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Is it just me? $$$$


zeitgeist57

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RANT ENGAGED

 

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/big-liberal-win-in-canada-is-bad-news-for-the-f-35-join-1737515488

 

So as an aviation aficionado, I am reading this article about the on-going Canadian saga around the F-35 fighter. I already posted the commercials about how much cheaper the revised F-18 "Super Hornet" platform will be...and then the number came out:

 

$110 million per F-35.

 

 

One Hundred and ten million dollhairs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not saying that's absurd, given the amount of technology in it and the development costs that have to be amortized over the next few dozen aircraft...but let's look around some more...

 

Oh look! Motor Trend Channel on YouTube has Randy Pobst testing the new 2016 CTS-V on "Ignition"! Holy shizz, that's a fast sedan. Amazing car. Makes me proud to own a CTS-V myself.

 

I'm sorry...did that graphic just show $98k as-tested? NINETY-EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLARS???

 

Yes, yes...I am keenly aware that it's 640hp, has an amazing chassis and adaptive everything to help it get up the Virginia City Hillclimb faster than every Ferrari in attendance as well as every McLaren save for the $1.3MM P1...so there is definitely some exclusivity that can be charged...

 

 

 

I guess I haven't realized how much certain aspects of our world have gone up dramatically in price. It's NOT inflation, because I can throw stats and commentary from people waaaaay smarter than all of us showing the global economy has struggled to maintain healthy growth rates...maybe I'm just getting old.

 

I see a 1995 Dodge Viper with 21k miles for $24k and I think that's a pretty good deal. Others would see it as unsophisticated, old junk...but I'm reminded of all the great car guys I know that keep a British/German car from the '60s as their favorite toy. Is that old car junk? I see car guys in their 30s that long for the days when they riced out a Honda Civic and laugh now at how cheap yet fun it was. I see people that have a rare exotic on Petrolicious that they've kept for years and years, and drive the piss out of them no matter what the cost is. Am I SUPPOSED to behave like new stuff should make me aspirational, and the cost is the cost...no matter how out of whack I feel the world has gotten?

 

I guess I struggle with certain "conventional wisdoms" around grasping the world around me - a world I feel more thrust into regardless of my willingness to accept certain things. I respect the hands-on guys (and a few gals!) of CR as similar family that believe in squeezing value and pleasure out of that which the mainstream casts aside...

 

/RANT

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Lots of things have gotten cheaper, you just need to focus on those. I'm assuming you typed up this rant on some device that now costs a pathetic fraction of what it would have in 1995.

 

Electronics, food, clothes, air travel, to name a few.

 

Don't let the man get you down. Or the Joneses. Fuck the Joneses.

 

No offense Jones.

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Personally i think its personal preferance. I prefer to wait a few years and then get the things that were awesome "back in my day". Couple examples below

 

1998 Biggest big Bertha golf driver: New in 1998 it was $350, i bought mine on eBay a few years ago for $30. I hit it amazing and i love it.

 

2001 Honda S2000: new in 2001 $30k, I bought mine last year for $10k

 

All depends on if you are willing to not have the latest greatest thing and what that price is worth to you. Just my .02

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As age and income increase, choices also increase. I find this almost crippling in decision-making.

 

I am looking to buy a new monitor. What should one spend on that kinda stuff? Well I can get a monitor for $200... but what about more features? Ultrawide? Gsync? 144hz? 2k? 4k? Suddenly I am at $1000 + a $600 video card so it can push all those pixels.

 

Whats the limit? Where do you cut yourself off? Wait for a sale? Wait till you are dead?

 

My wife got a quote to have the interior of our house completely repainted. How much should it cost? Who the hell knows. She was stunned by the quote. I thought it was reasonable... but I was just out looking at Land Rover LR4's so maybe I was desensitized to the cost? Why the hell don't we do the painting ourselves? Doesn't matter. Just spend $ and don't stop.

 

The American way.

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What will be interesting is the the fall of the classics. I'm 27, people around my age and younger as a whole will never pay the prices you see the 40's-70's cars going for currently. What happens when the older generations can no longer sustain or drive the collections that were all bought between 20k - 1m.
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Its probably a combination of things.

 

I could afford that car, if I had no intentions of ever retiring, or any other sort of hobbies.

 

But cars are getting pretty expensive.

 

Heck look at side by sides (off road buggies) the big engine ones are $20k+ no way i'd ever spend that much money on something so likely to roll off a mountain.

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If you want to get pissed off compare college tuition to inflation and average salaries from 50 years ago to now.

 

Amen to this. It's simply "how much we can charge and still have people buying it" syndrome. It's seems like the more you charge the more people want it.

 

My favorite when people bitch and moan about gas price but yet they are drinking Fiji water and $12 juice. Why the fuck water cost more than oil? Anyway I'm a cheaptard that'll never buy a new car. Not that I can't afford a new car but I refuse to lose $20-30k per year in depreciation. Oh wait I can't afford a new car!!

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We all know regulation's are the reason cars kept getting more expensive for the most part. We don't have crash tests and EPA for cell phones.

 

It would be kinda cool to figure what something like a Galaxy S5 would cost in 1995. Just the processor 2.5GHz quad core the size of your fingernail would have been impossible at the time so the price tag would have to include R&D unless you wanna make it the size of a building and then your gonna need to build a power plant next to it.

 

 

I'm a cheapass. I have had a couple things that where brand spank'n new and loved it. I didn't have to fix it, not just talking cars. Its so nice to have things work right instead of having to rig crap up because I'm and resourceful. Though usually when I see what that luxury costs I end up going cheap.

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1 year old cars ftw

 

this

 

These. or better yet 5+ yr old cars lol

auction life 101

+1

 

99.999999% of the cars you buy/sell are jank as fuuuuuuuark.

Thats why I never buy new cars. Crazy how high car prices in general have gotten. Just have to seek out the good deals - that's how I've gotten almost every car I've owned.

 

+infinity and beyone

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I used to get made fun of at the house because I was a year to two behind in all my magazines. Home magazines, car, electronics, etc. I laughed it off and said it was perfect. By the time I read these magazines, everything new and top of the line is now new to me but a shit load cheaper, now. :D
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I took my BMW in for service, they gave me a brand new 5-series as a loaner. It was an x-drive, but, beyond that, I think it was a pretty basic model. Definitely nothing spectacular. In fact, the car was kind of lame. Just kind of doofy looking as far as a BMW goes. The sticker for the car was still in the backseat: $56K+. I was dumbfounded - how could something so underwhelming cost so much? Then I started thinking about what $56K could have bought in terms of a car just 10 years ago, and I convinced myself that car prices have skyrocketed in the past decade. Not sure if there are any facts to back that up, but, regardless, it sure seems like you don't much for your money anymore when it comes to new cars.
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