Sunday reading and a new car (not me! Are you crazy?)
One of the ways in which my sister, the topic of this morning’s musing, is like me is her view and action towards cars. It is a view carefully explained by our parents when we always had the worst cars in the neighborhood. They remain the worst today. And I love it.
My first car was a 1985 GMC S15 truck I bought for $2500 to run my student painting business. It didn’t need keys to start, had a touchy clutch and smelled of smoke. I loved it. I only sold it when my Grandmother gave me her 1985 Ford LTD station wagon that was 16 years old and had 20,000 miles on it. Brown exterior, brown felt interior and needed the wheel to be turned a full 90 degrees before it would start to turn. I graduated to a 6 times hand-me-down Jeep Wagoner with the wood exterior, a Pacifica and a Volvo XC70 the dealer had to deeply discount because it was so basic.
To my sister and I, cars represent a depreciating asset and appreciating liability. You shouldn’t buy one you can’t buy with cash, you should drive it until it dies or truly have a change in lifestyle (kids for instance) and any ego associated with the car should be reserved for a super obnoxious Uber rider- ask my about the banker if you see me at a live talk.
Nonetheless, for all the talk of climate change and degrowth, car companies sure want to push new cars as the answer and replace all the parts and pieces with brand new cars, requiring brand new infrastructure and new roads and which cost an average of $68,000 for a Tesla, which is beginning to show the same recessionary cracks as everyone else.
Tesla delivered 343,830 electric vehicles, a record for the world's most valuable automaker, but less than the 359,162 analysts on average had expected, according to Refinitiv. A year earlier Tesla delivered 241,300 units.
The latest deliveries fell short of Tesla's production of 365,923 vehicles, which is rare for the automaker which has seen its deliveries higher or similar to production in many of recent quarters.
"As our production volumes continue to grow, it is becoming increasingly challenging to secure vehicle transportation capacity and at a reasonable cost during these peak logistics weeks," Tesla said in a statement on Sunday.
This view of cars explains why I have 2 minivans, one of which is a 2009 with 135,000 miles, electronics that don’t work at al (no radio) and ripped seats. It hasn’t died yet, but is on life support, and thus explains a 2013 van with 33,000 miles waiting in the garage next to it to replace it because it was very cheap and will last another 15 years.
Hilariously, she had her 15 year old Subaru which may be the worst most beat up car I’ve ever seen, stolen while camping last night. We live in interesting times when someone steals a Subaru… I’m sorry it was stolen, but the roads will be a safer place with it chopped up for parts.
On a more serious note, here is a wonderful article that ties to my post this morning on relationships, politics and life. I am a huge fan of Glenn Greenwald and while I don’t know him, my thoughts and prayers are with him as his husband and Brazilian politician remains in the ICU. I loved the tone and thought it was worthy of a share.
Enjoy your weekend, it’s time for me to watch Andrew play his former team. I expect chippy with a chance of misconducts after their 5-1 loss yesterday.