Quote:
Originally Posted by bmw540san
Correct, lol.
Sadly, for most people car is like an home appliance. Use it till falls appart then get a new one. Or, get a new model every few years because of latest bells and whistles.
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Yup, I totally agree.
From my experience it seems outside of North America buying and owning a car is still a pretty big deal or an expense big enough where most people are almost forced to take care of their vehicle.
Most countries you need to keep your car in tip top shape and it can't be "too old". The registration, insurance and fuel prices are super high so only those who are really want to own a car will do so.
In Mexico and South America there isn't much of a used car market and new cars are super expensive. The average VW Jetta was a $50k US car down there, so anything that's used is worth MUCH more than it would in the US. Owning a car down there is relatively cheap and the laws are fairly lax so some of the things you see on the road are mind boggling.
Cuba has a fleet of 50s era cars they keep running using mostly their imagination Etc...so while we're looking at Swampy thinking it's had a rough life someone is thinking it's a creampuff compared to what they have available.
Even though I left when I was very young, growing up around people that lived in communist Poland and later on in Mexico it's embedded in me that anything can be fixed and the "That's still good" (aka garbage picking) attitude is very much alive and well in my soul.
Having said that...I do know when to pull the plug (read: still learning) and have VERY limited finances (read: the actual reason behind my "I've learned to pull plug claims") so it's not like I'm going to run up a huge bar tab I'll have a hard time dealing with.
09-28-2020, 08:21 AM
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