First of all, it's totally nuts to own a Suburban if you live and work in DC. Second of all, you know who has a lower carbon footprint than someone who lives/works in DC and owns a Suburban? Someone who lives/works in DC and doesn't own a Suburban. |
| PP do you live in DC proper? There is more to DC than Georgetown and The Wharf. Many homes in residential neighborhoods have off-street parking or easy street parking. Many people have large families and don’t want to drive a minivan. Why is that so difficult to understand? |
Well, there's that DCUM bubble, where you think that there are lots of people who live in the Palisades, have large families, and can afford a $60,000 motor vehicle to drive to - well, the Palisades, I guess. Or Spring Valley. And then get on DCUM and complain about how you're barely making ends meet on a household income of $450,000 a year. |
So you don't even live in DC and you're going to tell me what is or isn't practical to drive my wife, kids, and ILs around in? |
| These vehicles are insanely expensive. I'm sure they're more than affordable for many in the DC area but when I travel the country I often see middle class and poor people getting out of these (and I mean actual middle class as in a household income of 50k, not DCUM "middle class"). In many parts of the country you'll see a huge SUV sitting next to a house and often time the SUV costs more than the house. Lots of people in this country are making poor financial decisions when they buy these vehicles and get 7 and 8 year loans. That's how they're affording them. |
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You should never spend more than 1/10 of the your gross income on a car. The 10% rule is a steadfast rule that EVERYONE must follow.
https://www.financialsamurai.com/the-110th-rule-for-car-buying-everyone-must-follow/ https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/04/follow-this-simple-rule-for-car-buying-if-you-want-to-get-rich-says-millionaire-money-expert.html So if you make 500k a year, you can buy a 100k car. If you make 100k a year, you can buy a 10k car. |
Oops, if you make 500k a year, you can buy a 50k car. You'd have to make 1 million a year to buy a 100k car. |
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Also insanely difficult to park. They don't even fit into many regular parking spaces. And then there's the turning radius. But sure, a Suburban is such a practical vehicle to drive around in downtown DC by yourself... |
They fit poorly into many parking garages as well. When I'm in a parking garage and see one of these, I can tell that the driver chose poorly. |
I lived in DC and owned a Suburban for many years. I also had an 8 member household and also routinely used it for towing. I assure you I didn't choose poorly. |
You didn't choose poorly if you only used your Suburban to transport 8 people at a time, and/or for towing. But otherwise, yeah, you did. |
+1 It's almost like they ignore everything anyone writes and say, "I'm the exception to the rule!". Sure, they're the exception and a suburban was the right vehicle for them. You still shouldn't be parking it in many parking garages. I was at Rio a couple weekends ago and there were full sized pickups and SUV's that could barely drive there. The vehicles were longer than the spaces and they had to back up to get up and down ramps with a car coming the other way. It was one of the most ridiculous things I've seen, especially since I'm sure most of those people own a second smaller car. Even a regular crossover would have made more sense. |
| “Rio Lakefront shopping center” in Gaithersburg, MD is almost as urban as lower Manhattan so I can see why you don’t want Suburbans or F150s there. |
As I'm sure you know, Rio is pretty darn suburban. And Suburbans *still* don't fit there. |