How do so many young families have $80k SUVs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any financial advisor will tell you that one of the worst purchases you can make is an expensive car. These people are buying them for show. The really wealthy and smart people are buying Hondas and Toyotas for cash and keep them for ten years.

This. People who buy these luxury cars to make other think that they're high rollers are usually the ones who are financing them up to their eyeballs. People with real wealth don't need an $80,000 Lexus to show it. They stick with the $35,000 Camry and invest the rest.

OP, don't be jealous of these people.

I don't really agree with this. If someone makes $1m+ a year, buying an $80k lexus vs a $35 camry will not alter their future financial trajectory one bit. And why would someone who has obviously worked hard to get to that level want to drive around in a cheap, ugly, low-performance car like a camry? Treating yourself with a nice car that you spend a lot of time in and want to be safe and secure makes a lot of sense.

Because only $80,000+ cars are safe...

Statistically speaking cars that are more expensive (and larger) tend to be safer for the occupants. The driver+passenger death rate per million registered vehicles in the mini vehicle category is 208 people. The driver+passenger death rate per million registered vehicles for the large luxury SUV category is 52 people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The cars are leased.
The husbands ear good money.
They bought houses at low interest with downpayment provided by grandparents.
They have family money so do not worry about saving for retirement.

Yup. Not having to save for retirement must be a game changer. Saving for retirement AND college is a massive drain. PLUS getting financial help to buy a home?

Not if you make enough money. We have zero family help and have saved aggressively from day 1. College is paid for (3 kids) and we have close to $9m saved outside of real estate. Everyone always yells family help but it’s not always the case.

True, it’s not always the case. But it’s more common than you realize!

[Anonymous]

A car payment is how they afford it. Most people can find 1-2k a month for a car payment. And most lease so they always have a payment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any financial advisor will tell you that one of the worst purchases you can make is an expensive car. These people are buying them for show. The really wealthy and smart people are buying Hondas and Toyotas for cash and keep them for ten years.

This. People who buy these luxury cars to make other think that they're high rollers are usually the ones who are financing them up to their eyeballs. People with real wealth don't need an $80,000 Lexus to show it. They stick with the $35,000 Camry and invest the rest.

OP, don't be jealous of these people.

I don't really agree with this. If someone makes $1m+ a year, buying an $80k lexus vs a $35 camry will not alter their future financial trajectory one bit. And why would someone who has obviously worked hard to get to that level want to drive around in a cheap, ugly, low-performance car like a camry? Treating yourself with a nice car that you spend a lot of time in and want to be safe and secure makes a lot of sense.

Because only $80,000+ cars are safe...

Statistically speaking cars that are more expensive (and larger) tend to be safer for the occupants. The driver+passenger death rate per million registered vehicles in the mini vehicle category is 208 people. The driver+passenger death rate per million registered vehicles for the large luxury SUV category is 52 people.

This is only because a larger, heavier vehicle gives you an advantage over smaller, lighter vehicles in a crash. It’s inherently selfish to buy a large car for safety because in doing so you just made the road less safe for everyone else.

Just basic physics.

[Anonymous]

Cars make you poor, fat, and stressed. They are terrible for the planet too. There are so many better ways to get around.

I am convinced that most middle class families spend too much on these things trying not just to get around, but to impress their neighbors and make themselves feel better about their lives. Spending $1k a month on a car (payment, insurance, tolls, parking, gas, etc) while not saving is just 100% America.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cars make you poor, fat, and stressed. They are terrible for the planet too. There are so many better ways to get around.

I am convinced that most middle class families spend too much on these things trying not just to get around, but to impress their neighbors and make themselves feel better about their lives. Spending $1k a month on a car (payment, insurance, tolls, parking, gas, etc) while not saving is just 100% America.

Those big cars are bad for the environment and make you fat. I don’t know why more people don’t care about that. Selfish I guess.

[Anonymous]

The automobile industry has tricked us into buying their boats while in other countries, people are healthier and walk/bike more.

So now everyone wants the fancy European boat rather than the basic one.

[Anonymous]

These cars are extraordinarily selfish - they’re dangerous to others and bad for the environment. But they’re a good representation of the people that drive them and their excesses and entitlement.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes I feel a little hostile towards people with giant SUVs but I feel way more hostile about people who crusade against cars and parking, and insist that everyone who wants different things than they do is morally deficient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These cars are extraordinarily selfish - they’re dangerous to others and bad for the environment. But they’re a good representation of the people that drive them and their excesses and entitlement.

But your sense of excess and entitlement is entirely based on what you chose and like. Anything above what you chose and like is “excessive” and you don’t spend any time on people who manage with less than you do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These cars are extraordinarily selfish - they’re dangerous to others and bad for the environment. But they’re a good representation of the people that drive them and their excesses and entitlement.

How big is your house?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These cars are extraordinarily selfish - they’re dangerous to others and bad for the environment. But they’re a good representation of the people that drive them and their excesses and entitlement.

How big is your house?

DP here. The people with the giant SUVs are the SAME people with the McMansions. Highly correlated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These cars are extraordinarily selfish - they’re dangerous to others and bad for the environment. But they’re a good representation of the people that drive them and their excesses and entitlement.

2008 called, there’s a protest in the Whole Foods parking lot against the Iraq war if you want to drive over in your Volvo XC70

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These cars are extraordinarily selfish - they’re dangerous to others and bad for the environment. But they’re a good representation of the people that drive them and their excesses and entitlement.

How big is your house?

DP here. The people with the giant SUVs are the SAME people with the McMansions. Highly correlated.

+1. Excess begets excess. And people like this tend to live in the same neighborhoods, have kids at the same schools, etc. So what they see validates these choices and encourages them to consume even larger ones. I have known multiple people who moved from smaller homes to larger ones in a neighborhood of large homes. Within a year -- SUV (perhaps before they drove a wagon or a sedan). Within 5 years -- big SUV. This is true regardless of family size. We have some friends who moved from a row home in DC where they had a small BMW (very nice car, but small). They moved to a 4 bedroom house in Falls Church, and within a year they both had SUVs. They have one child. So a family of three in a 4000+ square foot house, two car garage, two luxury SUVs. If they still lived in the city they'd still have a nice life (private schools, great neighborhood, nice home, etc.) but they'd live in a house half as large and drive a small sedan. But where they live, everyone has a big house and huge cars, plus everyone drives everywhere since nothing is walkable, people engage in activities that involve more gear, which validates them having the big cars, and so on. It's a cycle.

Whereas you see people who move into the city go from two cars down to one. Then maybe get a cargo bike and stop driving their one car as much. They walk more, take metro, because it's convenient. Their neighbors all live in smaller homes as well, many people only have one car or no car, there is social pressure to walk or bike places, people will recommend bike seats for kids or a bike trailer, or suggest taking turns walking the kids to school to help each other out. Different culture, different choices.

What I'd love is if we could duplicate that city culture of smaller footprints and less car-dependency, out in the suburbs. Not everywhere, if you want a big house and car-dependent lifestyle, you'll always be able to find that. But near metro stops or convenient bus lines into the city, it would be great if we could actually build higher density, smaller houses with smaller yards, grocery stores and commercial districts built at a pedestrian/bike scale so that you could live there and mostly get around on foot or bike, take metro into the city for work, and just use your car on weekends or for specific tasks like taking a kid to sports meets or whatever. There are lots of places around DC where this would be possible, but there is so much resistance to the kind of density and infrastructure you need to make that happen. But it would provide opportunities for so many more people to access that lifestyle at various price points.

[Anonymous]

I got a new Ascent for 45K