The Sarcasm Report v.289

Apple added trend analysis to their Health app. The added functionality really helps me understand what's actually going on. No longer must I guess at the direction my weight is heading.

Here's my weight over the past month:

Very disappointing month. I was under the impression that I was losing weight, but when a $2.7 trillion company says there is no discernable trend downward even as I walk 9+ miles per day and count calories, I have no choice but to concede that they must be right. Any optimism I once had has been replaced by a feeling of complete hopelessness. It's the kind of hopelessness that only a few quarts of ice cream could temporarily undo.

Here's my weight over the past 6 months:

Once again, my assumptions are found to be lacking. I was under the misguided impression that I started losing weight at Halloween, as a defiant response to leftover candy and a long-term trend that I finally decided to reverse. That could not be farther from the truth. As seen in the professional trend analysis, my quest actually began just 7 weeks ago. While not the good news that I had hoped, at least there is some hope here. It does shatter my self-confidence to be that far off on the timing though.

The future is bright. I'm looking forward to the day when this trend analysis technology can be applied to investments, and you should too. Can you imagine all the money we'd make being able to spot new trends in real time? I wouldn't expect Apple to provide professional tools for free though. They will most likely monetize it. But still, there should be so much money rolling into our investment portfolios that we won't care in the slightest. That's a win win for both Apple and us!

Monetize is such an awesome word. What a great day it is to be able to work monetize into a post! Monetize! Monetize! Monetize! All the world is our monetized oyster! Woohoo!

And lastly, there are other obvious uses for this trend analysis technology. For example, full self-driving cars clearly need to understand the movement trends of the objects around them. In real time! Now that weight trend analysis has been mastered, how hard can it be?

Tesla’s Auto Pileup Feature

August 30, 2021
CNN: Another Tesla reportedly using Autopilot hits a parked police car

The broken-down car was a Mercedes that had come to a stop in a travel lane. The police cruiser was stopped behind it with its emergency lights flashing. The left front of the Tesla Model 3 crashed into the side of the police car, and then hit the Mercedes.

That darn car! What kooky crime caper will it think up next?

The Case for Permanent ZIRP

The following chart shows the natural log of retail trade. When using natural logs, constant exponential growth is seen as a straight line.

As the pandemic hit, the exponential growth of retail sales failed to the downside. Using massive and mostly temporary stimulus, retail sales then overshot the historical channel and failed to the upside. Look where it's headed next. Welcome to the world of barely damped harmonic motion.

Can You Drive a Car With Damaged Suspension?

A broken shock absorber will result in your car bouncing around, as well as excessive rolling, squatting and diving. In other words, it won't be comfortable. Plus, your car will be harder to control, especially at high speeds. For that reason, you should never drive a car with a broken shock absorber at high speeds and avoid sudden turns and abrupt stops.

If you aren't even a bit worried about the current state of the Fed's economic shock absorbers, then maybe you should be?

Scams Likely

The following is a list of the recent incoming phone calls on my cell phone.

You would need to be quite the optimist to think the call from Haiti wasn't also a scam. They left a long message trying to convince me otherwise, but their warning that I have not yet renewed my car's extended warranty is something that I've been aware of for several decades. The car was purchased new in 1996.

Last year, Jim Chanos called this the golden age of fraud. Thanks in part to the easy money policies of the Fed and the new and improved speculative nature of the markets, I suspect that we've reached the platinum level. Hopes and dreams with smoke and mirrors? Be careful out there. I doubt history will be kind to those thinking there's never been a better time to swing for the fences.

The Sarcasm Report v.288

August 23, 2021
CNBC: Elon Musk says Tesla’s latest beta self-driving software is ‘not great’

Regulators may one day decide to disallow vehicle testing with drivers who are not trained professionals on public roads. But for now, no regulation interferes with Tesla’s ability to turn their customers, and everyone they share the road with, into guinea pigs.

Postponing purchase until there are ceiling mounted water bottles, dashboard mounted food pellet dispensers, and floor mat trays with pine wood shavings. Perhaps it is too much to ask, but I want the full experience.

Teslacoin Idea

Tesla should make digital teslacoin. Each coin would buy one Tesla of your choice. Tesla would sell the coins directly and the price would initially be set to equal the most expensive Tesla currently being sold. The coins are also collectible and transferable. Only 21 million will ever be made, so they should appreciate dramatically in this environment. And if, due to the rarity of these coins, they do appreciate, investors may wish to hoard them instead of using them to actually buy a Tesla. This could transform Tesla into the first auto manufacturer that no longer needs to manufacture any cars. Investors make money. Tesla makes money. Win win.

If this idea is successful, it could spread to all the other areas of our economy. At some point, we may never need to manufacture anything real again. Just go 100% digital. Let them eat cakecoin! Everybody wins!

Tech vs. Utilities (Musical Tribute)

The following chart shows the QQQ to XLU ratio since 1999.

Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com.

The ratio peaked in 2000. 21 years later, we've almost come full circle. What good fortunes will the next 21 years bring? Fully autonomous self-driving cars? Better late than never. Am I right?



This is not investment advice. As a utility investor, I am indifferent when it comes to how utilities perform relative to tech stocks from here. That said, it would not surprise me in the least if utilities outperform Tesla. Keep in mind that I want Tesla to succeed, just as I would have wanted Ford to succeed in the early days if I would have been a gasoline investor.

As a side note, my first mower was gas-powered. My next mower was battery-powered. I really liked how quiet it was, but I did not like that, as it got older, it took more than one charge to mow my lawn (nor did I like that the battery was not easy to swap out). My current mower is gas-powered. Spent more than an hour today cleaning its carburetor. My next mower may be battery-powered, again. As much as the thought of a fully-autonomous self-driving lawn mower appeals to me, I don’t think I’m emotionally prepared to risk having it mow over things that randomly might appear in my lawn completely unsupervised though. You know, like the neighborhood kids and pets.

I’m not even emotionally prepared to risk owning a fully-autonomous self-driving vacuum. We have two dogs and a cat. All it took was one poopocalypse story involving a Roomba to cure me of that desire.

Addicted to Rising Debt and Falling Interest Rates

 

This chart shows the 10-year Treasury bond yield compared to the inverse of our economy’s total debt securities and loans. It is not a coincidence that they are clearly highly correlated. They are our two linked financial addictions. Our debt is growing exponentially as our interest rates decay exponentially. Can’t really have one without the other.

In theory, our debt can approach infinity if and only if interest rates approach zero. This keeps our “what do you want your payments to be” economy in balance for business, home, and auto loans.

In practice, Japan’s debt is approaching infinity as their interest rates remain zero. We’re following their lead.

For two decades, we’ve been listening to the experts talk of normalizing interest rates. My reaction remains the same. Interest rates are normalized. They’ve been normalized for 40 years. As our debt goes up, interest rates must come down. If interest rates don’t eventually come down, the economy collapses.

We all know this. The whole world knows this. Just imagine what a 6%+ yield on the 10-year Treasury bond would currently do to the housing market. Housing would implode. We saw a yield this high in 2000. 2000 is over though. It’s 2021 and our debt is so much higher now. Can’t live in the past.

For those worried about inflation, we’re so addicted to debt that 4% Treasury yields should be more than enough for a major deflationary event, especially with the stock market’s current level of exuberance and so many people parsing every word out of Powell’s mouth for any signs of tightening.

The party can continue as long as debt rises to stimulate this economy and interest rates fall to stimulate this economy. Don’t think of our economy as a patient in the intensive care unit. Think of it instead as an addict with stimulants in both hands. Over the long-term, this can’t end well. It has has worked for 40 years so far though, so good luck betting on the timing. In the meantime, stimulated life goes on.

World War ZIRP

This chart shows money with zero maturity as a fraction of GDP.

1. Over the long-term, I fully expect to see this ratio continue to climb. We know that MZM will continue to climb. The only real question is how fast GDP climbs relative to it. Over the short-term (Q3 2020), GDP is currently winning, as some parts of our economy are rebounding from the pandemic. Over the long-term, I don’t think GDP has any hope of winning though. It’s competing with, in Ben Bernanke’s words, "a technology, called a printing press, that allows it to produce as many dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost."

2. Will more dollars mean more consumer price inflation? Over the short-term, maybe. Pent-up demand may need to work through the system. Over the long-term, I doubt it. And when I say long-term, I only mean in my lifetime. And I’m getting old.

3. As seen in the chart, the rising interest rate problem of the 1970s wasn’t due to too many dollars relative to GDP. Quite the contrary. Those expecting a return to the 1970s need to understand this. I can sympathize with the theory, since I do have stagflationary in my name. However, banks only pay higher interest when they need to attract more deposits. Banks are not charities. Expecting banks to pay much higher interest rates when they are already flooded with money makes little sense to me.

4. Flooding banks with money isn’t just happening in the United States. It’s happening all over the world. As a saver, other than a modest investment in savings bonds each year, there’s nowhere relatively safe left to hide. Think of it as a monetary pandemic. The first outbreak was in Japan. None of us were immune. We’re all infected now. There is no cure. It is way too late for monetary vaccinations.

5. So, cash is trash. Right?  Not so fast. It is my belief that the monetary leaders of every country know that we are all spending above our means. No monetary leader wants the inevitable collapse to happen on their watch. There’s no way out for them either. So, what do they need in order to delay the eventual outcome? ZIRP and low inflation. In theory, ZIRP allows nearly infinite borrowing for everyone at essentially no cost, especially for loans that have interest only payments. Low inflation stops people from hoarding goods. Need both, just like Japan. That’s the only solution there seems to be. When in a hole, dig deeper. A deeper hole is a horrible solution for future generations, of course.

6. Will we see 40 year mortgages in my lifetime? Yes. We’ve seen the duration of auto loans increase. Why not loans on homes? Anything is possible in a world with century bonds. Pretend and extend!

7. I kind of joke. 40-year mortgages are already available. I’m still alive. Yes!

8. This is why I have embraced interest rate sensitive utilities, even as some believe that utilities are in a bubble. If I’m wrong on interest rates, then I’ll be wrong on utilities. It mostly comes down to where interest rates are headed over the next decade or so. I’m sleeping okay since the decision to buy utilities in December. At the very least, ignorance is bliss.

9. Anyone who knows with certainty where we are headed is a fool. We’ve never been in this situation before. Historical data isn’t much more useful than tea leaves. That’s especially true of historical data before we fell off the gold standard. What should the P/E of the stock market be in a world potentially trapped in ZIRP long-term? Perhaps we’ll find out in hindsight. After all, today’s data is tomorrow’s historical data. And so on.

My Long-Term Inflation Expectations Remain Well-Anchored

 

This is a can of petite diced tomatoes. Target will currently sell it to us for 49 cents. It’s not on sale. That’s the normal price.

If we spend $35, they will ship it to us for free. If we buy 72 cans, that would cost us $35.28. Each 14.5oz can weighs almost exactly 1 pound (due to the extra weight of the empty can). That means the total shipment weighs a whopping 72 pounds (expect some dented cans).

At the beginning of the pandemic, we also paid 49 cents for these cans at Target. How is it that pandemic hoarding, intermittent shortages, and massive monetary stimulus have not caused the price to go up? How can Target continue to ship us goods this cheap even as online shipping demand has skyrocketed?

It’s not just petite diced tomatoes. I’m only using this as an example. It’s pretty much everything we’ve stocked up on from Target, Costco, Walmart, and Amazon since the beginning of the pandemic.

In related news, it’s not too late to read the 2008 Hyperinflation Special Report on Shadowstats. For what it is worth, I’m personally waiting until their $175 subscription price starts inflating. I need to see them put their money where their mouth is. Even a token one cent increase to $175.01 would attract my attention. Is it too much to ask? It’s been the same price for more than a decade. In my opinion, it’s very difficult to sell a hyperinflation story without at least one subscription price increase in 12+ years!

Our government is definitely taking a “shock and awe” approach to thwarting deflation. Will it be enough to counter the increased pace of automation due to a pandemic though? Robots don’t get sick, nor do they require living wages. Based on Japan’s “success” at thwarting deflation, my long-term bet is on the robots. Their present seems to be our future.

January 1, 2021
NHK World - Japan: Autonomous delivery robots hit Japanese streets

A robot knocks on your door to deliver a freshly brewed cup of coffee, which you ordered just minutes earlier with one tap on your smartphone. This vision of the future could soon turn into reality as Japanese companies have started testing autonomous delivery robots on public streets. This comes as the need for social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic has pushed up demand for autonomous delivery services.

Thoughts on VPU

 From MarketEdge:

“Until VPU can find a price level that supports the stock, further price depreciation is probable. Momentum is negative. Wait for accumulation indicators to turn positive as a sign that demand for the stock is improving.The stock has underperformed the market when compared to the S&P 500 over the last 50 trading days.”

They rate VPU as avoid, for the same reasons I rate it as attractive. I’m not a momentum trader. I seek value. Heaven help us all if utility stocks outperform the market over the long-term.

I do expect VPU to outperform the 30-year treasury over the next 30 years though. VPU’s dividend yield is about 3%. The 30-year treasury now yields just 1.64%. My expectations are set very low. Not feeling any exuberance.

I had similar expectations for the one long-term TIPS bond filling my retirement account. For years, it poked along exactly meeting my low expectations of 2% per year plus inflation. Was happy holding to maturity. This year, money flooded into bonds though. The market made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. In theory, the same thing could happen to utilities. All it would take is more safety seeking low expectation “savers” to someday make the same decision I have recently made. And if they never do, that’s fine too. As one who is reinvesting the dividends, I’m not going to complain much about cheaper share prices to keep buying.

Setting expectations below what is likely means life is often filled with pleasant surprises. It is ultimately more rewarding to me to invest in something mundane that turns exciting than something exciting that turns mundane.

Note that I chose to buy mundane utility stocks over shares in a very exciting $669 billion car company. Perhaps too exciting. That’s roughly equivalent to a $2000 stimulus check for every man, woman, and child in the United States. How many more times do Tesla investors realistically think it can double from here? Dare I ask?

Even Rabbits Fly the Friendly Skies

April 26, 2017
United Airlines in new PR disaster after giant rabbit dies on UK flight

“We have been in contact with our customer and have offered assistance.”

What kind of assistance can you offer a dead bunny? It's way too late to voluntarily and forcibly re-accomodate it!

The Sarcasm Report v.273

Bloomberg: At $207,000, the Aston Martin Rapide S Is Not a Good Deal

Those making the federal minimum wage already know this, of course. Working 14+ years to buy the car ($7.25 per hour, 40 hour workweeks, 50 weeks per year) definitely isn't a good deal without an extended-term loan, 0% financing, and reduced-price underbody rust protection.

Bloomberg vs. CNBC: Miami Real Estate

October 20, 2016
Bloomberg: It's Better to Buy Than to Rent, and It Probably Always Will Be

Some markets are more advantageous than others. In Miami, it's 53 percent cheaper to buy than to rent a home of similar size, the biggest discount among the metropolitan areas included in the report.

The closure of Detroit's Packard Car Company in 1956, the impact of San Francisco's Great Earthquake in 1906, and Bernanke's "there is no housing bubble to go bust" national housing bubble bust of 2005 notwithstanding, it's better to buy than to rent, and probably always will be? Miami is a screaming bargain? Hmmm.

October 20, 2016
CNBC: Miami luxury condo prices take a plunge

In broader Miami, inventory rose 11 percent, resulting in a 40-month supply of luxury condos. Inventories for single-family homes in both areas are also higher.

Given these broad-based increases, Miller said the luxury real estate market in Miami is likely to get worse before it gets better.

Ever get the feeling that Miami is destined to be the real estate speculation capital of the world? These booms and busts never seem to end. Is it the water? Is it the sun? Is there something in the air? Please don't tell me this gambling vice has a catchy tune!



Here is my advice, for what it is worth. Only buy a home if you believe you can stay for at least a few years. The more the better. That's especially true in a modern world, where job security can often be expressed in mere months for unlucky souls. I rented for years when I was working and never regretted it. I moved often to go where the work was. Owning a home could have easily anchored me [underwater]. Your experience may vary, of course.

I should also mention that as a homeowner, the mere mention of the word earthquake makes me cringe. Care to guess who is mostly on the hook during a big one? Me. In the battle between Mother Nature and my house, the former will eventually win. But hey, at least it's not built on a flood plain. That's something I guess. Now if I could just stop thinking about volcanoes. Mt. Rainier is in the distance. 99.99% beautiful. 0.01% terrifying. So far, so good.

Automotive Quote of the Day

October 4, 2016
USA Today: 5 things we learned from September auto sales

So we have every reason to believe the industry in 2016 still has the momentum and supportive business conditions to end at or around the 2015 record level... - Toyota Vice President Bill Fay

It's a microcosm of the entire US economy! Woohoo!!

In all seriousness, some people are still baffled by the "low" 0.66% real yield on the 30-year inflation-protected treasury bond?

Flat momentum for the long-term, baby. That's what I'm talking about. Sigh.

The Illusion of Stability: Stable-Value Funds vs. Unicycles

July 19, 2016
That 'safe' retirement investment is about to change

Stable-Value Funds:

Investors are dependent on the credit quality of the underlying bond portfolio and the company providing the insurance. If the insurer fails, you may have to get in line with other creditors for your payout, said Gregory Kasten, founder and CEO of Unified Trust Company.

Unicycles:

Riders are dependent on the quality of the underlying terrain and soft couches providing the insurance. If the couches fail, you may have to get in line with other riders at the hospital, says me, an anonymous blogger on the Internet.



Just looking for an excuse to share the video. No worries. There are no serious injuries. One has to admire his persistence!

Reminds me a bit of learning to snowboard in college. The falls were definitely when most of the learning took place. I was almost always riding that fine line between stability and instability, for I craved the speed more than I craved the stability. These days? Not so much. I prefer the stability over the speed, and you can see that in my investments.

Since retiring, I have no desire to chase yield at the expense of safety. No desire to eek out a modest "safe" return by investing in riskier things and paying for insurance to make them less risky either. Perhaps the thought of paying for an insurance company CEO's private yacht turns me off? Perhaps I don't want to ever be in a position where the insurance company fails, I lose a lot of money, but the yacht never gets sold to pay me back?

I am not getting more cynical as I age! Am not!! Well, maybe just a bit. If I am, it's for good reason though, I assure you. When something is called stable-value and yet the value is inherently unstable when stability is needed the most (during a financial crisis), my cynicism can only grow.

This Investment Is Guaranteed to Test a Long-Term Saver's Patience

The 20-year treasury constant maturity rate hit 1.83% today. That's the lowest rate I have ever seen, and I'm 51 years old.

You'd think I'd be crazy for telling a long-term saver that it is a relative bargain. You'd be right. Not only would I be crazy, but I'd be Game of Thrones Ned Stark raving mad. I'd have lost my head!

The relative bargain for patient long-term savers is the EE savings bond. If you buy it today, it is guaranteed to double in 20 years. That works out to 3.53% per year. That's a full 1.7% more than a 20-year treasury also purchased from the US government.

In order to get the 3.53%, you must hold the full 20 years. That's going to require serious patience. The patience doesn't end there though. For new investors, that yield is guaranteed through October. There's no hurry. Bonus points will not be awarded for locking it in early. You can therefore patiently wait until October to make the decision to buy. I strongly suggest waiting.

I know what you must be thinking. A lot can happen in 20 years. Rates may rise, especially if inflation gets out of control. Could ruin you. Could ruin me. That's absolutely true. What's also true is that rates could continue to fall though, just like they've been doing for nearly four decades. Very few financial "experts" ever warn about that outcome though. Why is that? You'd think Japan and ZIRP would give at least some of them reason for pause and/or self-doubt.

There are no sure thing investments. I can say the following five things with absolute certainty though.

1. You will be earning the exact same 3.53% rate that I'm earning on the EE savings bonds that I first started buying in 2010 (just 14 years to go on those). I intend to buy this year again, in October. Until then, I patiently wait.

2. I cannot profit off your decision by so much as a penny, no matter what you do. Buy them or not, makes no difference to me. There is no market price for savings bonds. I am not rewarded if people flood into them. I get what I get. Further, I cannot profit off of your transaction. Nobody can. You buy directly from the government. There are no middlemen looking to take a cut. I find that refreshing in this era of greed.

3. My only motivation is to inform. Some may not be aware of this alternative. The banks certainly aren't going to tell you if you are looking to buy a long-term CD. They certainly never told me when I first started buying I-Bonds in 2000!

4. All bets are off on November 1st. Although those buying EE savings bonds before then are guaranteed the rate if held 20 years, there's no telling what the terms will be for those investing later. If rates do keep falling, the risk of the terms changing unfavorably continue to rise. I'm amazed that the terms haven't already changed.

5. If EE savings bonds end up being a truly horrible investment over the next 20 years, which they very well could be, know you will not be alone. I will be right there with you, licking my wounds too. The one "saving" grace will be that at least we didn't buy the 20-year treasury and hold to maturity, or buy stocks counting on permanently low rates to support their high leverage. Could potentially be worse, lol. Sigh.

This is not investment advice.

Sitting in a sizable inflation protected treasury bond ladder, a rather substantial inflation protected I-Bond ladder, a very modest amount of potentially riskier and potentially more rewarding EE savings bonds, and cash (for short-term needs, emergency funding, and for potential future investment opportunities), all for the long-term. Not a single regret about any of it. I retired in 1999. After fully recovering from the dotcom bubble, this baby boomer lost the desire to swing for the fences in 2004, near the peak of the housing bubble. Not ever swinging again. Don't need to. Been there, done that. Done.

If you absolutely need to swing for the fences, then go for it I guess. Just make sure you aren't confusing want and need. You need to swing if your personal loan shark will kill you if you can't give him back the 50 grand you previously blew on sure thing day trading investments. You want to swing if your 2015 convertible has tragically lost that new car smell that once made it such a pleasure to drive at the same time your butler is looking for a raise. Just sayin'. ;)

Today's "Punishing Blow" to Tesla's and SolarCity's Shorts

June 22, 2016
CNBC: Chanos: ‘Brazen' SolarCity deal is ‘corporate governance at its worst’

"And if you don't want to believe me, consider this: The combined market drop in the value of both companies is more than the equity value of the deal itself — which means that Tesla shareholders think SolarCity shares are essentially worthless," Chanos said.

The combined market cap of the two companies fell. Generally speaking, that's pretty good news for those shorting both companies.

Some people have characterized Tesla's bid as a punishing blow to those shorting both Musk firms.

SolarCity ended the day up 3.3% but Tesla fell a whopping 10.4%. I haven't seen a "punishing blow" this intense since the cardinal poked her with the soft cushions.



This is not investment advice. I have no positions in either company.

Success: Don't Miss Out on Life's Greatest Thing

June 21, 2016
CNBC: Millionaire investor: This is when you know you've made it

"Hey, if you've got two cars, monetarily wise, you're successful," said McConaughey, co-chairman of the West Texas Investors Club, the investment group he started with his friend and business partner Wayne "Butch" Gilliam.

McConaughey, who built a lead pipe empire worth millions, described getting a second car as "the greatest thing that ever happened" to him.

July 23, 2015
Sutherlin Nissan of Orlando - Purchased Two Cars With Bogo Deal At New Car Dealership

Hello, my wife and I went to Sutherlin Nissan to purchase 2 cars at same time because we heard the advertisement on the radio from Sutherlin Nissan offering a bogo deal.We went up to Sutherlin Nissan on 1/31/15 and spoke with a salesman who's name is Aaron J.D.Amico, and we sat down and Aaron told us in order to take advantage of the bogo deal, we had to purchase the more expensive Altima as first choice, and then the second car would be the cheaper car.

We chose the Altima and the second car we chose was a 2014 Nissan Sentra. We had a 2014 Nissan Versa to trade in also, but we had negative equity in this car. Aaron gave us $12,000 for our Versa, and we owed $15,016.00 on the Versa. So we had a negative equity of $3016.00.

We haggled over keeping the price hopefully under $400.00 a month, but at the end we agreed at a monthly price of $550.00 a month which was what the figures came up with. We went into the finance officer's office, and his name is Sammy, and Sammy was having alot of trouble with his printer and could not print out the finance documents, so we ended up waiting in his office for over one hour before he could begin printing out the documents and contracts. When the documents were finally printed out needless to say Sammy was rushing us to just look quickly and sign to finish up everything after so much wasted time and trouble with his printers. So we looked over the documents quickly and signed everything, they took our Versa and Brought out two new cars, the 2015 Altima and the 2014 Sentra.

Sammy explained to us that the Sentra would be free for two years of lease, and Sutherlin would cut us a check to cover two years of lease which was $299.00 a month for 24 months totalling $7176.00. Sammy said we are loosing alot of money on these Bogo deals, but they need to keep their customers happy. Sutherlin did cut us the check and we just transferred all the funds to Nissan Finance to cover us for 2 years of lease payments. But a week later I look at our contracts and finance and I recognize that Sutherlin Nissan charged us an initial price for the Altima of $29,688.00 or almost $30,000.00.

I check online and find out that the Altima we purchased with same options cost no more than $23,500.00 to $24,000.00. I immediately go back up to Sutherlin to let them know this and ask if they can adjust our monthly payments and purchase price down to the true value of the vehicle, and they continue to say we got a good deal because we got the second car free for 2 years. A couple of days later I go back up to Sutherlin Nissan and talk to another Finance Manager because Sammy is not in and is off that day. I tell this other Finance Manager the same story that we were charged way too much for the Altima, and this Finance Manager tells me that how do you expect us to pay for your two years of free lease in the Sentra unless we offset that loss with raising the initial price of the Altima.

I tell this Finance manager that no one there when we first came to purchase these cars with the bogo deal told us that these two cars are a package deal and the initial first car choice's price would be raised accordingly to offset the 2 years free lease of the second vehicle. If they had told us this we would of never purchased these 2 vehicles because that would mean this is not a true bogo deal and that we are still just paying full price for two cars. And we were charged twice as much on our interest rate than we were paying for our trade-in car or the Versa which was something else we did not understand since our credit rating had not changed in the least when we financed our Versa. I went to our bank who financed our Versa at the low interest rate and told them we had a new car and that it was a 2015 Altima.

I gave them at the bank the contract for the Altima purchase, and they flatly came out and told me they cannot refinance this Altima because we paid way too much for this vehicle, and that the Altima is only valued at $23,500.00 and maybe $24,000.00 with all the options we have in it. Our bank could not help us refinance this car.We have been agonizing over being ripped off by this Dealership for many months now, and have made almost seven monthly payments on it already that was so hard to do. We cannot enjoy this car at all because we know we paid way too much for it.My wife and I have been constantly arguing over what we paid for this car, and we cannot find any help in this matter.

We pray you can help us out of this situation Mr.Newlin

Quote of the Day

June 17, 2016
Bloomberg: Why Can’t You Get Your $300,000 Supercar With a Stick Shift?

In terms of eliciting the most extreme performance, human beings just can’t compete with the precision of a computer.

Then they came for the stick shifts
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a stick shift