New cars 🚘
Oh, you want to buy a new car? Must be you love breathing in toxic chemicals that will give you cancer! It’s like throwing money into a fire, the depreciation is remarkable if you drive it off the lot and decide to sell it the next day. You’ll never get what you bought it for selling it used back to the dealer or even a third party. Obviously! Are you some kind of retard, a complete fool when it comes to money, somebody who wants to debt for the rest of his life and have a car payment at least until I pay off the bank in a week or so?
So the solution is the 20-year old Honda! Of course, because there are millions of gently used 20-year old Hondas out there, ready to deliver you to the mall and be perfect for running pizza deliveries to various people’s houses. 20-year old Hondas really are good for traveling in the city, where the worse thing that can happen is the car breaks down, you call a tow truck and take the bus home, and wait a few days for the mechanic to fix it up. Very economical. Of course, probably even more economical would be to call Gavin Welding and have them weld some plates on frame of Big Red and replace the bad cross members. And keep pushing that 5.3l down the road. He looks pretty sad sitting in the snow, as the rust just keeps further over his body as he sits in the field.
I decided to take a look a bit at used market, see what is being listed, particularly for big pickup trucks. The thing is pickup trucks generally get used, and not gently. Most people who buy trucks don’t lease – it’s actually pretty hard to lease a truck because dealerships don’t want to deal with banged up 3-year old trucks even if they can charge damages back to owners. The exception is might be a car rental agency like Enterprise Rent-a-Car or Hertz Car Rental, but they mostly rent sedans, SUVs, and small trucks for tourists and business travelers, not many HD trucks.
Then I realized what I was really should be looking at was not Hertz Car Rental but Herc Rentals which is a spin off of Hertz Car Rental, but leases trucks to commercial contractors. The thing is that Herc Rental vehicles get used commercially, and most have over 100,000 miles when they make it onto the used market on Herc Rentals used page. A hard 100,000 miles, as let’s be honest people in construction who drive leased company cars, probably don’t always let the engine warm up before hammering the gas, they slam the gear shifter into park, tow heavy loads, and drive a shit-ton of miles and leave the engine idling burning up the company’s gas as the lifters clunk away starved of oil from excessive idle. I mean how gentle are you with your companies’ equipment? Especially if you are burly construction worker with a bit of a temper working for a big boss man.
Another option is to buy a used car from a dealership or a lot. That is something I’m considering but options are limited especially with the big trucks. There are some werid configurations that never sell, and end up becoming loaner cars, and maybe that’s a way to save a few thousand dollars. The thing is with the auto quality today, often the trucks that don’t sell are infamous for bad transmissions or engines, the models any smart buyer would stay away from. Or that truck that was reposed for failure to pay. Do you think all maintance was preformed and driven gently with a repo? All for saving a few thousand dollars. Doesn’t strike me as worth it.
Reliability aside, I want to get a camper shell and other equipment for my new rig which can’t necessarily be transfered from truck to truck. It makes more sense to have a vehicle that will last for many years, and a reliable new vehicle will last longer then a used vehicle. The 10-speed Ford trannys are bad, but supposedly the latest model year has upgraded clutches which are more reliable. The 7.3L is said to be a real work horse, it like to drink gas on city streets, but is said to easily make 200,000 miles or more – with an asterisk about lifter issues in some commercial uses. But not like lifter issues in Chevy’s, and far less then other major makes that use “advanced” technologies like displacement on demand, supercharging, auto-stop shut-off. And I just really want a big truck without having to pay for a lift kit or deal with lift kit issues.
I know I am just trying to rationalize buying a new HD truck. I mean, I’m the one who is so frugal that I ride my bike to work avoid a $1.30 bus fare, lives in an apartment paying the County Welfare Department rate, and keep my heat at 47-50 degrees all winter exception when it’s exceptionally cold and refuse all subscriptions from internet to television to trash hauling. One who invests more then half of his six-figure income each year in stocks, bonds, and CDs. But I want to get a good rig that will last, with the most reliable power train avaliable, that best suits my needs. Probably for buyers of a 20-year old Honda, then it makes sense to buy used. If you only care that are car gets you to the mall or delivers pizzas out back, then that’s car for you. But I’ve worked for many years, built a career, invested and saved for many years, sacrificed many things for a nice truck that will serve me many years in wilderness, just like Big Red did.
A “perfect” month 👌
… is one that is only 28 days with each weekday slotting into exactly four weeks.
In the 21st century (2001–2100), February has exactly 28 days and starts on a Sunday in the following years:
- 2009
- 2015
- 2026
- 2037
- 2043
- 2054
- 2065
- 2071
- 2082
- 2093
- 2099
Frequency and Rules
This specific calendar alignment—known as a perfect month—occurs only in common years (non-leap years). It follows a repeating cycle of 6, then 6 and 11 years (e.g., 2015 + 11 = 2026; 2026 + 11 = 2037).
Leap Year Exception: Years such as 2004, 2032, 2060, and 2088 also have February 1st falling on a Sunday, but because they are leap years, February has 29 days rather than 28.
End of Century: The year 2100 is technically a common year (28 days in February) because centurial years must be divisible by 400 to be leap years. However, February 1, 2100, will fall on a Monday, not a Sunday.
Buying a house versus buying a car 🚙 🏠
A few years back, I was seriously looking at buying my own land, maybe a house, a homestead. Now that I’m looking at replacing Big Red, I’ve been learning the ins and outs of the automobile industry, and what it means to buy an automobile.
Truth is they are very different things – but maybe not in the way often emphasized in the personal finance business – a depreciating asset vs an appreciating asset. True, most cars only lose value and most houses gain value, but both are very much consumption items. Houses only gain value if you maintain them well, and are situated in a desirable location with many wiling buyers. A lot of homeowners miss out on understanding homeownership is a consumption activity, homes only gain and retain value if you constantly maintain and upgrade them.
Houses for one can only be bought locally if you plan to commute to work. That was the one thing I found most challenging when I looked at buying a house – commuting and distance from work. While a hybrid work-from-home and in-office option would offer greater flexibility even that involves a bit of a compromise. You can’t live anywheres, and where you live is directly proportional to lenght of your commute.
Cars are very different, especially in the internet age when vast inventory databases are avaliable, long-distance phone calls and emails are free. You get a ride or drive to the dealership to pick up your vehicle of choice. New cars, with the same package and trim are all the same, the package and trim differences are trivial and can be understood by the window sticker and not physically touching the vehicle prior to delivery. Houses and land in contrast are quite different.
You can buy a new car “sight-unseen” with a high degree of certainty that you are getting the desired product and if something doesn’t match upon delivery you can refuse to seal the deal. While you can buy land “sight-unseen” that is usually seen to be wildly risky as sellers photos and websites can depart from what you see online. Indeed, some of the properties I looked at online appear much different when you look inside or even just drive up to it from the road.
Buying a home also requires a lot more people to be involved, including home inspectors, real estate lawyers, title inspections. Used cars are much more similar to home buying, as when you buy a used car, you should always get it inspected by a third party mechanics to know all defects. You also want to test drive and scrutinize a used car much more like a home your interested in buying.
I actually hate the idea of considering an automobile or house an asset of any type. It’s a consumption good, a consumer service that benefits it’s owner with transportation or housing. While there is value in selling a used automobile, people don’t buy cars to hold value, they buy them to enjoy the use of automobile for a number of years before it has to be discarded. Likewise housing, while often retaining it’s value better then automobiles, primarily is about shelter. It would be a bad investment to buy a house in most areas and just let it set vacant in search of future gains in value.
