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Comment by yau8edq12i | Hacker News Reader

Pro-tip: your car isn't a financial investment.

No, but if you buy a car it's not unreasonable to expect to have a functional car you can drive for 5 years. If your car turns out to be a lemon and you want to sell it in the first year... well, that's a shitty situation regardless of "financial investments"

Why would other people want to buy your lemon for the price of a full car? Nothing works in this analogy.

If it’s not fit for purpose the person that sold it you has to take it back. Why pass to a greater fool?

this is an extremely stupid position - why on earth do you feel there is some vague right to offload your shitty car on to someone else for about what you paid for it?

That isn’t what the article is about. It states depreciation almost instantly after purchase is normal.

Pretty sure the article is about it being abnormal to the percentage of 69.6% and to never buy a Fisker Ocean.

This is not about investement. This is about getting what you paid for.

It seems such companies cannot be trusted by looking in their beautiful big blue eyes. Who would have thought?

Nowadays if something you want to purchase (software, hardware, car, rocket ship, zen garden, whatever) "promises" to have certain features and functionality, you have to check thoroughly before buying into it.

Did they not get the car? I don't understand.

If the car really is unfit for purpose, then the resale value is irrelevant - the manufacturer has to take it back and exchange it for a working car or refund it. But it's unlikely they'll do it without a lawsuit. (I also find the idea of trying to offload your non-working car on someone foolish enough to buy it on the resale market unethical.)

My best guess is that their expectation of capabilities the car is nowhere near what the company actually deliverd. They were promised things within a certain future timeframe and the company did not produce these things within that certain timeframe.

If you buy new, get one ready off the shelf. If you order and features are scrapped before delivery you usually will simply not get them as the contract states they might alter them at any time. One of the reasons to never buy new.

But it shouldn’t lose 2/3 of its value in a couple of months either.

Or... it shouldn't cost 300% its aftermarket value.

Correct, but it can be a pivotal part in investing in one's financial future.

Example: financing a used civic to build your credit and use to deliver pizza to pay for college

It all sounds quite dystopic, from credit voodoo to having to pay for education.

Does the resale value of the civic you bought have any relevance in your story?

None at all. I sold mine for less than it was worth to pay it forward to the next generation of pizza guy. I did so after it got me out of where I was from on my way to where and whom I am today. I'm confident it did the same thing for that next pizza guy.

For the right people, these things are tools, not financial burdens.

Leasing a new BMW, now that's definitely a financial burden and is not this.

> Pro-tip: your car isn't a financial investment.

Most people don't think of their car as an "investment vehicle" all puns intended.

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