Aye, my lambo be a rhetorical lambo, not a literal Lambo. Hell, I drive a 20 year old full-size van. Then again, my rhetorical lambo cost quite a bit more than a literal Lambo.
Hopefully, you are not driving one of those windowless vans... hahahahahaha
Twenty years is really getting up their with vehicles, and I really got spoiled with built in bluetooth, and some of the other improvements of modern vehicles - including ride quality.
It's on my to-do list. Just not very high.
Actually, I was never much of a new car person, until about 8 years ago. I had never really liked the immediate depreciation aspect.
...I decided to go with new, and also to go with a kind of luxury brand. The transition was really nice, and soon after taking the plunge, I was wondering why it had taken me so long to treat myself to something really nice
Yeah... thing is, the full-size van form factor just works for me. If someone made a van with interior trim up to luxury car standards, this woulda been a done deal already. Alas, no. So my decision is to abandon the form factor I desire and get a pickup, or settle for the comparatively downmarket experience of a van. Either seems a compromise, which makes me need to consider other platforms*. Which leads to indecision. ::sigh::
*i.e., maybe Tesla X?
Oh well, the wife is the car guy in this family, anyhoo.
I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but I cannot resist to say that I am not going to let you get away with this delegation to the wife thingie, completely, because in the end, there is some kind of reason that you are hanging onto a 20-year old van, when it seems that there are going to be some comparable features in modern vans or other substitute vehicles that could satisfy your needs - and update you to a new reliable version of a vehicle with bells and whistles of modern automotive technology, including improvements in actual ride quality.
I will actually give you a bit of latitude on the stereotypical dynamic that guys should be picking cars, rather than women, because sometimes the actual use-cases of vans would be a kind of "family" car that would give wifey much more reasonable authority in the vehicle choice input.
By the way, the Tesla X is a kind of SUV that differs from vans, and there are quite a few other models of cars on the market that are similar to the TeslaX - excepting that the electric nature of the TeslaX is surely an interesting experiment that is still ahead of its electrical charging infrastructure support.
Anyhow, I was thinking that there are some features of 20 year old vans that are not quite present in variations of modern SUVs, which would include your mentioning of the TeslaX as a possible consideration point, including that actual 20 year old vans could have the potential to have removability of seats and just the possible stand up space and roominess and customizability that some of the modern SUVs would not have - maybe even putting a bed in there or some other living room or even transportation space conveniences.
My question here remains what is it about your particular 20-year old van that you like, besides the mere inconvenience of changing vehicles? Is it the fact that you already have it set up with various of your features, or is there something else going on? Some people like the fact that some of the older cars are easier to work on with self-repairs, but even some of the 20 year old cars are already beginning to have a lot more computerization that even causes them to be difficult to self-maintain.
I have a nearly 20 year old vehicle that I wouldn't trade for anything. What's wrong with 20 year old vehicles? It's my daily drive to work and elsewhere - I use my wife's newer (brand new, hate, she now understands why I advised 100% against the course of action she took) POS when it is convenient or quick trip or family trip (it has better fuel economy and space). My fuel economy is not awful, about 28 mpg, and I do most of the basic work on it myself (changing brake pads, belts, terminals etc) to keep the rock bottom cost even lower. This has featured the added benefit of the boon of some mechanical knowledge where none existed before. I at least investigate any issues myself prior to ever considering thieving mechanics. It has been paid off since I bought it (at a cool 120k miles) for five thousand dollars. It has some wear (now, and still not bad, was mostly pristine when purchased from singular owner) and certainly doesn't have the bells and whistles of newer vehicles, but I am absolutely fine with that. I just crossed a quarter million miles a few months ago. I keep the oil changed regularly and it scarcely needs other maintenance too often. My battery even lasted almost 5 years, granted that has nothing to do with the particular vehicle per se. It is a manual transmission and primarily a joy for me to ride. I would be glad to have my daughter learn to drive this vehicle in some years if she is willing - and I certainly plan to teach her how to operate a manual transmission at the least.
I'm happy letting others get into cars they can't afford. I agree that new vehicles are not the way. When I do finally replace my favored child, it will be with a used vehicle that has already reached maximum depreciation and that will be regardless of how wealthy I am, as that is one method I will deploy to stay wealthy/maintain wealth (when I get there!).
I would never consider, much less purchase, a Tesla of any kind.
It seems to me that you are partly misreading some of my points, and I am not necessarily asserting that in itself driving a 20 year old car is not the right particular approach, but partly I am also attempting to get jbreher to explain himself a bit more regarding why he specifically would be driving a 20 year old van and what attributes his van has exactly (beyond the mere inconvenience of changing) that causes him to NOT upgrade.
Since you have posted ONLY a couple of times, and this is the first post that I recall reading of yours, then hardly would I recognize any of your situation including how long you have been in crypto and your crypto approach that could cause me to formulate certain assumptions about your possible lifestyle and/or personality as I have gotten to know a large number of aspects about jbreher over the past few years.
Your point about valuing your 20 year old car no matter what your level of wealth seems has become a bit lost upon me, and causes me to tentatively conclude that you might be attempting to argue for the mere sake of arguing, because even though a lot of people attempt to assert that they would not change if they were to win the lottery, for example, an actual winning of the lottery or becoming greatly rich in a short period of time makes it quite illogical that the person would grasp to all of their old prudence behaviors.. I understand that supposedly Warren Buffet has some of these kinds of stubborn sticking to your old habits and frugality, but even those supposed stories seem quite illogical given his age and the level of his wealth... but perhaps he is quite the exception rather than the rule?