, when the vehicle probably has 90% or greater lifespan remaining. WHY is that?
Status, boredom, "used" stuff that 1st world people devalue (unlike a house, but let's not fixate on houses), etc.? It's not like a car is used clothing, which normally (normal clothing) depreciates to nearly zero immediately when purchased and worn.
A new $50,000 car will be a $25,000 car pretty quickly, even if accident free and well maintained and even looking and driving like new with no necessary maintenance on the horizon, no issues, etc. The focus of the discussion is the reasoning behind this. In a ~5 year period, there are not sufficient advances in any categories to warrant a 50% loss in value, when the vehicle probably has 90% or greater lifespan remaining. WHY is that?
Status, boredom, "used" stuff that 1st world people devalue (unlike a house, but let's not fixate on houses), etc.? It's not like a car is used clothing, which normally (normal clothing) depreciates to nearly zero immediately when purchased and worn.
A 5 year old car has 90% of its life left? I find that hard to believe. I‘d accept 75% but to imply that the average new car has a 50 year lifespan seems ludicrous. I know average age is 11 years old now, but I have no idea how fast it drops after that.
The average car CAN last 150K miles if taken care of. You buy a three year old car with 30K miles on it you should have 80% of it's life left to enjoy.
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