Up your asses, congressional Marxists (and Joab) for helping create $4 gas and refusing to drill anwr and the oceans !!! http://www.anwr.org/
Hey now, we all know the REAL reason Democrats are against drilling in Anwyr is to keep that swamp/frozen swamp pristine, right? I wish the liberal's would at least be honest about their hatered for capitalism and the US's economic wealth.
This discussion would be greatly enhanced if we argued with actual statistics instead of just speculation. Yes, a lot of people lease cars and others buy... so what? What is the difference if some young kid leases an expensive car and pays 500 a month? There are other kids whose parents bought him that car. No way of knowing for sure, so no need for the stereotypes. What is relevant to the actual thread are factors such as oil prices, quality of cars, sales, etc. The observation that "people that buy luxury automobiles are the ones that just want to look rich" was a keene arguement. The discussion after that went all downhill. What is even the evidence that the super-rich don't buy these cars in masses?
'beep'...'beep'.... wrooom wroom... (toyota camry) After having gone through about 7 Beemers, and watching trends, and with friends.. you can see the steady decline in quality, friends have used the dealer cars more then their own cars in some instances and have also refused to buy... the quality of production is not what it used to be.
Let's run down the economics of your purchase. Toyota Prius: $24,000 (depending on options) Ford Focus: $15,000 (again, depending on options) Let's pretend we only drive the Prius on the highway, where it gets 48 MPG. Just to skew the test, let's pretend we only drive the Ford on back roads ... it gets 24MPG (35 MPG highway...) Okay, so ... we have a $9,000 difference to make up. 100,000 miles / 48 MPG = 2083 100,000 miles / 24 MPG = 4166 (4166 - 2083) = 2083 Let's be insane and say that gas is $5 per gallon (because, well, it might get there). Basically, you would have to drive your Prius 100,000 miles to make up the difference. And that was skewed against the Ford's 35 MPG highway... And, oh, by the way, that doesn't even begin to make up for the risk you have from the electrocution you can suffer from the batteries if you get into a car accident with most hybrid cars. And on top of that, most people are walking away from their car's value because they are flipping 1 or 2 year old cars for a new hybrid -- which means they are basically writing off 1/3 of their old cars value. Sure, the Prius may pay off much sooner than a car like the BMW 335i ... but you don't buy a bimmer for the gas mileage. If you were interested in actually being economical, you wouldn't buy a Prius either...
I saw a kid getting out of this brand spanking new 2008 BMW M3 in my neighborhood. This was in the BestBuy parking lot, and he was wearing the BestBuy uniform. I bet the kid doesn't make more than $40k per year and yet he drives $70k+ car!!! :eek: A lot of young kids in their 20s buy these so-called luxury cars, and that's where the drop in sales comes from most likely. Real, wealthy folks don't really care at this point.
I doubt that anyone other than the top two or three employees at any Best Buy, such as the store manager, etc., make anywhere close to 40k per year. That kid either has wealthy parents/grandparents who spoil him, or he's dealing more than electronics.
I would say 70% of people who drive luxury cars lease them. That is why you see apartment complexes filled with BMWs, Lexus', etc. Those numbers are substantiated by my next door neighbor who is GSM at a local BMW dealership. Seriously, do you guys think these guys are taking out a 6 year loan and paying $1000/month? No, they are jumping all over the manufacturers special leasing. These cars will keep selling, especially as younger people think they are "entitled" to them and have no concept of the cost of something (or the value of money).
why do almost all luxury car makers require premium fuel when premium fuel offers almost no advantage over regular fuel?