this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2026
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Fuck Cars
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Nissan Sentra cost us 27k including the tax and interests. The marked price was 21k. That was 3 years ago. Made us feel very poor because we couldn't just pay for it, and had to pay more overall for not having that money outright. We didn't have any other debts.
So I don't think people with other debts can afford a car outright either, so end up paying more. Rich people can avoid all that. Or they can take that loan, make more money from the money they already have (higher returns than loan interest rate), and avoid taxes on loan money, and get richer
Indeed, the boots theory of poverty. So many things are cheaper even in absolute terms if you have enough money to get things cheaper or get better things for not much more money that will way outlast the cheap stuff. Also people are more excited to just give you money when you have money (higher interest rate, even for very safe savings accounts).
Oh, I am certainly not advocating for buying new. I'm just trying to say that cheaper options are out there, even if consumers aren't interested in them. It blows my mind that average transaction prices are north of $50k while everyone is seemingly broke.