this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2025
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Late Stage Capitalism
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Brought to you by rich boomers who bought a new car every 2 years. True story.
I never know what kind of car my dad drives because he seemingly always has a new one.
If my new car don’t last me 10 years I’m going be petty pissed off.
To be fair, those cars don't just get set on fire when they're done with them. They're supplying the used car market.
It's a terrible idea financially, but it isn't actually wasteful.
The demand from it does make car manufacturers to produce more cars. It also floods the market with newer cars, causing older ones being phased out from use earlier
Any car that runs will be driven until it no longer runs
It's more about what happens after it stops running. If used cars are scarce and prices are high it makes a lot more sense to do that expensive engine repair. If used cars are cheap, you get more repairable cars going to the wrecker.
I question how well someone who knows they won't keep their care for long takes care of it over the limited time of ownership.
Had an uncle who did that, learned it from his dad. I never understood that.
Not doing that either, but from what I understand after two years cars get you the most bang for buck. So economically it makes most sense to trade it in after two years for a new one. But of course you'll need to keep doing so to keep that *advantage "...
If you mean buying a two year old car, maybe. If you mean buying a new car every two years as implied by the previous commenter, absolutely not. Cars lose a ton of value in the first couple years.
Pretty sure he means after 2 years it gets a lot harder to sell. So they're selling at the moment when they've had a "new car" longest.
Not saying it's a good idea, just that there's a logic to it.
It only works if you paid for the very first new vehicle in cash. Save up for 2 years and cash out the subsequent vehicles as well. Then the numbers pencil out.
If you to take a loan out it's fucking stupid.
After 2 years at 10k miles per year, historically you have lost 20% or so of the value of the car. With a 5 year loan you have paid the principle down to around 63-64% of the original value.
This means you can trade in the car for more than what you owe on the loan. The difference is a partial or total down payment on a new vehicle.
Lenders strongly encourage this behavior. Due to the amortization schedule 2/3rds of the interest is paid during the first 2 years. So people who do this with loans are always paying the highest intereston their vehicle.
The best thing to do finacially is to buy a car with 20-30k then run it for as long as possible. Once the cost of a common major repair is more than the value of the car, get another low mileage used one.