Hacker News Reader

Comment by setpatchaddress | Hacker News Reader

I have that particular anxiety and I like fancy cars. People who buy fancy or fancier cars want the experience of driving those cars. It's not necessarily that they don't worry about the cars getting keyed or something (that varies), it's that the car is worth the anxiety (for those who have the anxiety -- some people genuinely don't care).

If you ever want to step up a little without sacrificing the "I don't care if it gets keyed", consider a late-model Hyundai. They're actually quite nice. And you will never care what happens to it.

View on HN

>People who buy fancy or fancier cars want the experience of driving those cars. //

Of the people I've known with fancy cars, that group would be a minority versus those who want you to know they are rich (even if they're not that rich!). Many people buy the badge/appearance AFAICT, and don't care about handling or other factors.

I don't really know the statistics on it.

I should add, that I probably suffer from a latent poverty mindset in this instance (regarding fancy cars). I can imagine if I had enough money or wealth past a certain degree I could care less if my massively expensive car was keyed etc. I'm still trying to pin down the number at which I have so much money my anxiety about luxuries and indulgences largely goes away. Unfortunately, I think this number for me is at least $8MM :(

Just curious what would you call a fancy car. My experience has been that the difference is very marginal at highend.

$65k +

However, I'd still be weary of my new 4x4 Mercedes Sprinter Van being scratched and I only paid $45k for that new. However, there are benefits to parking in a secured garage in manhattan haha.

I don't know, some higher entry Hyundais are not exactly cheap either, especially if you prefer to buy vehicles cash.

Are you saying that the cost is less when you don't pay cash? That seems backwards to me.

Yes, that's what he's saying.

Much less.

The dealers make most of their profit on the financing. If you walk in and let them know you won't be borrowing any money they treat you like shit. This and other things (registration period = we have your cash, you don't have the title) are why I don't buy cars from dealers.

Well, if they make most of their profit on financing, a cash purchase would be lower. That has also been my experience. I think you accidentally made a mistake in the wording of your post.

> Well, if they make most of their profit on financing, a cash purchase would be lower.

Er, no. They need to make a profit. If they don't get some profit kicked back from the bank as part of the financing package they need to raise the purchase price in order to preserve that level of profit.

You can't buy a car for the "financed price" without financing. You have to pay the higher "cash price". The whole "bargaining and negotiating" dance that car dealers do is simply to hide the fact that there are two different prices.

The total price of a financed purchase includes the cost of the finance charge, down payment and amount financed. You are conflating the price to the buyer with the sticker price.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com