I saw this post and wanted to ask the opposite. What are some items that really aren’t worth paying the expensive version for? Preferably more extreme or unexpected examples.
Cars. Expensive cars require more frequent and complicated maintenance and repairs than cheaper cars. They over engineer them on purpose in order to make it unreasonable to maintain them in the long run. They don’t want their brand sullied by old versions of their cars driven around by poor people.
When I was in college, I admired my boss and his BMW. He then told me that it was a hand-me-down, and he spends a few hours a month maintaining it because there’s always something that breaks and he can’t afford to bring it into the shop every time.
He joked on a few occasions of just giving me the car after a year, and after a while, it felt like a cry for help rather than a joke.
Admiring a car is such a stupid thing to do. I’m not trying to attack you, just saying. I’ve done it in the past. It’s just so stupid.
I mean there’s a lot of engineering, design, and art that goes into a car. And I feel it’s kinda natural to admire a high performance machine. I’ll admire a tractor or a train also.
kinda reminded me of,
when i signed up for a “driving safety training” course.
we had a particapant, with a brand new bmw,
that went from exited to salty as the course went on
for example,
when we tested our cars traction control (breakin without steering while one side of the path was slippery)
his car was the only one, that didnt stay straight by itself.
Hard disagree!
Are you saying that you’ve owned both cheap and expensive cars, and that your favorites have always been the cheap ones? That they’ve been more reliable, more comfortable, better-riding, and better-driving? Or, at least, no worse than the expensive ones?
Yes, more expensive cars are more expensive. They often have a higher cost of ownership. And, sometimes, brands really fuck up and cut corners they shouldn’t, and result an reputational harm that takes years to recover from, long after they’ve fixed the production issues (c.f. Audi in the early 00’s). But, IME, it’s usually worth it, if you can afford it.
There’s not going to be a huge difference between something like a Toyota and a Mercedes other than cost and reliability. You’re paying for the brand.
Mercedes is an outlier. Try comparing Toyota with Lexus, Nissan with Infiniti, Chevy with Cadillac, or Ford with Lincoln. In all of these instances, the luxury marques have equivalent or better reliability than their economy counterparts.
Of course, whether or not the reliability and features are worth the cost is a different question entirely. (I generally lean towards no.)
I disagree as well. I think it’d be pretty obvious to anyone who’s sat in each the difference in comfort, ride quality, material choice, technology, and drivetrain refinement between a Corolla and an AMG.
I would still buy the Corolla though for the reliability - or better yet, a Lexus which kind of has both.
This person has never driven a Merc.
There’s a difference between Toyota and Lexus
Cheap cars definitely are more reliable if you pick the right brands. On all the other points it just doesn’t make enough of a difference to me to justify the enormous cost increase.
Our $10k used Camry is still kicking ass over ten years later and hasn’t ever needed work more extensive than replacing leaking struts. The reliability truly is astounding.
EDIT: But, let’s not talk about my camera-buying habits lol
Our 2016 (new) BMW has never had a major issue. Our 2014 (new) Volvo - which cost half what the BMW did, has almost never not had something going wrong with it. We bought a new Altima many years ago that was less expensive than the Volvo; we had it for several years and it was fine, but it was still in the shop more than this BMW (but less than the Volvo).
The issue isn’t so much reliability, but what it costs when there is a problem. Fixing the Altima would certainly be cheaper than the same repair of the BMW. The Volvo TCO is higher than the BMW or the Altima.
I also think you have to be comparing similar years. My sister - who’s 20 years younger than me - is still driving a 1996 Nissan 240SX, and it’s in great chat wasn’t a “cheap” car when it was new, but still. I think cars from last century were more robust.
100% agree here. They all need maintenance, but higher end ones have pricer parts and less common, affordable after market parts. Cars are for the most part a utility and a cost center. You want to minimize your cost and maximize your value gotten out of it.
I despise cars as a status symbol, because again it’s just going to turn into a rust bucket like the rest of them at the same or worse rates, but also it just sets people up for failure in the lives just tens of thousands down the drain, literal years of work, for something’s that’s nearly worthless by the time they pay it off.
