Next Exit Observations

Monday, June 5, 2017

An Interesting Perspective

What Kind of Idiot Mods His Car the Day He Gets It? A Smart One

The longer you wait to modify or upgrade your car, the more it costs.

The sooner you upgrade your car, the longer you get to enjoy that upgrade. The longer you wait, the less time you will have with your new shift knob or your slick new wheels or that LS7 swap you've always promised you'd do for the '79 Chevette Scooter out in the barn. Time and again, I see people put upgrades on cars they've had for years, cars that they are going to sell or trade-in at some point in the near future. That's the worst way to do it. I speak from experience: I once put a $3,000 stereo system into my Nissan Frontier four and a half months before I traded it in. You can imagine how thrilled my installer was when I called him to come take all the stuff back out.

There's this great scene in Macbeth where the protagonist gets tired of his wife nagging him about some murders she needs him to get done and so he stands up and roars:

From this moment

The very firstlings of my heart shall be

The firstlings of my hand. And even now,

To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done.

That's the attitude you need to bring to your new coilover suspension or your Hard Dog rollbar or your LeMans headlight kit. Let the firstlings of your trackday heart be the firstlings of the hand that holds your Visa Infinite card. Get your car done the way you want it now, so you can enjoy it for years to come

(Road&Track.com)

The Finance World Should Really Be Worried By This

U.S. Car Buyers Embracing Long Term Loans

According to Automotive News, the number of new car loans between 73 and 84 months has shot up from 11.7 percent in early 2009 to 33.8 percent this year. This is a substantial increase of 22.1 percent and loans within that range are tending to be on the longer side.

During the final quarter of 2016, 28.7 percent of new vehicle loans were for a term of 84 months. That means consumers are willing to make payments on their vehicle for seven years.

The used car market is also seeing a shift to long term loans, and some analysts are surprised by what lenders are willing to do. As Experian senior automotive solutions consultant Karl Kruppa noted, 10 percent of loans for used vehicles from the 2010 model year are for between 73 and 84 months. That means the car could be up to 14 years old by the time is it paid off.

(CarScoops.com)

Good One, Hot Wheels

Hot Wheels releases Wonder Woman's invisible jet, sort of

To obtain your own invisible jet, you'll have to purchase $20 worth of Hot Wheels cars at Walmart. That's before taxes, too. Then mail your proofs of purchase to Mattel, along with a check or money order for $3.50 to cover shipping and handling. Then in a few weeks, you'll have your own, perfectly invisible "jet." For seriously die-hard fans of Wonder Woman with a good sense of humor, this is a pretty neat piece of memorabilia.

(AutoBlog.com)