Originally Posted by Rob.Singer View Post
Nope, I'm from Mass., and I grew up in a lower-middle class neighborhood.

I've never been a tightwad even when I had very little. But after a ton of hard work and marrying a woman who had the same constitution about her work ethic as mine (40 years ago today BTW....) there has never been any reason to cut corners on vehicles just because of some middle and low-class phobia about how much a new car depreciates once you drive it off the lot.

It's the same thing for people who choose the cheaper house brands: they go thru all sorts of gyrations trying to justify their lousy choices to themselves like MrV does with old cars, when shopping in supermarkets just to save a buck. If I had to worry about these type of things I'd hang it up fast, and if I still had to buy new vehicles by making payments I'd do the same. Either you've made it at some point or you haven't.
Interesting Rob: I've never been afraid of hard work. I drove a Camaro off the showroon floor in 1982. Bought my first house in 1980. I've never needed much for me. I'm not saying that's right. But I think one has to work at having fun and that's probably an area I need to work on.. IMO that's as equally difficult as learning to work to earn, save, and invest money. I spent the better part of 30 years building to heights no one ever thought possible for someone like me. But the Perfect Storm took nearly 2/3rds in just one horrific year. I don't think a person goes through all that without some damaged being done to the old noodle.

Although through it all I learned to take life one day at time and my mantra is "what you see is what you get." Financially speaking, I've stood eyeball to eyeball with some very wealthy uncles. My lady hates the old car I drive. It's nice. It's just old. I bought it for $4k and flew to Missouri to get it and drove back. I've had it for 4 years now and haven't had to put a dime into it, other than tires. It still doesn't have 100k miles. Ironic, the only time she will ride in it is when I take her to work because her new car is in the shop or I go to her rescue when it breaks down.