Quote:
Originally Posted by zx10guy
The problem is people are still ok with living beyond their means. They'll roll negative equity into the next car loan and not skip a beat. Or they'll just lease the car. You also saw the insanity during the beer bug years where people were willing to pay mark ups (many were substantial) just to get into a car that was really a want and not a need.
Then you have the manufacturers that are feeding into this culture with loading up fancy options which inflate prices and on the flip side making it difficult for people that do want to work on their own cars (or independent repair shops) to be able to do so. Whether that be forcing people to go to the dealership where the tool to program parts are only held by them to withholding repair/technical information. I experienced this first hand with my BMW Motorrad motorcycles. I have the factory service manuals for both of my bikes. But BMW pulled all the DVDs for sale so you can't buy one anymore and then shut down the servers they put online which provided the periodic updates to the tech manuals. They're all pushing things to the "you will own nothing and be happy" model. All of this falls under The Right to Repair battles that are happening.
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I'm afraid you are right, 100%. In my meandering life I hope by allowing and helping my son buy an 2010 E92 330D as his first car; he gets economy, appreciation, and education on how to own a luxury car that goes hard, didn't cost 100K, timeless, and it can be fun and possible to upkeep. Regardless of whatever career he ends up in, things are too expansive and too restrictively captive for nothing more than company profits.