... you pronounce it, the "Ford Mockkie" ~

Ha ha! Not funny

 

Smug BEV apologists view them as an IQ test that not everybody passes.

The 'story' obviously suggests that car rental is also a test that not everyone is well equipped for.......

 

I do feel something driving my bev. Smug? Possibly. Definitely happiness

 

If you're a well heeled urbanite with a home and a garage (and a spare petrol car or two) then BEVs make all the sense in the world!
There are people in the world who honestly should not be driving anything else.

If BEVs had a higher WAF, and a lower price, I would have one myself in a heartbeat.
Someday I will probably get a cast-off BEV as a 'project car.' but even with their staggeringly low resale value I cannot yet afford to 'play' with five figures for a transportation toy when there are FAAAAR too many oxygenerian owned Jeeps and Corvettes out there whose owners are circling the drain.....

 

We’re in suburbia, somewhere in the middle class I think.
Two cars and a two car garage.
My bev was only 23k after tax credits.
I would trade the hycam for a Tesla tomorrow, if mrs b would put up with an extra day on the road to Florida and back.

 

EVERYBODY considers themselves to be 'middle class.'
HOW MUCH is 'middle class???'
It's regional.

According to the "googles:"
One commonly used definition from the Pew Research Center sets a middle-class income between two-thirds and twice the national median income, or $67,819 to $203,458 for a family of four in 2022. Most Americans consider the lower end of that range, $75,000 and $100,000, to be middle class, according to the Post poll.

I have a brother behind the tinsel curtain out on the left coast who considers himself to be 'only a little above' upper-middle class in a family of 5 with about a $400k income in a new, probably 1.2 million dollar house.
I know other people for whom a $200k income would make them feel like they had just won the lottery.

Also.....people think about 'income' and 'worth' very differently.

I have an aunt who never made more than $20k a year in her whole life who is worth 7-8 figures.
I have an inlaw who is 'worth' less than $50k all-in who makes more than that every year.

 

yeah, idk. this is a very expensive area for homes, groceries, taxes, gas, electricity, oil, propane, medical care, etc.
it's just mrs b and me, in a small 3 bed cape. i'm 70 and retired, and we can afford to go to florida every winter.
our new hycam and bolt are pretty low on the totem pole compared to our neighbors, but i've never been one to spend a lot on anything. good enough for me is good enough. rather have the money in the bank.
maybe we're lower middle class?

 

'Pends on who you ask.

I make union wages and I cannot afford to live in your zip code with new cars and trips to Florida.
I guess that makes me 'working poor.'

 

But u just bought a nice new truck?

and your cost of living is likely much lower than here

 

Many were former Prius owners. <GRINS>

Choose your poison:

• Darwin award
• survival of the fittest
• tuition in the school of hard knocks
• dumb sh*t
• Karen
• [ DJT | Fisker | Lordstown | Lucid | Toys R Us ] investor
• IQ test

Life changes over time and the smarter folks figure out how to get ahead . . .

Two friends, camping out in the wilderness see a lion running toward them. One of the men responds by sitting down to lace on his running shoes.

His friend exclaims, "Are you crazy? You'll never outrun the lion!"

To which the first man replies, "I don't have to outrun the lion, I only have to outrun you."​

Bob Wilson

​

 

That's why Navy divers ALWAYS dive in pairs.....and ALWAYS carry a knife.

Yep.
Eggs are a little cheaper in flyover country.

Bone Stock 2023 GMC, replacing my well used 2009.
Sticker was at $40k but I got it for $35K - an obscenely high price for a new ride.
I also got in at under 5% with the financing. (4.5?) and will have this stone out of my shoe as quickly as possible.
I 'showed my math' in another post doing a stare and compare with a notional GMC and a T3 both bone stock, brand new, and kept for 5 years, using KBB insurance and depreciation numbers and gas prices for my area code.
IIRC the T3 Stomped a mud hole in the GMC in operating costs but at the end of 5 years (I keep mine for closer to 15) the GMC was the better buy and started to reel back the operating cost delta fairly quickly.
This is owing to the 'off a cliff' retained value of a T3 after 5 years with average miles - discussed in other threads.
Interesting enough, both vehicles were within $1000 in initial investment.

MY mileage.
Others' will vary,

It's something of an apples-to-grapefruit compare but there are 330,000,000 different people in the US and we all have differing needs and abilities.
In a few years I might buy a T3 as a project car because ALSO discussed in other threads is the fact that one can expect the battery pack in a T3 to retain something like 80 percent of its tank range after 10y/200k and if you can find parts to keep the rest of the car on the road, AND if you avoid some of the other pitfalls, a 10 year old Tesla might just make for the perfect 'beater car.'
After all - part of the IQ test that EVangelists are always talking about is letting SOMEBODY ELSE pay the initial depreciation.....

 

The hycam was also 35k less 11k trade in.
Cash deal, it actually cost about the same as our 2013, when there were deals off of msrp, but trade values were lower

 

Your Prius?

Bob Wilson

 

Mrs b’s 2013 hycam. They only gave me 7k for the Prius after they heard the head gasket knock

 

"not that there's anything wrong with that"

search

 

Just in time for Pride Month!
Better watch out!!
In these genteel times we live in, using 'gay' as a pejorative can get you into trouble.

I personally do not think it rises to the level of homophobia, but I claim no agency for that coin-toss.

 

zerohedge, conspiracy central