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[LordBaal]

Nenjin please dude, go get checked before anything else if you still haven't. Sometimes in this kind of accidents you migth get internal injuries that can come up days afterwards. Muscular ones specially.

Edit: Whatever you do, do not buy a 6 cylinders Grand Vitara.

[dragdeler]

a

[heydude6]

Yeah indeed, go see a doc just to be sure you didn't get whiplashed by the 360 spin.

My WTF is the price for used cars in the US.
Dollars are almost the same as euros. Over here you have a second hand car that will still run fine for 3-4 years for under 2000 euros.
23000 is nearly new car price (or even new car price for some cheap brands).

Yeah indeed, go see a doc just to be sure you didn't get whiplashed by the 360 spin.

My WTF is the price for used cars in the US.
Dollars are almost the same as euros. Over here you have a second hand car that will still run fine for 3-4 years for under 2000 euros.
23000 is nearly new car price (or even new car price for some cheap brands).

When I was in the states (5ish years ago), used cars were dirt cheap. My mother drove a van she picked up for $400 for about 3 years before repairing it cost more than just buying another clunker. That was out in the boonies of Wisconsin, though - Not surprising the crippled economy has sky-rocketed that market. You need a car to work in the US - those who lost their jobs could probably sacrifice the wheels for a short injection of cash. Those who found a job that doesn't pay poverty wages are likely willing to invest a bit more in a car.

Glad to hear you're alive and well, nenjin. Nice grab on a newish car.

Cars are affected by the chip shortages just as PS5s are. Additionally, cars take up a lot of volume so they are a pain in the ass to ship. Which isn't good because of how slow shipping is now. Rental car companies are also doing their damnedest to rebuy the inventory they erroneously sold at the start of the pandemic now that the country has opened up a little.

All in all, these factors combine to create a massive car shortage which coincides with a massive price increase. Used cars probably were as cheap as all of you said they were, but they definitely aren't now.

[nenjin]

My back muscles were a little stiff yesterday but that might have been from spending 90% of the day at my PC. I slept great, actually, and today I feel fine. I did smack the knuckle of my right hand against my shifter, I think, during the impact so it's a little bruised. But other than that I feel fine. Not sure what I would tell the doctor's office to check if I went in but chances are they wouldn't be able to tell me anything without me pointing to a specific problem. But if I start feeling bad I'll certainly talk to someone about it.

But let me put you at ease: in my life I have been in over 20 "accidents." I'd wager I've been in more crashes than 90% of people. Back in the day for fun we used to buy junk cars and wreck them, at speed. It was not uncommon for us to drive cars off embankments, ram dumpsters or smash into other junked cars.

Which might actually explain a lot about my personality, now that I get down to it.

[martinuzz]

Not to alarm you, but over here, if you go to a doctor and say you were sent into a 360 spin, by a car doing 55mph, and you feel fine, they'd send you to hospital regardless to have some tests done. At the very least. Probably to a neurologist too to check for neurological damage. All covered by insurance. Whiplash-like symptoms aren't very apparent at first, and get harder if not impossible to treat well unless detected very early.

[nenjin]

The odds of having that covered by my insurance insurance are slim.

Also to my chagrin, it was actually 180 instead of 360. I was juggling a lot yesterday and math, never my strongest suit, was particularly bad yesterday.

[EuchreJack]

The odds of having that covered by my insurance insurance are slim.

Also to my chagrin, it was actually 180 instead of 360. I was juggling a lot yesterday and math, never my strongest suit, was particularly bad yesterday.

...yeah, that sort of adds to the whole "Go see a doctor" argument.  How are your math skills today?

[nenjin]

3 + 4 = Rutabaga.

[LordBaal]

Please, if only to get a basic physical test.

[Vector]

Go to the doctor.

[Mathel]

But let me put you at ease: in my life I have been in over 20 "accidents." I'd wager I've been in more crashes than 90% of people. Back in the day for fun we used to buy junk cars and wreck them, at speed. It was not uncommon for us to drive cars off embankments, ram dumpsters or smash into other junked cars.

Which might actually explain a lot about my personality, now that I get down to it.

There is a difference between driving head on into obstacles, which cars are designed to protect passangers from, and getting struck from the side.

You were lucky it was the passanger side that was struck, but there would still be some significant sideways acceleration, from which the airbag in front of you can't protect you.

[Lord Shonus]

Yeah indeed, go see a doc just to be sure you didn't get whiplashed by the 360 spin.

My WTF is the price for used cars in the US.
Dollars are almost the same as euros. Over here you have a second hand car that will still run fine for 3-4 years for under 2000 euros.
23000 is nearly new car price (or even new car price for some cheap brands).

Yeah indeed, go see a doc just to be sure you didn't get whiplashed by the 360 spin.

My WTF is the price for used cars in the US.
Dollars are almost the same as euros. Over here you have a second hand car that will still run fine for 3-4 years for under 2000 euros.
23000 is nearly new car price (or even new car price for some cheap brands).

When I was in the states (5ish years ago), used cars were dirt cheap. My mother drove a van she picked up for $400 for about 3 years before repairing it cost more than just buying another clunker. That was out in the boonies of Wisconsin, though - Not surprising the crippled economy has sky-rocketed that market. You need a car to work in the US - those who lost their jobs could probably sacrifice the wheels for a short injection of cash. Those who found a job that doesn't pay poverty wages are likely willing to invest a bit more in a car.

Glad to hear you're alive and well, nenjin. Nice grab on a newish car.

Cars are affected by the chip shortages just as PS5s are. Additionally, cars take up a lot of volume so they are a pain in the ass to ship. Which isn't good because of how slow shipping is now. Rental car companies are also doing their damnedest to rebuy the inventory they erroneously sold at the start of the pandemic now that the country has opened up a little.

All in all, these factors combine to create a massive car shortage which coincides with a massive price increase. Used cars probably were as cheap as all of you said they were, but they definitely aren't now.

There are currently vast fields of completed cars and trucks parked around manufactories, which don't work because they don't have their computer brain installed. The car companies have kept the plants running as long as they could to avoid laying people off (secure in the knowledge that they'll get their money back once the brains are available - plug them in and sell), but they're running out of places to park the lobotomized vehicles.

[McTraveller]

I just watched a video that is in what appears to be a 4.5:1 aspect ratio (crudely measured with a notecard I had on my desk).  Like seriously more than half the viewing area is horizontal black bars.

[nenjin]

Well I put a down payment on a 2022 Honda today.

I really should not have tried to entertain the idea of financing. I didn't really want to do it when I walked in there, and it easily took up 75% of the time I was there.

So many interactions discussing financing just were....weird.

-They first tried to quote me financing on the entire value of the car despite me telling them up front I was going to put down at least 60% of the value in cash. Any financing would be for a fraction of the car. They kept insisting my bank had run the numbers wrong until I was like "this is a quote to finance like $9k right?" And they went uuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh and ran off to generate more numbers.
-They then quoted me numbers on a 36 month loan that were astronomically higher in monthly payments that what my bank had pre-approved me for, for the same loan duration and just slightly more money. The math didn't add up. I said so, and said how far off from my bank's quote they were. (This dealership and my bank are supposed to be in an auto-loan partnership. If my bank approves X, I should get that same rate and plan from the dealership.) They come back and literally say "Oops, there was a computer glitch that doubled your payments! Sorry about that!" Motherfuckers, I work with support and debug software every day. I can accept there was a glitch, or someone fat-fingered something. But the fact *I* had to catch it and say something either means you guys almost saddled me with a loan on bogus numbers and are incompetent, or you just told me a complete bullshit excuse to try and catch me at a higher rate. I told them try again.
-They come back a 3rd time and finally, their numbers are starting to approach what my bank would guarantee for a loan. They're still like $50/month higher than my bank, which over 36 months, makes for way more interest. This is all PRE credit check, btw.
-So I say ok, fine. Run my actual credit check and come back to me with some actual numbers. I'm going to put a down payment on this car and, when it arrives, one way or another I'm leaving with it. Either paying with cash or financing IF I like what I see. (Which to date I don't at all.)
-She says "Ok. Come over to my personal work computer and fill out your information on this credit check application website." I had to literally stop and confirm "You want me to enter my information on your computer?" First off, I'd never in 1,000,000 years let a customer put their hands on my personal work machine. Not even once. And in the age of covid, do you think I want to touch your nasty ass keyboard? Hell no! While I'm entering it she's standing over by her manager's office with her arms folded. Normally the way this works, ma'am, is that you either ask me questions while you fill out the web form, or I fill out a paper form and you copy it to the web form. Cutting out the middle man by having me sit at your computer and do it myself? That's....just weird. And kind of unprofessional.
-At the very end, as I'm walking away she goes "Oh! Did you get my business card?" I just smiled under my mask and pulled her card out of my back pocket. I grabbed it way earlier while she was busy trying to understand the financing #'s. I too have business cards and I don't ever forget to hand them out as part of my wrap up with a customer. And I'm not even a salesmen.

I think I seriously wrong footed this salesperson with my honesty and general ignorance of finance. At one point I said "I know you make a lot of your commission on whether or not you get me to finance, and while I'd like to help you out I have to do what makes sense for me. There's little advantage to me financing, I can buy it outright. So if you can give me a good rate I'll at least consider it." Later as the conversation goes on she just kinda stares off to the side and weakly says "I think it'd be better for everyone if you financed....." I've never seen that level of defeat before. I think she initially thought I'd be taken in with their first offer because I didn't know any better, but then swiftly realized she probably wasn't going to make money off of getting me to finance after all.

So at this point, I've got the down payment on the car and when it arrives I'll either hand them a check or agree to terms. Frankly though I don't think they've ever going to meet my bank on its rate, and I don't NEED to finance it. I don't NEED the credit score. The only argument for financing part of the car is that's just more money that 10 years from now I'll still have in some capacity. But frankly, fuck it. Any chance they had to sway me toward financing was obliterated by their fumbled attempts to saddle me with a bad loan. I should have said "meet what my bank offered me or forget it." Maybe I'm just sending the utterly wrong signals and they're just picking up what I'm putting down. At one point she said "what can you live with" and I stupidly said something like "I dunno, I can't conscious more than $300" and so they came back with $292. Honestly, they should have paid attention more to the rate my bank gave me and stuck with that. For two organizations that say they're auto-loan partners, they seemed miles apart on what they're willing to offer.

I still have to hear the final details of my approved financing plan but I think I'll just do it out of professional courtesy. I doubt they came down the ~$50 a month they'd need to, to meet the bank loan I was pre-approved for. Once that's over, then it's just new car time...and trying-really-hard-to-not-fuck-up-new-car time.

[LordBaal]

Seems it's their game to make extra money fucking over people. If you had the bank preaproved loan you coule have simply said: "my bank offer this, beat it if you want me to finance with with you".

As general rule you must not tell the other party you can pay all upfront if you are seeking credit because either will be refused or will be something like this, they calculating, hey, this guy is loaded, so he'll probably pay extra over the extra a credit already means. Add up a large portion of people are too lazy to read or do maths....