Is Gen 5 Prius really better-looking than Gen 4 Prius Prime?

Did you even bother to follow the linked source for that claim on that website? It leads nowhere. This is a personal blog from a nobody, it has zero relevance.

Reality is, there are many old Vette owners that have a C1 to C4 sitting somewhere in a garage for decades, not being driven anymore. Most C7 and C8 owners are MUCH younger. YouTube is full with young folks owning Vettes and showing them off. I see them all the time at the local strip too.

What do you know about Vettes from your owner experiences, other than some age-old stereotypes? Nothing. You never owned one.

 

I pay about 100 bucks a month for my Vette, full coverage. If you got 300 quoted for an old Tesla, you must have a flawed driving record, claims on file or looked into a bad insurance company.

 

The Y is in between the Prius and Rav4 in height; about the same as the Outback. Aside from it being the current in style, there is a practical purpose in using the SUV form. GM start developing a Sonic EV, but went with the Trax platform for the Bolt. The little bit of extra height allows packing in more battery.

Arguable, the larger battery is just making up for the weight and aerodynamics in some cases.

Would love to see wagons make a comeback. Outback is the closest thing to a wagon available in the US that doesn't have a European surcharge.

 

Why on Earth would you compare a car to a pickup as if a pickup were a poor man's vehicle? For the most part pickups are either tools for work that earn money for the owner, or are rich people's show-off toys, just like owning a sports car.

The median family wage has been around $70k per year or less. 20% of that (a reasonable allowance for transportation) is awefully close to $1,000 per month budget for all vehicles. After fuel, insurance, repairs and such, that doesn't leave much on the table for anything more than an economy car.

48k is more than three times what I paid for all our current cars in the family.

Smart about what?

What's smart about dumping an entire person's year's wage on an object that depreciates like a bowling ball in quicksand, let alone several more of them, plus a helicopter?

I've worked full time at the same place for the past 16 years. I guess I could also get a second job and work my rear end off so I could afford a new car or truck of some sort. But I in my case that would not be happiness. If you can afford it, either because you just can or because you work your rear end off, then good for you. But don't think you're average. You are rich or deeply in debt (I owe less than $1,000). Most people, including most American's do not make near that much money, especially the younger generations.

 

Ouch! Burn! Boy, you really got me with that one. This is a Prius forum after all.

Ok, here's another link: Chevrolet Seeing Twice As Many Gen X Buyers With The New C8 Corvette - Corvette: Sales, News & Lifestyle

This also says 61, but that was a few years ago, and in support of your claims, GM marketing dude says they've doubled the number of c8s sold to the 45-56 cohort (youngsters?!?).

Then again, I've learned that when marketing/sales people cite percentages instead of absolute numbers, they're often spinning a story... maybe they sold 20 instead of 10?

You cite YouTube videos and what you see at the track, and make up stories about old cars that are not driven (which is beside the point since the statistic is for buyers, not owners). I cite my 2 70-something neighbors who buy new 'vettes every few years.

For me, the temptation of a fast car was too great, and I grew tired of traffic school so I'm sticking with my Prius. Enjoy your 'vette. The recent ones really are great cars.

SM-F721U ?

 

Actually it's an ad for some kind of curb ramp. That's even less relevant.

Stepping back to regard "old" vs. "young" in performance cars? There's a lot to be learned by the overlap between the Nissan GT-R crowd and the Corvette crowd.

 

Personally I've never seen the point of owning a fast car unless I had a track nearby and also the time, money and permission to use that track. For an example, my daily commute never enters into a speed limit zone greater than 35mph.

I'm also very much against speeding.

 

It's okay to have more car than you need, even if you never get a chance to flex it.

There is a kid in our neighborhood who does noisy fast irresponsible things with his bicycle hackfitted with a chainsaw engine. You don't need much of a car to be a dangerous nuisance on the public roads- that's the other side of it.

 

More power than necessary isn't necessarilly bad, although I do find it irritating in modern cars without a manual transmission to have so much power in the accelerator pedal. In the Avalon I really have to keep check of what I'm doing or the next thing you know I'm speeding. It makes my leg hurt from the tension trying to keep my foot at that perfect point where I'm not slowing down or pealing out.

Before I tried getting a nice car I had a couple cars around 50hp with manual transmissions. It was much easier to control my speed in those.

 

That's the biggest nonsense yet. The most sold vehicle in the US has been the Ford F-150 pickup, for decades. Most of them are not used for work, and since it is the most sold vehicle, it can't be a vehicle for the rich.

Maybe you need to adjust your income instead of spreading nonsense online?

The median family wage has been around $70k per year or less? Last time I checked it was over 90k for the past quarter. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

That being said, where I live, many folks make much more. Granted, I live in a proper pro business, red, no state income tax state. If you live in a high tax, high regulations blue state, that's on you.

That for example is not smart at all. If you didn't climb the ladder at your place of work after so many years, or didn't move on to grow your financial outlook elsewhere, that's on you too.

This is a proper hierarchy of smart income, from bad to excellent:

1. Working for the same employer long-term
2. Working for employers in general.
3. Running your own business.
4. Learning how to delegate and hire staff so you don't have to work your a$$ off.
5. Establishing multiple income sources in case one falls off the cliff.
6. Generating passive income by letting your assets work for you.

While YOU do work your a$$ off for somebody else and can't afford new vehicles, I retired 10 years ago at age 40. Do you still want to hand out advice on how to make a living and what people should buy?

 

Apart from the DoorDash gig?

 

The current modal Corolla comes with safety sense 3.0. The Dynamic Radar Cruise Control is excellent. With the lane assist, it almost drives itself. Is 23k also too much?

The Hybrid gets up to 66 MPG, THAT is a place to save money.

 

I started doing that because I spend most of my time at home ever since I retired from the business world and running my own company, I explained that in my thread as well. But thanks for trying to imply something else.

To be exact, I also do day trading for about one hour, in pre market. High momentum small cap gapper scalping on the 15 sec chart for the most part. Its my passion ever since the dot com bubble. This alone adds six figures per anno to my retirement assets.

 

Being the most sold vehicle doesn't mean every family has one. Half the population makes more than the median wage, some quite a bit more with plenty of money for buying a full sized pickup. But I see no evidence that suggests that most families that make a median wage or less buy brand new pickups of any sort.

That and a lot of families are also drowning in debt from following the band wagon and getting that pickup they always wanted.

What?! So you're saying the median wage, that is, half of all Americans, make $90k or less apparently for several years, enough for them to have actually benefitted from that type of wage?? That's totally false, sorry. Now you're the one spreading nonsense online. In 2021 it was clearly $70,784 according to the Census Bureau.

Like I said, good for you.

What bothers me about arrogant rich people who have the solution for everyone to sit back and stop working so everyone else can become their slaves and work for them is that if everyone did that, no one would work and we'd all be poor.

I'm perfectly happy with my job and what my job does to benefit my community. I don't need a sports car to make up for anything.

 

That's why I like the Dynamic Cruise Control in my Prius.

JeffD

 

If you would be truly happy, you wouldn't post comments about how you can't afford new vehicles. You try to justify your situation by trying to make it apparent how many people are suffering and living paycheck to paycheck, and how bad "rich" people are.

It is called financial freedom, and that is not archived by working for one and the same employer. YOU are the hamster in the hamster wheel and that's your choice alone. If that works for you, that's 100% fine. But don't try to make this concept out to be smart or worthwhile. It is not.

Real values in life come down to:

1. Health
2. The time we have left
3. Your location
4. Financial freedom

Working into your 60s is often not healthy, will take away too much of your remaining life time, and chain you to a (work) location that is rarely attractive.

Consequently, the goal should be to archive financial freedom as fast as possible, so you can keep an eye on your heath, make use of your time any way you want to, and chose your location.

Financial freedom also means, that you can buy what you want, and don't have to justify anything when you can't.

 

Interesting arguments about who is smarter the rich or the average. I vote for the nuns who give away all earthly possessions of their own.
Any answers as to <why> people preen around in fancy clothes and cars? Always seek more money when they have more than they could ever use? And race cars against one another? I like to watch those races sometimes but can’t figure out why. Is it like being in a constant competition?

 

Do you notice how there is no mention of friends or family in McCarthy's list of the 4 "real values in life"? I guess that's why he's driving DoorDash nights and weekends even though he obviously doesn't need the money.

SM-F721U ?

 

You mean like that communist Danish politician, that uttered "You'll own nothing and be happy" at a World Economic Forum?

Why is it, that only people with no or little money claim that having too much money is an issue? You don't see "rich" people complaining about having too much money and wanting to be "poor" again.

Maybe this phenomena is the definition of resentment and jealousy.

If those folks would only understand, that if they would invest that time and sentiment into something productive, they would have much higher assets.

Money is just an object, it isn't good or bad in itself. Nobody should feel differently when gaining access to millions. All it does, is giving you options for a better lifestyle.

Claiming that a small income is "enough", makes no sense.

For instance, with a small income, you can't pick your location, where you live and work. Would you rather live in a cold bad weather state up North, run by Dems, resulting in high taxes, increasing crime rates, people fleeing to freer states and leaving behind a pile of rubbish? Or would you rather have the financial freedom to move to a good weather state that doesn't take away many of your personal rights, taxes your income into oblivion?

I was forced to buy junk cars, because I worked for companies when I came out of college. Only when I started my own business and worked my butt off, I finally got ahead. I used to live in a place with 9 month of cold, grey and rainy days. At one point my income tax bracket topped out at 51%. Direct and indirect taxes had been 76%. I made that move, all-around.

Being stuck with one employer, or in the same location, or in a high tax place... is bad. Staying in such situation is even worse. Trying to justify a place like that is delusional. Wanting a place like that is plain stupid.

 

I was married and it didn't work out. Most repeat marriages in the US have even lower chances to survive, so I'd be stupid if I would try it again.

Ok, lets talk about family:

1.) In today's world the gender roles are totally screwed up, compared to how it used to be for thousands of years. The result is, that most relationships don't work out anymore, 50% of first marriages fail, and even more second marriages. Just statically it makes no sense to get married in this society.

2.) If you are a male in a US marriage, you are at a huge disadvantage once it fails. Most end up being robbed in divorce court.

3.) I know so many male friends and family members that remain in toxic marriages, because they would lose their home and more if they would file for a divorce.

4.) Most men lose the battle over the kids in a divorce, but they get to pay for them.

5.) Most men I have witnessed in US based marriages, face a rather controlling and constantly nagging wife. No thank you.

6.) The biggest challenges human kind faces on this rather small planet come from over-population. We run out of resources and destroy our environment. Why would anybody with a clear mind want to add more to this mess?