I'm sure there are lots of sports cars and muscle cars out there that are bought for very high price for nothing but performance and show that get even worse mpg than even a huge truck. Again, why is no one trashing on those?
The parking lots in my town aren't chock full of muscle cars and sports cars. They are full to overflowing with extra big, extra glitzy, extra shiny trucks. I see very few old trucks that show signs of actually being used to haul cargo. That's why I bash on trucks as a stupid financial decision instead of the other options.
It's for the same reason I don't bash on how stupid it is for people to die from eating too much in one setting - stupid as that would be - because it's just not a large scale problem... :)
A huge percentage of Americans approaching retirement age have less than 25,000 in savings. That's terrible!
If someone purchased
just one less 50,000 truck over their lifetime and replaced it with a 10,000 low mileage used car, they would have 40K to 50K in savings!
The three biggest cost drivers for most folks on a track to retirement are housing, vehicles and medical. Of the three, vehicles are the easiest to fix because almost everyone has 100% control over which type and price point of vehicle they choose. (Yes some people are extra large or extra small, but MOST people are not. Ditto on health-related restrictions.)
You may need to live in an area because your elderly parents need taking care of and won't move. You may need to live in an area because you can't afford to leave it or because it's where the jobs with your skillset are located.
You can control whether you get some medical illnesses but many are simply the bad luck of the draw.
Buying an inexpensive vehicle is an easy, easy, easy way to improve finances significantly.
Let's say I buy a vehicle every ten years, from 16 to 66. That's six vehicles. Lots of people buy way more often than that.
Let's assume we pay cash so there is no interest charges and that converting our savings into cash for the purchase didn't cost anything either.
6 vehicles times $10,000 equals $60,000.
6 vehicles times $40,000 (median price for new cars is around $33,000, and the glitzy trucks are on the higher end than many sedans) equals $240,000.
So, even assuming we put the savings in the mattress at 0% interest growth, and that both vehicles get the same mileage, and miraculously the insurance companies and license plate bureaus will charge the same fees (they won't!), we're still talking $180,000 in savings. That's huge! Especially considering all those folks with less than $25,000 in savings when they hit retirement!
Throw in 8 year financing for the expensive vehicles and some compounding on the savings and we're talking about an even bigger spread!
For almost everyone, buying the more expensive vehicle is an extremely foolish financial decision.