The new-car obsession
Published 1 year, 11 months ago in My life.Looking around Melbourne, I’ve noticed an awful lot of polished, new silver cars around the place. It’s pretty bland when almost every car on the road is the same colour - silver is the new beige!
But the worrying thing is, a lot of people insist on buying new cars, and some people buy them often, like once every two years. I don’t understand it. Does anyone understand it? There can’t be any technical reason for it - most cars are built to last a lifetime, and the internal combustion engine hasn’t really changed that much in the last hundred years anyway - it’s not like a new car is really any better than an old car.
So what’s the reason? Do people buy new cars because they think people will take notice and be impressed? If so, it explans why there are so many disillusioned and grumpy motorists on the roads - So you have a new car! Who cares? Everyone else already has one anyway!
Or could it be that the new car smell is starting to wear off after two years and people want it back? If so, then I’m disappointed in humanity. Those fumes are toxic!
Like I said, I don’t get it. And when I think about how many rich people there’d be in Melbourne if they didn’t all have to keep blowing their savings every two years, I really don’t get it!
4 Responses to “The new-car obsession”
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My teenage son just bought a brand new car (no, it’s not silver), but things are not what they used to be years ago. We found that it was cheaper to buy a brand new car that came with 5 yr warranty than a used vehicle. Also, older models have less safety features. I am talking about a little buzz box here, larger models like people movers would be more cost-effective to buy secondhand. At least if you have a new car, you know its history and where it’s been. With used cars, you are told lie after lie.
Well domesticgoddess, make sure your son wears a seat belt - although the air bags in new cars save lives if they inflate and then the drivers head collides with them, they can be deadly if that happens the other way around because a seat belt was not worn.
I wasn’t talking about first cars - my family car was also brand new 21 years ago! I was referring to the seemingly mindless habit of some people to trade in their perfectly good almost-new existing cars every 2 years.
I agree, I can’t understand it…. I for one would rather drive a slightly older car that can get me from A to B, and save money I would have spent on a new car every few years on a holiday! But then again, I love to travel and don’t really care about what my car looks/sounds like, as long as it works!
I agree with you jess08 - which kind of makes sense since you were agreeing with me. Old cars are cheap - for about $2000 you can get a perfectly servicable car, full of character; then after spending a further $2000 on tuning up and servicing it, it can run like a new car. People often think that old cars run rougher than new cars because they used to make them that way; whereas just by readjusting the engine timing, etc (which can get a little out of whack after a while); they can often be made to run just as well as new cars. - the technology really hasn’t improved that much in the last 20 years.
Anyway, when something breaks, I like being able to patch it back together with a piece of wire, and not having to deal with propriatory fixings and a computer system which shuts off the engine if I haven’t taken it to the dealer for service recently enough.