Cars We Drive!

[yorkshire pud]



Alrighty then. ​This is a bit personal-ish, so skip ahead if you're not into that stuff.


​I've been having major academic issues this year. Teetotled and just got through everything, but just fell apart a bit this semester and failed my first class. I can retake it and I'm planning to do that in early feb, but the big issue is that we take the qualifying exam in mid-late april for the pre-clinical years of med school. It's pretty much the exam that determines the trajectory of your career in terms of where you can go to train after school etc. Aka kind of a big deal.


​I've struggled with motivation for a good part of this year. Recently started taking anti-depressants and bloodwork found that I'm a bit hypo-thyroid which explains a lot of what I've been dealing with.

At this point, there's pretty much no way I could take the exam in April and do well. There's just too much **** from the first year classes that I need to go back and do that just won't happen right now because of regular class. We finish at the end of feb and have 2 structured and 4 weeks to brush up. It's not enough time. That sounds crazy, but trust me it's true.


At this time, I have two options:

1) Defer a year. Drop the class I failed and finish out the other one. Retake the class next year. I can still sit for exams for the class I finished, so things will be fresh-ish.
Pro: Get a handle on health **** and spend the year getting caught up on everything instead of feeling lost all the time because I'm finally not foggy all the ******* time.
Con: One more year in school. I'm 27. There are a lot of years left to go. It's also going to cost another year of tuition. I'm at a state school, but it's still not insignificant. Luckily my undergrad debt is reasonable.

2) Defer the start of my next year by 5 weeks. They don't usually let people do this, but the schedule can be finagled to buy you some more time if it comes to it.
Pro: No cost of additional year. Definite better than nothing.
Con: It's a gamble. If it doesn't work out, you're basically taking a year off and doing nothing. Without structured classes over the year (since you pass the time to drop one) you have to figure out how to make your resume look reasonable by doing research etc.

It's much easier to explain taking a year to slow down if you do well on the test than to explain not doing well at all. You can't retake the test unless you fail. If you fail, you're basically fucked. Scarlet lettered. Fucked. It's not an option.

Revisionist thinking is definitely a thing, but I mentally and physically feel so freaking different than how I did a month ago that it's blowing my mind.

I'm talking to an academic advisor and probably some professors at school too. The money aspect of things, while not insignificant, doesn't bother me that much. If the year pays off, then it was a decent opportunity cost for doing better.


Thoughts?

Totally different scenario I know but when I felt down and struggling for motivation I did a few things that worked for me.

1. I abstained from alcohol totally (or anything else that poisons your brain )

2. I hit the gym everyday weights/cardio and core (this became my time/and I sleep 100% better) do it at the start of your day then eat a healthy breakfast

3. Eat as clean as you can and avoid hidden sugar (poison)

4. Don't procrastinate/Do it

You are going to be a Doctor and you know all this basic stuff, good luck

 

[Piobaire]



Post that misses something big...

Spoiler

well except you left out miles. but we can leave out annual high mileage scenarios, no problem. 

let's take a Lexus GX 460. your numbers will work just fine i think. the resale value of one of these looks to be around 60% after 3 years (that's actual demonstrable resale value, not a negotiated paper residual) if you're a killer on the front end then that changes things too but we can leave that out as well...

take 2 lease cycles, so 6 years. and our dollars are in terms of the first year to keep everything easy (i'm more a back-of-the-envelope guy):

lease guy spends 62k. buy guy spends 60k BUT...

(...checks resale of 6-year-old GX 460...)

has 25-30k worth of car in his driveway. cherry on top? hasn't made a payment in a year. 

now let's assume 15k miles per year (just to max out the lease utility) and continue our example in terms of mileage (after all, the point of a car is to drive it):

in any given year our leased car gives us capital costs/mile driven of ~$10k/15k miles. so about 67 cents/mile. 

***

this is also more or less true of our buy guy. here's the rub:

after the 5th year, the capital costs stop (except for maintenance but we're talking about a toyota here) but the utility does not.

so the owner has a choice: sell or drive. if he sells/trades his capital costs are reduced by that value. let's conservatively assume he gets 20k back on his ride = (60k-20k) = 40k

$40k/90k miles - 44 cents/mile

now let's assume he drives. by year 9 we're looking like this: 

$60k/135 miles = 44 cents/mile (and of course, there's still cash in the car)

okay kiddies? 

And in one sentence someone else again points out the flaw in thinking...

But buy guy's car is six years old.  Lease guy always has a "new" car.  That's why it's apples and oranges, and a personal choice.

In apples to apples leasing wins probably 99% of the time on straight finances and it always wins on most of the intangibles. Again, two basic strategies to keep one behind the wheel. Leasing wins strategy #1, buy and hold wins strategy #2. Personal choice on which strategy, or hybrid situation of the two, one wishes to employ.

 

[Piobaire]



Alrighty then. ​This is a bit personal-ish, so skip ahead if you're not into that stuff.

IMO, take the year. I know it doesn't feel it to you right now but 27 is still young. It sounds like taking the year will most likely lead to a better exam score and that exam sounds like a turning point in life. Prepare for it the best you can.

 

[jbarwick]

RTC: My MIL, FIL, and SIL are radiologists and my BIL is a surgeon. Explaining a health issue is easier to do while taking an extra year. My SIL and BIL are 33 and will be 35 when finally making money so you are close enough to them in age. The only downside is what area you want to go into if it is hyper competitive like Derm or the like. As for surgery, I would worry about my hands failing me at some point but you if are in a different area, you should be alright. I was an idiot in undergrad, and it is debatable if I still am, but it has been easier to discuss any shortcomings and where I am now compared to back then. Good luck man.

As for autos, I dropped off my parents Toyota Venza over the weekend and after 400 miles in the thing, Toyota makes a decent commuter car. I personally write them off in the exciting car category but if you need to get from Point A to Point B, you can rely on a Toyota.

Also drove my inlaws new GLC recently and having different driving modes on an SUV is odd and seems out of place. Basic economy was fine but Sport + was rev happy and temperamental to the point it made even normal driving feel like you were racing off of line at a red light. Also MB wins hands down for sticking the most buttons in a car. It makes me appreciate Tesla more for shoving all of that crap on the display instead of having individual buttons for everything.

 

[Piobaire]



Also drove my inlaws new GLC recently and having different driving modes on an SUV is odd and seems out of place.

Has been pretty standard for years now, broseph, and MB is actually late to the party. Back when I had a Rover...13, 14 years ago now, and LR3, it had a crap ton of modes. My buddies Cayenne has them...

 

[Piobaire]

Btw, I am disappoint. I drove a ******* supercar yesterday and only JC bats an eye?

 

[jbarwick]

Has been pretty standard for years now, broseph, and MB is actually late to the party. Back when I had a Rover...13, 14 years ago now, and LR3, it had a crap ton of modes. My buddies Cayenne has them...

It was still a jerky ride. Maybe regular sport would have been my type? Is Sport + the advertised car you bought with every other driving mode being a compromise?

Btw, I am disappoint. I drove a ******* supercar yesterday and only JC bats an eye?

As for your Z06 experience, I couldn't imagine 650HP. I drove an early C6 with 400HP and never went 100% throttle. Mashing an automatic with that much on normal roads will probably wrap you around a telephone pole at some point.

 

[Piobaire]



It was still a jerky ride.  Maybe regular sport would have been my type?  Is Sport + the advertised car you bought with every other driving mode being a compromise?


As for your Z06 experience, I couldn't imagine 650HP.  I drove an early C6 with 400HP and never went 100% throttle.  Mashing an automatic with that much on normal roads will probably wrap you around a telephone pole at some point.

I don't have too much experience in the GLC, just basically the drive from the dealership to my office, which isn't far.

Speaking of modes, and again I didn't get a chance to go too far, I only tried the "Tour" and "Sport" mode on that Vette, Tour is the default mode and if you forget what you're driving it's not an automatic wheel spin. Sport the tires start to break loose pretty easily. Then there's "Track" and I hear that's a beast.

One thing that struck me is that Chevy has really upped their game for the interior. This is not (while this particular one might be) your grandfather's Corvette.

 

[jcman311]

One thing that struck me is that Chevy has really upped their game for the interior. This is not (while this particular one might be) your grandfather's Corvette.

You know for an extra $5k you can build your own engine? Thats right, you can spend a day at the engine assembly plant assembling your own engine under the guidance of GM workers.

 

[Thrift Vader]

OK, you guys gave suggestions. And I listened.
Please welcome to the little guy's car museum :

The Lamborghini Murcielago

And
The Porsche Boxter.

- A car or 2 per week from now. Seems dumb to make a thread for it. And as most of us car guys are Dads. I hope you enjoy the collection.
more suggestions are always welcome. and i will try to put some of your cars in his Museum.

 

[Thrift Vader]

I'm pretty sure I have one of these sitting in a drawer at home:

But buy guy's car is six years old. Lease guy always has a "new" car. That's why it's apples and oranges, and a personal choice.

Me, in my fragile existence as a migrant worker, I do the opposite: buy when it's already 3-5 years old and keep it for a year or two. This seems to be a sweet spot for me on the maintenance costs and depreciation curve, as long as the car's good and relatively low mileage: nothing major needs doing, and the difference between buy and sell is a couple of thousand dollars if anything at all. So my monthly cost for e.g. my Camaro SS now, is lower than renting a mini Toyota. But then I never get that new car smell and prestige.

Each to his own - we all have our preferences and circumstances. I've had a car I bought new and drove for six years, and with a more stable existence back in the UK, or the US for that matter, I'd seriously look at leasing for the lifestyle pleasure of constant new car. I really don't think there's a wrong answer here, if you have your eyes open.

@Thrift Vader I was also a Corgi/Matchbox car lover as a kid. I still have a few of them somewhere, including a Mustang that I re-painted horribly when I was about nine. It's sat on my desk for years since I rediscovered it in a box somewhere when moving, and is probably a factor in my decision to be the who-gives-a-**** middle aged white guy in a muscle car. So on that note, I'd have to recommend that you add one or two American classics to your son's collection: an early Mustang, maybe a Trans-Am/Firebird (I remember loving that when I was a kid, not quite so much now), and how about a truck? I had a few of these Kenilworth and Peterbilt big rigs that really fascinated me. Kris Kristofferson has a lot to answer for. And a pickup - any American full size, but I'd suggest maybe the F-Series as definitive of the genre.

As for the Euros, I think you have some great suggestions: I had a bright orange early 3 Series in rally kit that was great, the original Audi Quattro, Escort RS2000. My other childhood favourites were Magnum's Ferrari 308GTB (red of course), a black 911 and a shiny gold 928. I second the recommendation of a Golf GTi - world changing car. A Renault 5 maybe? You've got me disappearing down a rabbit hole of boyhood memories now!

Thanks for the great posts guys. @rtc, saw 2 miata's today. but the mission was euro's. the Miata's time will come.

 

[jbarwick]

I am surprised your collection doesn't have a 2000GT in it. Seems JDM and iconic.

As for other cars, I think of iconic cars from specific brands like VW Beetle, MB 300SL Gullwing, or the Lancia Stratos. Finding some in race liveries could help take away the shame of it being a Euro

 

[Thrift Vader]

Like this Porsche Martini livery car?

At $108usd!!?
And this Pantera. @ $54usd

But the coolest find. IMHO. Was the fj45 land cruiser.

as with their real life counterparts. the classics in great condition command exceptional money. and saw a few other guys our age digging through the cars.
(when i found the mk4 Supra, a dude immediately checked to see what i had left behind, he got bupkiss)
love my boy, but $200 for 3 cars on this scale isn't very thrifty.
the BMW2002, and the Lancia stratos are on the list for sure.

 

[Texasmade]

Would you consider some iconic F1 cars for the car museum collection? McLaren MP 4/4 and the Lotus 49 would be my suggestions.

 

[mike1445]

Haha
Piob: Hey guys, leasing makes a lot of sense for people. I just took a super car out for a ride, I may have stumbled upon a forever car! What do you think?

Rest of CWD: *playing with toy cars on living room floor*

@Piobaire, I've never been a huge fan of Corvettes other than the classics but that newest gen warmed me up a bit. Never driven anything with that kind of power so I can't even relate.

TV, gotta have an Audi Quattro and 92 Celica rally cars and some gulf livery.