I would never buy a car without a back up camera. . There’s a reason they are legally required on all cars manufactured or newly sold after May. I know my kids wouldmy buy a car without one. Probably because we know a family who suffered a tragic loss because a back up camera wasn’t there and you otherwise can’t see a small child standing in back of a big car.
I bought a Jetta last year and it has a camera and I hardly use it. I just can’t get used to those things.
I can’t either @partyof5. DH has installed them in all of our cars and I never bother to look at them as my brain doesn’t accept the picture as reality. The image is just too strange and I find the lines confusing.
My current car is financed at 0%. And no I didn’t overpay to purchase the car. The dealer actually made very little profit on it. I’m a great negotiator. My D’s car is less than 1%. Why in the world would I pay cash? Similar to my student loans that are less than 2%. I’ll make the last payment on that on the last day it’s due. Paying cash for items at such low interest rates isn’t financially savvy at all.
I’m pretty sure most 1%ers are not too worried about this financing a car discussion as most are leasing a 100k plus car every 3 years or buying it outright.
Source for that claim @socaldad2002? Based on replies on this thread, doesn’t seem like what you claim is true
@chercheur, we finance through USAA. No sales pitches! We’ve walked out on dealers who pull that stuff. We’re not buying expensive cars, either.
Not a 1%er, though, so there’s that. ?
“Source for that claim @socaldad2002? Based on replies on this thread, doesn’t seem like what you claim is true”
First of all, most posters here are not 1% ($8 million in assets or 700k in annual income (ex. CT) and have no direct experience with that kind of wealth.
Secondly, anecdotally most working professionals I know are driving expensive cars, with many of them leasing the latest and greatest new release of sedans and SUVs. In my area, most 1% families are driving Range Rovers and Mercedes G wagons or similar cars. Even at the high school many families are leasing or buying new cars for their kids. That’s just how many of the 1% roll. I have read the Millionare Next Door and they are not necessarily the same as the 1%ers.
$480k AGI puts you in the 1%.
^^ nationally but not regionally.
Umm, no.
I believe the thought that most people in that group are leasing expensive cars is anecdotal evidence, not reflective of the entire group.
Anecdotes do not equal data
This is a topic that comes up routinely on CC; why do some feel it necessary to shame upper income families? It is their reality and it is as real and as stressful to them as financial worries are for lower income families. WHY do we keep insisting that upper income families have no right to worry, stress and complain as much as any other income/social bracket? Are they really not grateful because they have these feelings? It’s not humble bragging either, it is their reality. Why the need to deny it?
What would happen if we turn the question: why do many lower income families feel entitled to social welfare measures? Is that ok? No it’s not.
Let’s stop painting with such a broad brush. Everyone’s reality it just that, their reality. No one is required to support it, just recognize that it is different than your own and it is just as valid as your own. Stop trying to belittle people for their feelings. Want things to truly change; stop instilling the notion of the “American Dream”, that the whole purpose in life is to do better, be better (economically, socially and morally) than your parents, family, neighbors, friends, colleagues etc., but before we do that why not ask communists how that has worked out for them so far?
Apropos of nothing but since we’re talking car buying habits of the wealthy:
Steve Jobs was famous for not having a license plate on his car. Turns out he bought a brand new MB every year just so he wouldn’t have to put on a plate, exploiting some kind of loophole in CA DMV regulations.
That would require a new car every 45 days here in my neck of the woods! :))
Kid joked that she would drive her new vehicle on every toll road as many times as she can before her plates arrive! 
On visits to southern California, I did notice that people tend to flash wealth signals (expensive cars, fancy houses, private boats that look like they could be cruise ships) much more than in most other places. I could see more Rolls Royce or Bentley priced cars in a few days in southern California than in a year elsewhere in the US (even in other places with lots of wealthy people, who seem to be content with Tesla, Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, etc. cars).
Of course, whether such flash indicates real wealth or is built on debt is not necessarily obvious for any individual case.
Yes, humans are humans worldwide. Short of mental illnesses, we all have the same human reactions overall. We assume everyone (smart) is like us. We care about ourselves and those we love. Others we might care for in a situation (like a natural disaster), but then we easily move on.
Humans need to be taught that not everyone is like them (in income or likes/dislikes of all sorts of things including what to prioritize with spending) and humans can learn empathy for others, but it takes effort for both as neither of those things are naturally intrinsic to all.
It has absolutely nothing to do with communism. It can be worthy (as I mentioned before) to expose the sham that’s in advertising making humans think they need X to be happy. Humans don’t really need much to be content. It’s all a mindset. What they want to prioritize in that “much” differs though. For some a good car is everything. For others as long as it works… That priority (or lack thereof) crosses income levels.
Come to Medina… or Clyde Hill. The cars there will blow your socks off. Someone there apparently even bought one of the original Hitler’s Mercedes vehicles.
The “loophole” is that California temporary new car registration is a small paper taped to a window, good for up to 90 days. This will change to a more visible type temporary new car registration for 2019, probably due to issues like toll evasion. https://www.timeout.com/los-angeles/blog/california-is-finally-requiring-temporary-license-plates-072616
Of course, Jobs was in the plutocrat level wealth category, rather than the “ordinary” top 1%. His widow and family are #20 the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest people for 2018, with a self-made score of 1 (purely inherited) and philanthropy score of 5 (most philanthropic): https://www.forbes.com/profile/laurene-powell-jobs/
The Forbes self made and philanthropy scores are described here:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2014/10/02/the-new-forbes-400-self-made-score-from-silver-spooners-to-boostrappers/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/denizcam/2018/10/03/the-new-forbes-400-philanthropy-score-measuring-billionaires-generosity/