patrick.net

Oh course not. Prices are too high, debt is too high, and jobs too few and too low paying. The entire entry into the housing market has been closed. The exit is still open as nothing stops death.

As such the entire housing price level must collapse to the point where those student can afford to pay. And that's early 1990s if not 1980s level at this point.

Your average car now is 32K. And here I've been thinking I bought a Luxury car two years ago. Nope that wont even buy your average car today.

Cars are a rigged industry, they inflate the price on their cars by at least 30%, so leasing will seem more appealing, and they can justify the 3 grand up front and 3 grand when you turn the car back, in two years. While charging you $299 to $350 a month. That's actually what a car payment should be.

Indeed I walked around Sunnyvale Toyota and new Prius and Corollas over 25k ridiculous considering that I paid 30k for a 1 year old BMW M3 with less than 15k miles some years ago.

CaptainShuddup says

Your average car now is 32K.

That's why I drive a beater around town and if I need to take a trip I just rent a car for $45/day for the duration. A friend has a '97 Mercury Grand Marquis with 43K miles on it that's like new that he paid $4,600 for and keeps it just for pleasure trips, using another older car for his daily driving. It's got everything you'd want on it and it adds 25 years to his age. He'll be moving in a few months and I'm planning on buying it from him for an everyday car as my '98 is approaching 100K.

CaptainShuddup says

Your average car now is 32K. And here I've been thinking I bought a Luxury car two years ago. Nope that wont even buy your average car today.

I train back and forth to work for $4 each way. Then if I need a car I rent one at $40/day unlimited miles. In the end of the year I probably rent a car for half the cost, if that. ;)

What you live and work off the train platform?

We have the Metro Rail.
It is grossly under used because it runs North and South. From Miami to West Palm beach, flanking i95. While sure, I can go from Hollywood Blvd to Atlantic Ave, in under 40 minutes. What about the East/West route, if I worked out past University, that would be another 45 minute Bus ride? By Car it would be less than 45 minutes total.

CaptainShuddup says

What you live and work off the train platform?

5 min bike from work-train, 10 min bike from train to work on a bike path. The trains are now so full of people biking. Really nice to see. More and more debt slaves need to save every cent to make the mortgage payments. ;)

Surprise! When people have less money they spend less as consumers!

RentingForHalfTheCost says

5 min bike from work-train, 10 min bike from train to work on a bike path.

Perfect accommodations aside, it's a good thing you don't live in the lightening capitol of the world, and you don't have impromptu thunderstorms on an otherwise gorgeous day.

CaptainShuddup says

RentingForHalfTheCost says

5 min bike from work-train, 10 min bike from train to work on a bike path.

Perfect accommodations aside, it's a good thing you don't live in the lightening capitol of the world, and you don't have impromptu thunderstorms on an otherwise gorgeous day.

Car isn't much safer.

Japan saw the same thing.

http://www.leftlanenews.com/japans-kuruma-banare-dramatically-decreasing-new-car-sales.html

I make a reasonable salary and am not a millenial. Still, I'm not a moron.

I still drive my 2003 G35 Coupe with 150k+ miles on it. My mechanic says it will go 300,000 miles. Just took it to Vegas an back.

So why would I buy a new $30k car that isn't even as nice? It does need some dings popped out and a paint job, but that's less than $5k. He'll if I ever get to 300k miles, a rebuilt engine is around $8k and considering I would do a new paint and body job, it's probably more cost effective to keep replacing parts.

Just because some people want to rig the game doesn't mean I need to play it.

RentingForHalfTheCost : "Car isn't much safer."

I guess you are kidding. For the sake of everyone's enlightenment .... the reason why a car is safe to be inside in a thunderstorm is not because they have rubber tires (I don't know if you are the one that put that red circle on the tire in the picture you submitted).

It's a bit difficult to explain the physics of it to a novice, but the reason you are safe is because the electric field inside a conductor is zero.

dodgerfanjohn says

I still drive my 2003 G35 Coupe with 150k+ miles on it. My mechanic says it will go 300,000 miles. Just took it to Vegas an back.

zactly. except i would never drive a g35. shouldve gotten a 330i.

You can buy and crash and buy again those little Fiats for what you'd spend on lunch money in a quarter.

batman123 says

It's a bit difficult to explain the physics of it to a novice

Sufficient to say that an enclosed car acts like a Faraday cage.

JodyChunder says

You can buy and crash and buy again those little Fiats for what you'd spend on lunch money in a quarter.

25k out the door for fuel efficient awesome fun ...
http://www.fiatusa.com/en/2013/abarth/

Rew says

25k out the door for fuel efficient awesome fun ...

Something like 15K for the basic model. They're fun little cars!

robertoaribas says

Do you watch discovery channel 24/7 out there in victorville???

Heh...my uncles were both R&D engineers at Ampex; my uncle Larry is an IEEE chair and helped to create your I-phone.

RentingForHalfTheCost says

Car isn't much safer.

To be totally fair -- that car in the photo is a 1951 Ford sedan and much of its' interior components were steel, including the dashboard. It is possible, I suppose, if you were struck by a lightening bolt and your had was on the dashboard, that you could sustain an injury.

30 is the new 20. Heck when I first got out of college my student loan payments WERE equivalent to what a mortgage payment would have been.

Loans are (mostly) paid off now - but it certainly took me a while to dig out of the hole.

Given that people are living longer, working longer, and quality of life is (generally) better - that this trend is not a bad thing once we adjust to it.

And for what its worth, I should have 200k on m car by the end of this year. When you drive 100+ miles a day it adds up quick!

EastCoastBubbleBoy says

When you drive 100+ miles a day it adds up quick!

That's a bitch of a commute, man.

JodyChunder says

RentingForHalfTheCost says

Car isn't much safer.

To be totally fair -- that car in the photo is a 1951 Ford sedan and much of its' interior components were steel, including the dashboard. It is possible, I suppose, if you were struck by a lightening bolt and your had was on the dashboard, that you could sustain an injury.

If you were in the process of exiting the car at the time of the strike you would have a VERY bad day.

Unless the lightning imparted superpowers...

As far as cars and lightening, well when lightening strikes a car, there is a phenomena where the static charge will actually stay only on the outside of the car's surface. The occupants would be perfectly fine.

In regards to not buying a house under 30, well duh- I don't know many at that age who do anyway. I was 35 before buying one myself.

As an EE, I wasn't buying the faraday cage idea. I found the same google searches I'm guessing some of you found. Thinking of a car as a Faraday cage is a pretty gross interpretation of a Faraday cage.

It fits my understanding better to think of electricity and conductors. If electricity(electrical energy) is present it will move to/through conductors. If a car is struck the metal in the car acts as a conductor and probably most of the energy will move through the big metal roof and sides to the ground. If you happen to be touching any of that metal, you will be a conductor and get some of that energy.

If a car was at all a Faraday cage, eletrical devices placed in the car would not receive signals. Mobile phones, for example.

This explanation fits my understanding better than the Faraday cage idea and I wouldn't be surprised to find a real physicist saying a car does not fit a definition of a Faraday cage.

http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/cars.htm

FunTime says

If a car was at all a Faraday cage, eletrical devices placed in the car would not receive signals. Mobile phones, for example.

Maybe not a perfect analogy...I should have qualified my analogy by saying "partial" Faraday cage.

Again, as I mentioned above, if you are in contact with any metal inside of the car (and in a 1951 Ford coupe, you almost certainly would be) you're toast.