<VV> now age of vehicles

[Irv Brock]

Growing up my folks did the leasing of cars before leasing was available to the public by buying new every two years, mostly 60s-70s Ford Galaxies or Chevy Impalas then later VW Bugs, Buses, Rabbits and still later Toyotas and now Hyundais( I've two Kias ). From what I remember, the depreciation was limited as they could trade-in towards the new one at a good deal. My uncle was the family mechanic doing the opposite and never bought new. He had the coolest cars, Porsches, Mercedes, Audis, MGs, Jaguars and VWs. Back then those cars weren't as expensive used to buy as today as we were more patriotic, plus they broke down alot. He called home for my aunt to bring the other Foreign car to flat tow him home. If he had a big dually diesel pick-up as we see today for car haulers, he'd not saved much money owning them. Today, if you figure in all the costs of a car hobby, you'd like get rich quick to make the cars non-profit items inside your Museum.
 
To this day my father and his brother have heated debates as to what is more financially sound new vs. used. I enjoy their banter back and forth as both have new family cars as Mini-Vans when they are empty nesters.I guess junk used cars are not safe for the grand kids to ride in! My collector very used cars are poor investments. If I had it all over again, I think I'd live in NYC and never had a driver's license and used the public transit. Looking back over what percentage of income I spent on transportation is sobering, not to mention I've been loading up our atmosphere with Green House gases. Hope my descendents can forgive me.