Every day I see a wall. On the outside are tens of millions of consumers who lack the commitment, integrity and responsibility to keep their word. Debt, crime, and fraud are their elixirs and it’s literally destroying this country. It fills the lots and keeps the auctions busy for hours. Then I see the other side of that wall. Hundreds of millions trying to get ahead and do the right thing in their lives. They are my buyers, the lane clerks, the ringmen, the consigners, and all the people outside the auction who choose a better path. Everyone thinks that the auctions are a cut-throat place where only the knowledgeable and careful survive . . . and they’re right.
If you don’t know about cars, stay the hell away. Don’t ask me to buy something unless you’re willing to put money up front and wait for months. It took me six months to find an AWD Volvo wagon for my mom that passed every measure of my standards. I PAID for it. In the end, the only way to really get ahead for those of you who want “showhorses” is to bid high and realize that the quality factor is more important than “value” if you want perfection.
The “workhorse” I can deal with. An airline may need a several pickups, a few sedans, and a small fleet of minivans. They will take any color as long as it’s white and they already have mechanics at their beck and call. They want the workhorse and they make my job a lot easier. But not really easy. It’s gotta be white. It’s gotta be a Ford. It’s gotta have no more than 70,000 miles which is hard when you consider that their budget is slightly larger than two months of a young teacher’s salary.
But once they get it, it works. Dents? Can be popped out. Right quarter panel replaced? Who cares. So long as the vehicle wasn’t caved in. To me, the perfect sign of an American renaissance will come when people become more concerned about their country’s fiscal health than they are about their cars.
I’ll say it again….I’ll say it again…the biggest new car shortage in the history of the modern world is coming in 2011. People can only hang on to their cars for so long. Where will you be able to find a new car if you want one? I predict record numbers of backorders.
“Where will you be able to find a new car if you want one?”
Chinese, Korean, Japanese, East European & German factories will be ready to build all the market can consume.
>>Where will you be able to find a new car if you want one?”
Chinese, Korean, Japanese, East European & German factories will be ready to build all the market can consume.<<
Hold on here, I thought we were all going to be buying Italian cars – from Chrysler!
People can only hang on to their cars for so long.
Ever heard of Cuba? What we can do and what we’d prefer to do are two different things. I just don’t see pent-up demand overcoming years of pull-forward marketing anytime soon. The long-term effects of this credit crisis won’t allow for it.
It is a shame that the vast majority of Americans care more about “having” things than “affording” things & planning for their future.
Steven Lang: But once they get it, it works. Dents? Can be popped out. Right quarter panel replaced? Who cares. So long as the vehicle wasn’t caved in. To me, the perfect sign of an American renaissance will come when people become more concerned about their country’s fiscal health than they are about their cars.
I believe that the country will be in better shape if people buy QUALITY for the long-term, and then take care of what they buy so that it lasts for a long time.
People driving around in a dented, cruddy vehicle is hardly the way to achieve that goal (and, from my experience, the dented, dirty vehicles tend to be the ones that are belching oily exhaust or have turn signals that don’t work or have the iffy brakes).
The best path to fiscal health is to buy quality merchandise, and then take care of it so that it lasts for a long time.
@geeber
The best path to fiscal health is to buy quality merchandise, and then take care of it so that it lasts for a long time.
Normally, I would agree with you. In the past there were a plethora of aftermarket parts companies that could supply you with any part you need to keep a car on the road.
You can damn near build a CJ Jeep completely from aftermarket parts from the likes of JC Whitney.
Unfortunately, I suspect cars like my 2008 VW GTI will not be on the road for 25 years. Complex electronics required to run the vehicle will go out of production, the software’s source code will be lost or forgotten.
A modern vehicle with a good drive train is no better than a doorstop without functioning computers to squirt the fuel and fire the spark plugs.
Lets not forget about ABS computers, Airbag computers, and transmission computers. All are required to keep a car running, and to keep the dreaded diagnostic lights off in the car to pass inspection.
I suspect modern day cars will not have long service lives compared to the simpler cars of the past. The will of the owner will not be enough if service parts can not be bought.
-ted
“Every day I see a wall. On the outside are tens of millions of consumers who lack the commitment, integrity and responsibility to keep their word. Debt, crime, and fraud are their elixirs and it’s literally destroying this country.”
I see a lot of people who cannot honor their commitments because of a rotten economy or because of medical problems. While many people worry about one-payer health care coverage, I worry about those whose fate is altered by an accident or illness. I see a wall, but it is a wall that is not made by the people who are suffering.
There are bums, cheats, drunks, drug-addled, and lazy people who don’t want to work hard, but I don’t think that most people are like that.
I have been very lucky in life. My girlfriend in college did not get pregnant, so I got to finish my degrees. I was punted from my motorcycle (by a very good driver; he assured me this as I lay in the street waiting for the EMTs) when I had full insurance coverage, not when I was a TA/bartender. Had I been struck a year earlier, I would have been out $100,000 in medical bills and lost wages. Would I have been one of the bums ruining this country?
I think the elixir is that we all get what we deserve. Keep drinking from that vial and we will see walls.
Unfortunately, I suspect cars like my 2008 VW GTI will not be on the road for 25 years. Complex electronics required to run the vehicle will go out of production, the software’s source code will be lost or forgotten.
It wouldn’t be that hard to build a ECU emulator.
A fact of life is that cars will pick up some scratches and dents. If it’s a very new car or something that’s unusually valuable, it might make sense to repair it. But one can also find mechanically-reliable used cars that might have some cosmetic defects, and those issues may cost more to repair (at least if contracted to professionals) than can be justified by the value of the vehicle. In short, don’t assume that dents automatically mean that a vehicle is unreliable or has not been properly maintained.
ruckover, I can appreciate the loss of health insurance but why do you expect me to pay for your injuries or illness? Why can’t you do what is necessary to get an education or training and provide for you and yours? Just because you don’t have insurance doesn’t mean you can’t get treatment, any emergency room has to treat you. They might put a cast on your broken bones and show you the door but you’ll get treatment (on the dime of those that have coverage of course that have to overpay for treatment). Sheesh!
@jmo: -or a future version of the Arduino.
“and, from my experience, the dented, dirty vehicles tend to be the ones that are belching oily exhaust or have turn signals that don’t work or have the iffy brakes).”
I drive a $4700 car that I put $800 in brake parts on – Brembo disks and EBC Ceramic pads. It’s about 3 tons of car that stops like a Miata. My poverty, but not my will, consents to the dents.
Wildbill,
I have health-care coverage,now. And I have a doctorate and do provide for myself and mine. I am just saying that there are a lot of people who have to file for bankruptcy through no real fault of their own. When I was in grad school, I was teaching literature, managing a bar, coaching rugby, driving a rusted-out VW Bug, and staying out of debt, but I could not afford health insurance.
You ask why should you pay for me and mine–and then you point out that with the system we have that is just what we do. Those of us that are lucky enough to have jobs with good benefits pay for those who are not as fortunate through higher premiums. I just believe it would be a better service if everyone was covered, and then we would not have uninsured families put into horrible messes because of accidents or illnesses. I don’t mind a bit of a wait if it meant that everyone could be served. We already ration out health-care; I just wish that it was done in a more humane manner.
ruckover
“Had I been struck a year earlier, I would have been out $100,000 in medical bills and lost wages. Would I have been one of the bums ruining this country?”
Bull. You would have been treated and forgiven the medical bill. At worst you would have had to pay 1/10th of it. I had a friend who was between jobs. He had plenty of money saved in the bank. He had an accident, cost of treatment was a couple grand. No problem he had the money and wanted to pay it. The hospital said no thanks, wrote it off. I suspect the clerk involved could not fathom anyone paying for a bill when all she had to do was check a little box on a form and it would all go away. Imagine her when we have nationalized health care and your situation does not fall into one of those neatly defined categories.
Removed by author as redundant
I don’t NEED a big expensive car to impress anyone. I need to get to work on time every day, to haul home groceries, and to take care of family obligations. And I make the payment every month so that I can. What’s the big deal ? That’s how it works.
As for medical care, we were better off when we paid our own doctor bills. Insurance and government involvement are what raised the cost so much the last 40 years.
@Steven Lang –
How many custom/sponsored searches do you take on? Are they usually commercial customers or have you hunted down specific vehicles for individuals?
wind:
one or two anecdotes does not a system make…
seriously:
lots of hospitals, even not-for-profits ‘have’ to send patients 50k, 100k, 150k bills.
they can only take so many write-downs before they have to pay their own…
If the patient cannot pay, the bill goes to a debt collector…
I still cannot understand why ‘merica chooses to not provide basic medical care (on a consistent basis – not ER basis) for all its citizens…
Gotta disagree with “scarey” here:
“As for medical care, we were better off when we paid our own doctor bills. Insurance and government involvement are what raised the cost so much the last 40 years.”
I’d expect it has far more to do with advanced technologies like quadruple-bypass surgeries doctors crank out like sausages, trauma units, MRI machines, and on and on. This stuff isn’t cheap, and I don’t see much room for government to have made it even more expensive. Insurance just made money available for these technologies to become commonplace.
People used to simply die from heart attacks and cancer and such. Now, people “smart enough” to take advantage of their insurance are getting under a doctor’s care before these diseases become fatal, getting treatment for them, and living far longer lives. True miracles of modern medicine — but it does cost a LOT of money. Don’t know about “scarey,” but I’d count myself as one who couldn’t “pay my own doctor bills” if they amounted to several hundred thousand dollars, as is commonplace these days….
@Steven Lang –
“How many custom/sponsored searches do you take on? Are they usually commercial customers or have you hunted down specific vehicles for individuals?”
I have hunted down vehicles for plenty of folks. But either they have to wait a while for the product to come through, and be willing to pay the clean wholesale price plus $500. Or they have to give me a broad parameter that enables me to look through a variety of models (find me a $5000 SUV).
The former I found for Frank Williams (his was at cost if I remember correctly and I made money on the trade-in which he had bought from me a year prior.) The later was for RF.
Overall, I would say that it’s far easier to offer a single vehicle to a mass audience than to find a single vehicle among thousands that will satisfy one person’s tastes.
Thoots- Are you saying that insurance companies DON’T add enormously to the cost of health care ? Do you suppose that they work pro bono ?
Look at their annual reports. They are HUGE. And for the government to lay out one dollar, they must steal two dollars from you and me. Big medical advances pad the cost too, but watch them become scarcer when health care is ‘free’. Maggie Thatcher said that the problem with socialism is that sooner or later, you run out of other peoples’ money.
scary: “As for medical care, we were better off when we paid our own doctor bills. Insurance and government involvement are what raised the cost so much the last 40 years.”
Possibly better off financially…
However, not many people have 100k-1000k sitting around to ‘fight’ cancer, or hip replacement surgery, or open heart surgery…
Thus, for the people who aren’t trust-fund babies or .com millionaires, there’s this great thing called ‘shared responsibility’
‘shared responsibility’ leads to me paying your bills.
Shared (or pooled) risk on the other hand is what insurance is all about. My money, my coverage, my choices. All working because millions of other people are making the same bet.
Yes, I recall a “custom search” such as find me a minvan, 06-09, with less than 75,000 miles. And what we were offered was “gee..just missed that really nice 2007 one with 45,000 miles but have these other 02’s with 145,000 miles. Not once, not twice, but three times. No pattern there.
The pretentious, hollier than thou mentality is a little strange.
Truth be told, there is vast majority of folks who do things the traditional way…hold a job, pay mortgage, pay car notes, hug their kids, etc.
Who the heck “sees” these “tens of millions” of consumers who lack the integrity and responsibility to keep their word. I don’t even know one of those, let alone tens of millions. Well, now if you listen to Excellence in Broadcasting (laugh) Radio free Propoganda all day, you’d probably think we live in Nigeria. But that’s why I like my iPod.
The ones that use Debt, crime, and fraud that are destroying this country?
Yeah, on the part of the WALL STREET MBA’s.
Were you perhaps referring to them?
Somehow, I didn’t infer that. It sounded more like a slap at the commoners.
As my dad told me, you don’t get bonus points for doing the right things. That’s expected.
The fact that there is one or one million people struggling to pay debt, or collecting free Goverment cheese doesn’t bother me one bit. I leave that to Rush and his army of dittoheads to twist themselves into knots over that.
I wouldn’t trade places with them for one second.
I was still confuddled until I re-examined the title of the article.
Now I understand.
But I would have substituted SHADOWS with DEMONS.