Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

Can you afford it though?

I reckon most people don’t think about the total cost of ownership when it comes to cars. So long as the monthly payment is reasonable, why the hell not! You can absolutely afford that $70,000 truck. I get it: those payments are the consistent, tangible thing on the monthly budget. And if you ever miss payments, the lending bank is coming to take that truck away.

Wouldn’t want that now, would we?

The other costly parts of car ownership shows up not nearly as often. We get to gripe about super high insurance costs only once every six months. State licensing is an annual thing. Maintenance? The typical new car has a few years of free maintenance at the dealership. Unless you drive an F ton of miles, wear items such as tires and brakes get replaced every few years. Out of sight, out of mind, and out of consideration.

Out of the budget, too. How many car owners actually save up money in preparation for that $1,500 tire bill, or $600 major service - after free maintenance expires? (I’m obviously excluding the rich folks who can more than afford to write a random $2,000 check like it’s nothing.) Anecdotally, I’ve seen many people who can’t come up with these sums so suddenly. So they either put it on a credit card, or cheap out on the needed service. “What’s the cheapest set of tires available for this car?”

What then counts as maintenance is taking the car to Walmart for oil changes. That’s it. I’m half convinced the reason certain car brands are unreliable is because of owners not following the specified maintenance procedure precisely. Simply changing the oil every year on a BMW is not going to cut it. On the other hand, a Toyota will still last forever on oil changes alone.

Which is why I have no worries about keeping my BMW M2 past its warranty period. I am going to maintain that car by the book - either with the dealership, or an independent BMW mechanic. And obviously, I’ve budgeted for this. New tires are due this year, and the cost is not going to be a surprise.

A touch of curbing

One of the worst feelings as a car enthusiast is doing damage to your own car. One day you’re driving along, having a good time, and then boom. Apparently you took a turn too sharply, and the back wheel had a brief kiss with the concrete curb. And now your wheel has a rather nasty rash on it. And by you, I mean me. It seems there is no car in my ownership history that I’ve not hit the wheel on the curbs at least once.

Perhaps I should take up the finance manager on the extra wheel and tire insurance next time…

Speaking of driving: now that my dad is proper retirement age, it slightly worries me whenever he gets behind the wheel. It’s plain fact that as we age, our attention and reflexes deteriorates. It only takes one scant moment of inattention for something negative to happen. If I can carelessly misjudge a corner, then my father at twice my age is just that much more accident-prone. It’s not a value judgement, simply math.

Whenever I get in my friends’ vehicles, I never have to stress about their driving. I can afford to pay zero attention to the road, and have pleasant conversations. Not so when riding in my dad’s Toyota RAV-4. I am compelled to pay attention to the road for him, on the off chance that his total bandwidth isn’t enough to spy that rogue truck that is running a red light. Who knew that getting driven around can be so un-relaxing.

So I solved the problem completely: whenever I am on the road with my dad (my mother doesn’t drive), I will always be the one driving. This gives me peace of mind, and also puts my destiny in my own hands. If the BMW M2 gets damaged - a wheel curbing, for example - I want it to be me who did it. Then I get to stew in my own stupidity for at least the rest of the day.

The math is not math-ing

The most dangerous time for a car enthusiast, is when they are about to pay off their car. No more car loan debt means that money is freed up for something else: another car, naturally. The mind wanders at the possibilities. Perhaps it’s time to buy a car with a drivetrain layout you’ve never had before. Or perhaps it’s to re-purchase a car you shouldn’t have ever sold (thank goodness I cannot comfortably afford to buy another Porsche 911 GT3).

If there’s money in the bank account, you have to spend it. Isn’t that the American way? This entire economic house of cards is dependent on people’s continuous, often times reckless, spending.

My 2021 BMW M2 Competition will be paid of in a few months. And boy is the itch to buy another car itching intensely as that date draws nearer. I’m not being irresponsible! It will be the same money that would have gone to the M2 each month! It’s very easy to rationalize to yourself any purchase. The only reason I don’t have a mortgage is because the banks wouldn’t lend me the money.

But, as I like to say since last year: “Not in this economy!” Some people think that because they can afford the monthly car payment, they can afford the car. Don’t be like those people. We have to take in account the total operating cost. That means insurance, gas, and maintenance. And unless you’ve been living under a rock, all three of those things have gone up a lot in recent years thanks to inflation.

Never mind the fact that new cars have gotten rightly expensive. (Average transaction price in America is $47,338 as of this January.) High interest rates also means that monthly payment will be up as well. It’s really not a good time to be buying a second car, taking on tens of thousands of debt for another five years. I am going to keep telling myself that this entire 2024.

There's no fairness here

I am still slightly peeved that my car insurance has gone up 20% in this recent renewal period. This, for a car I only drive for weekend leisure, and have zero accidents and claims on record. Inflation sure is a bitch, isn’t it?

What is keeping me peeved is responsible drivers like me are practically subsidizing those who are not so responsible. It’s not me that insurance is worry about - it’s the other drivers on the road. California insurance minimums are too low to afford anything. Cars are so laden with technology that a simple bumper repair on a 2021 Toyota Corolla is over $10,000 (personal knowledge). Any basic fender-bender caused by me - god forbid - my insurance is out at least five-figures just to fix the other party’s car!

No wonder my premium has increased. And I thought it was suppose to decrease consistently as I get older! Lies!

The worst of the worst driving out in our roads are those uninsured and unlicensed. If one of those drivers were to hit me - I am absolutely on my own. There’s no opposing insurance to get money from. And because those who are uninsured aren’t likely to have any assets, there’s nothing for me to sue after, either. The proverbial rock cannot be made to bleed.

Again: the responsible drivers with proper insurance are paying for the subset of drivers who are not insured, or under-insured. It’s not fair, but that’s life. We got to protect our assets and cover potential risks.

It’s sad to see on the r/insurance subreddit folks complaining after accidents. It would typically involve an offending driver with no insurance, but the victim also doesn’t have collision coverage on their policy! So they had a perfectly working car, then boom, now they don’t. Their own insurance won’t pay to fix the car, and the other driver doesn’t have anything. Bad luck, absolutely. Bad planning? Heck yeah. The victims should have had collision on their policies.

Got to cover any downside risks that you cannot afford!

Ask any car enthusiast again

Another horror story I ran into on the r/cars subreddit is this story of a Subaru dealership messing with a customer’s WRX. Allegedly, a service tech took this guy’s WRX out to learn how to drive a manual transmission. As one would expect, some mechanically destructive stuff ensued. They even washed the WRX, after the customer specifically asked the dealership not to. It’s a complete violation of the trust between customer and business. Next to having your car stolen, this is another worst nightmare as car enthusiast.

This story brings up a good reminder: very few people know how to drive a stick-shift these days, especially the younger generation. Think about the age group of the minimum-wage dealership porters tasked with moving cars. Do you really expect some young thing in his 20s to know how to operate manual transmission? And I don’t even put the blame on him! Stick-shift cars are so relatively rare that the opportunities to learn are difficult to come by.

Owners of a cars with a manual gearbox have a conundrum, then: can you trust a dealership to have someone capable of moving it around properly? We’re not even talking about the actual servicing!

It depends on the brand, too. I have trust in a Porsche dealership, because manual Porsches are high-dollar sports cars. The dealers are used to shuffling around expensive metal. A Honda dealership I would be highly anxious about taking a Civic Type R in for servicing. Not only is it likely the only manual transmission car the service department sees all year, but the rare Type R stands out so specially that some young technician might be enticed to take it out for a joy ride.

Solution? I wouldn’t buy another stick-shift sports car in the future without the capability and space to service it myself. (My current BMW M2 is a dual-clutch automatic.)

Ask any car enthusiast

A very sad thread on the r/cars subreddit today. A guy’s dream car - a 2024 Nissan Skyline GT-R - got stolen right out of his garage while he was away on business. The original poster says the R35-generation GT-R has been a dream of his since high school, and he’s worked his butt off to finally make the purchase. Then boom, gone in a flash like that. As a fellow car enthusiast, I empathize greatly. Having your pride and joy stolen is just about the worst nightmare.

Even if yo get it back, it’ll never be and feel the same.

Some of the responders mocked OP for being overly dramatic. A dream car is still a car - this isn’t like the lost of a family member. Besides, being so new, insurance will surely cover the full replacement cost no issues. It’s a loss, yes, but OP will soon be made whole.

For sure from a monetary standpoint the GT-R owner will be made whole. But from a mental perspective, the entire game has changed. To have something so valuable stolen right off your property is an act of violation that’s difficult to erase. A house has turned to not a home. Even if OP were to buy another GT-R, he would always have PTSD-like second thoughts when parking in that garage. Every strange noise emanating from there will jolt him to stressful alert.

It’s not simply about dollars and cents, my friends. Peace of mind is worth infinite.

Insurance on cars such as the GT-R (and other often-stolen vehicles such as the Dodge Charger/Challenger) must be ruinously expensive. It probably costs a whole car payment’s worth per month to cover the risks. Also: it’s seemingly that easy for thieves to clone an electronic car key and drive your car away? I guess anything electronic - like the push-button ignition start that most new cars are equipped with these days - can be hacked, if the incentives are high enough.

If it’s not save even in your own garage… what else can you do, honestly? Press F to pay respects.

Tire check

I’ve been remiss in regularly checking the tire pressure on the BMW M2. Best practice with any car is to maintain tire pressures as dictated by the sticker on the driver-side door jam. (The M2 calls for 35 psi cold at all four corners. Easy.) Almost imperceptible amounts of air leaks out of the tires over time, so it’s important to refill it periodically. Back in my more diligent days, it was once a month check in the morning, when the tires are stone cold.

With the M2 sitting at nearly 18,000 total miles, it was also time to check the tread depth. The BMW comes from the factory fitted with Michelin Pilot Super Sport (PSS) tires. No complaints about these boots: they grip fantastically, and perform reasonably well in the wet. The PSS has a 300 tread-wear rating, which to me means if a driver drives completely like a grandma, the tire should last 30,000 miles.

No chance of that happening in a rear-wheel-drive sports car with 400 horsepower. From what I can gather in the inter-webs, the rear tires on a M2 Competition (or BMW M3/M4, which has the same exact drivetrain) typically lasts from 12,000 to 15,000 miles. (The front tires obviously last longer because all they do is steer.) So I was surprised to find a decent amount of rear tread remaining on my M2.

It seems I drive the car in a performant manner very seldomly. For shame!

I reckon I will have to replace (at least the rear) tires at the end of this year. This BMW M2 is reaching a point in its young life where it’s starting to cost me some money to maintain. The free service (first three years or 30,000 miles) ended last year. The consumables are consuming to the point of needing replacement. This is the point of ownership when car enthusiasts tend trade it in for another new car. We get to drive something different, and it resets the maintenance clock, too (if you will).

But not in this economy! This BMW M2 is my ride-or-die for the foreseeable future.