[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I confess. I don't understand why anyone leases, (excluding companies/tax reasons therefor) but...horses, courses, and all that.)

If the car is a business vehicle used for business purposes, leasing is sensible. You get a new car every few years, you are still under warranty, and you get factory service. If I did something like drive for Uber, lease would be the way to go.

For cars used for personal transport, it's more complicated. If people prefer to lease, can afford the costs, and don't mind not owning the asset, it can make various things easier, the same way it does for the business user.

(Re Amex)
Yeah...I remember when that was the end-all, be-all. I recall the Gold card, the black card, the platinum card, the Optima, the...it never ends. I mean..snob appeal around a credit card. Mother of heaven.

A friend in the UK had the black Centillium card. To qualify for one, you must run up something like $50,000 in charges per month, and pay the balance in full on each statement.

At the time, he was a high level program manager for Arthur Andersen, had primary responsibility in his area for 26 countries, and lived on airplanes. (He was an early adopter of eBooks to give him something to do while traveling across oceans, and a mobile device with an assortment loaded was a lot easier to carry round.)

Then Arthur Andersen imploded in the wake of the Enron scandal, and the black card went away. Things were dicey for him because positions like the one he'd had are few and far between. He did eventually secure a similar position with another Big 8 firm, but life was scary for a while.

(n.b.: full disclosure: at one point I was contracted to Amex, back in the "day," when they were REALLY rolling in it. When the daily float off of Traveler's Cheques was 8 Billion--yes, billion with a "b"--dollars. I mean. yowza.)

Amex went through their own issues. They almost got into big trouble by diversifying but neglecting their core business. The CEO got the chop, and the new CEO, who was a "back to basics" type came in, said "WTF are you doing?", and started undoing his predecessor's moves.

The Veyron is indeed special. So are many others. And, yeah...speed. Lovely. And Rollers, of course--made by hand. Yes, there are some cars--few--that have specialty aspects that make the price tag go up. But the cars that most average folks--even those with bigger incomes--can afford? Nah.

Agreed. For that matter, I saw a piece on Toyota. They have a cadre of master mechanics that hand assemble and sign engines for some higher end Toyota models. They are known in their industry, and having their work in your car is a status marker.

I admire Bugatti, Ferrari, Lamborghini and the like, but wouldn't be interested in actually owning one if I could afford it.

But ultimately, I think the fact that a market for such things exists, with buyers who can afford them, is a good thing.

I remember the GT. Ah, the good old days, when you could make them as fast as you wanted, pretty much depending only on your budget. :-) I'm still a sentimental sucker for that paint job.

You still can make them that fast, witness the Veyron. The problem is where you can drive them. .

Yes--both go without saying. If you buy the modern-day equivalent of the Pinto or the Gremlin...well, I wouldn't expect those to last very long. I keep seeing those mooshed cars--the new small Fiats--zooming around up here in the desert, and I wonder how long those suckers will last. Of course, by and large, that car, and the MiniCooper, tend to appeal to young people who mayn't have the same love of NOT buying new cars as some of we old farts.

The smooshed cars I see in NYC are Smart cars. It makes sense: They will only be used for stop and go in city driving, carry two passengers and a bag or two, have stellar gas mileage, and can fit in parking spaces most cars can't touch.

I was bemused when I saw one with commercial plates, a contractor's logo on the side, and a mini roof rack with a small ladder fastened to it.

I'll bet that you are in high demand for cocktail parties, particularly in your location...an environment always ripe with the Illumi-NOT-eh and that sort of social event. Not to mention, the Dread Trivia King of Kings County, I should think?

:-)

Nope.

The folks I hang out with prefer their spirits top shelf and straight, not mixed. And cocktail party chatter isn't my thing. When I get together with the folks I hang out with, they are generally as smart as I am, and know various things I don't know. I spend most of my time at such things listening, and the magpie mind means I know enough to understand what they're talking about.

(A long ago girlfriend snarkily described the women's college she went to. There was a companion men's college stuffed with aspiring upwardly mobile professional wannabes, and the implicit purpose of her school was to position girls where they could snag a desirable future husband from the other school. The curriculum was mostly aimed at preparing them to make appropriate cocktail party chatter when they and their husbands entertained. She managed to acquire a rather better education than her school nominally offered, because she wasn't interested in playing the game it wanted to prepare her for.)

And there are various areas where I know better and can prove it, but I'm circumspect about demonstrating it. They tend to be in areas programmers call "Religious Arguments (tm)", where the underlying beliefs live on an emotional level not amenable to reason. I try not to deliberately whack hornet's nests...
______
Dennis