Car changes over the years

[Hairy]

1 hour ago, Jewbacca said:

I have been in a position in life where I have never bought a car over finance. From my first to my current, I have paid cash every time.

I was lucky enough to have had an opportunity straight out of school to do a very dangerous, but profitable, manual job allowed me to buy and pay for things like a car and education cash.

That said, I hate cars. Cars are stupid, people driving cars who are usually reasonable, decent people become entitled and enraged over nothing.

I hate driving on our roads and having to interact with other drivers. Single person transporters taking up kilometers of road, but feel like the traffic is everyone elses fault, hate any other type of road user and will cause more traffic by just not merging and splitting until they have to stop to do it because 'I'm in front of you and must stay in front of you because I'm more important than you!'

I promise you, no one who lives in a city or urban sprawl needs a sports car or a bakkie. Most people on here have at least one of the two, or both. (Yes, some don't, no need to say 'I don't)

I know people who own land Rovers and Fortuners so they can drive the dogs 2km to the park.

Two cars crash? A car kills a pedestrian? Oh dear, what a terrible accident!

2 people drown at Iron Man and everyone wants to ban the race. BAN CARS! They kill thousands of people every year and few people are actually fit to drive them safely.  

Start talking about car free areas, or creating car free zones in cities and people lose their minds. We are so programmed as a people to just accept cars for what they are they never get questioned. Spend 70 million on fixing roads, right next to a railway? absolutely!

Spend 20 million fixing up the railway so you don't need to drive? Absolutely NOT!

One word RE rail: "PRASA"

[Hairy]

[The Ouzo]

3 hours ago, LazyTrailRider said:

One of the finance gurus in my feed said something very interesting recently:

"Much of the psychology around owning an expensive car is about the *ability* to own an expensive car, more than actually owning it. Do yourself a favour over the next few years: Save until you get to a point where you can buy the car you dream about with cash, but then don't actually buy it. You'll find that you'll likely get just as much pleasure out of knowing that you can walk into the dealership tomorrow and drive out without debt as you would actually doing so."

I've done this experiment, it works 😉

I'm not clever enough to articulate it, but I've heard a few times that even if you can afford to pay cash, is often times more beneficial financially to purchase on HP.

 

The problem we have in our society, and very much so in SA, is that a car is a status symbol. People look down on you if you have not bought "the top number" (i.e. the highest spec).  And all the point Jewbecca pointed out are 100%. We survived going on holiday in mk1 golfs and opel kadetts, all the bigger cars do is allow us to take more junk with that we wont use.

I see people weekly looking at bakkies, they all want the 4x4 version, yet less than 1% of them do anything more than climb a pavement from time to time.

[Hairy]

5 minutes ago, The Ouzo said:

I'm not clever enough to articulate it, but I've heard a few times that even if you can afford to pay cash, is often times more beneficial financially to purchase on HP.

This part has my interest as to why it would be beneficial please?

[The Ouzo]

7 minutes ago, Hairy said:

This part has my interest as to why it would be beneficial please?

Like I said, not clever enough to articulate is properly, but something about money in an investment earning more interest than what you're paying on the loan. A car is a deprecating "asset", the cash is better spent on something that appreciates. 

[Spinnekop]

So who of all you guys commenting here have taken the bike to work and ditched the car today? 

[DieselnDust]

2 minutes ago, The Ouzo said:

Like I said, not clever enough to articulate is properly, but something about money in an investment earning more interest than what you're paying on the loan. A car is a deprecating "asset", the cash is better spent on something that appreciates. 

Spot on. Let the bank own the liability as long as possible. A car is a sunk cost anyway

[Shebeen]

6 hours ago, Hairy said:

Higher purchase is a killer, it is easy to buy a higher spec car than you need because it is just a few hundred rand more, then in about five years the car is traded in on a new car with the same mentality.

 

Did you just invent a new term there (by mistake)?

[DieselnDust]

2 minutes ago, Spinnekop said:

So who of all you guys commenting here have taken the bike to work and ditched the car today? 

Not today. It was such a beautiful morning too 

[Frosty]

On 8/29/2023 at 10:18 AM, Hairy said:

I have a few of these in my “glove compartment, aka cubby hole”. Only used it once.

Edited August 30, 2023 by Frosty

[Frosty]

4 minutes ago, Spinnekop said:

So who of all you guys commenting here have taken the bike to work and ditched the car today? 

Does work from home count?

[LazyTrailRider]

1 minute ago, Spinnekop said:

So who of all you guys commenting here have taken the bike to work and ditched the car today? 

Over the last 4 years, I think I've driven probably 100km for work. Driving to an office is stupid, and I freed my team from this silliness as soon as the pandemic started.

My car gets used for:

- Taking my bike to Tokai from Claremont (no, not riding it there, it's a trail bike and I love my soft compound rubber too much).

- Shopping trips

- Weekends away

For the rest, I walk, and we just added this wonderful puppy to the stable for my wife to use to get to her office (exactly 2km away) in summer, and for deli runs in the 'hood the rest of the time. 20km/hour with a 10km range.

[Frosty]

47 minutes ago, Hairy said:

I did something similar on one trip to Durban. The N3 was closed just after the Montrose stop, while the two trucks on fire were being attended to. I walked down to the Vida coffee shop and got 2 coffees and 2 hot chocolates. Took 9 hours for a normal 5.5 hour trip.

It shows on Strava, as they say it never happens unless…

Edited August 30, 2023 by Frosty

[Hairy]

13 minutes ago, The Ouzo said:

Like I said, not clever enough to articulate is properly, but something about money in an investment earning more interest than what you're paying on the loan. A car is a deprecating "asset", the cash is better spent on something that appreciates. 

Ah ok, I see where it is coming from. 
We keep a car for 10 years and then get a new one, so personally I am happy paying cash every 10 years.

[LazyTrailRider]

12 minutes ago, The Ouzo said:

Like I said, not clever enough to articulate is properly, but something about money in an investment earning more interest than what you're paying on the loan. A car is a deprecating "asset", the cash is better spent on something that appreciates. 

These folks are BSing themselves.

I've done the calculation 1 gazillion times over the last decade (and I used to BS myself this way). Show me someone who can *guarantee* outperforming the interest on a vehicle loan over a 5-year period with an investment (the operative word here is *guarantee*), and I'll show you someone who was a victim of optimism.

Super low rate on a new vehicle compared to a demo or used one? The premium you're paying for it being new kills all your investment good intentions.

There are pages upon pages which can be written about this...

[DieselnDust]

2 minutes ago, LazyTrailRider said:

Over the last 4 years, I think I've driven probably 100km for work. Driving to an office is stupid, and I freed my team from this silliness as soon as the pandemic started.

My car gets used for:

- Taking my bike to Tokai from Claremont (no, not riding it there, it's a trail bike and I love my soft compound rubber too much).

- Shopping trips

- Weekends away

For the rest, I walk, and we just added this wonderful puppy to the stable for my wife to use to get to her office (exactly 2km away) in summer, and for deli runs in the 'hood the rest of the time. 20km/hour with a 10km range.

I live just outside the bedornerd traffic zone in muizenberg (Zandvlei).

woolies is a 500m walk

pnp 2km round trip

muizenberg beach 1.8km walk one way or about 15-20min run walk run with Waveski under my arm. It’s pointless taking the car because they’re a zero parking down at the cnr. 
 

my job requires me to be in the office everyday despite the fact I can do it from home as I spend 80% of my time on msteams or the phone. BTO is now a new trend as companies realise they can’t get rental or resale value from their commercial property. I’d prefer to spend the R4000 petrol bill on something that’s an investment or appreciates in value instead I’m compelled to set that cash alight to srroke someone’s ego while they find all sorts of excuses to take my salary back to the 1980’s.

a bicycle is the only way forward for me now but safety and security is a big issue on the road.