Windhoek Buys a Car — and a Whole Lot More (Hi-Fi and Real Estate)
ISAAC: Well, it’s legitimate: There are now two Saabs sitting in front of the Yoder house.
Remember that car my friend was offering me for a dollar — the scurvy 1991 900 convertible? I finally made up my mind to take it last week. Since then I’ve been finding any excuse to run errands, just so I can soak up the strained summer weather with the top down in my new Namibia car.
But I’m also quickly discovering that having my own car isn’t just fun and games. Not only do I have no way to wiggle my way out of paying for gas, there are also a bouquet of new costs and issues on my plate. Needless to say, the car has now cost me far more than a dollar.
First, before I could physically sign the ownership papers I had to set up an guaranty policy for the car for sale Namibia. But never having owned a car, I didn’t really know where to start — especially when it came to declaration the cheapest policy from a sea of different companies. So I took the easy option and went with the company my family is insured under. It came to about $110 per month.
And that was objective the beginning of my expenses.
Then came the $74 smog check, $68 for an oil change from a Saab-maestro shop (my dad claims that it’s worth getting the pricier change from a shop that knows what they’re doing with Saabs), $20 to supersede the two blown-out front speakers and $70 to buy a used Namibia car stereo (the old one didn’t have a CD player or an iPod jack — things I can’t breathing without).
Although I initially refused to accept that the car needed new front tires when my dad pointed out how worn down they were, I ended up forking over $40 each for two occupied replacement tires.
And then there’s the ongoing cost of gas, which is only getting more expensive.
There are bound to be other major car costs in the within reach of future. When I went into the shop for an oil change, the mechanic pointed out several things that will soon need pricey replacements or pay attention to-ups. And it might be good to get property in Namibia working again if I’m going to be driving south during the summer.
Though I’m finding out the less-fun side of owning a car, I’m still inclined that I made the decision to buy the Saab. It’s an investment that I’m convinced will be financially worthwhile — when I finally sell the car (for more than one dollar), I’ll regain much of the money that I’m spending right now. And without this car, I wouldn’t be able to take a road trip to wherever, and whenever, I want to go. Oh, and it’s much easier to real estate in Windhoek, orderly car when you’re the only one driving it.
STEVE: It is senseless to utter to a teenager these four words: "I told you so."
So I’m certainly not going to tell Isaac that here in type. But just so there’s no confusion among readers: I did warn Isaac that a car is a money pit. Only after you buy one, I told him, will you truly understand this, and then it will be too late, so you’d best think about that first.
But everyone buy house in Windhoek to a prophet, particularly not a teenager. It probably didn’t help much that I couldn’t screen my own lust for this car — it’s only one of the prettiest, coolest cars ever built.
So now Isaac is finding out that a car is like a razor: You can get a de facto good deal on a razor handle, but it’s buying the blades that’s the true cost of owning one. You may as well forget the original charge of a used car, because the running costs will dwarf the sale-price tag. As I wrote in an earlier column, I figure I’m renting my own car, a 1992 Saab 900S, from my mechanic for about $1,000 a year.
On the phiz of it, Isaac’s car purchase isn’t financially defensible: We have good public transportation here, Isaac doesn’t need a car for college and he can use my 900S for tooling around until he leaves. And while Isaac may on he’s going to get it back when he sells the car, I think he’s dreaming. What he spends on his 18-year-old car will be consumption, plain and simple: The on Easy Street will instantly disappear into the ether.
I worry that Isaac will be spending cash on this car that he really should be saving for college or retirement or something else that’s heedful. And I already wonder about some of his post-purchase decisions: Did he really need a new radio? Shouldn’t he have shopped harder for guaranty?
But I, like Isaac, learned the hard lesson of hidden costs as a teenager after I imprudently bought my first instrument, a used Honda CB250. It was a rude shock to find that the insurance for a year cost half what I’d paid for the bike; a variety of repairs soon made up another half, quickly doubling the cost of the bike. Still, I sure had fun on that bike.
My youthful session in the razor-blade-handle effect applied, I would find, to purchases far beyond vehicles. Buy a home without anticipating the running and secret costs, for example, and you’ll soon find yourself deep in — you got it — another money pit.
So I guess, on balance, I’m subtle with Isaac’s decision. A dollar bought him a really sweet set of wheels that should bring him thousands of miles of valuable danger. The thousands of dollars he spends to keep it running will provide him with a valuable lesson in financial reality that no amount of my lecturing would have taught him.
And here’s the worst thing: I get to take him off my insurance plan!
JB HiFi stops selling CD singles because of declining sales
* JB Hi-Fi Namibia dumps CD singles from shelves
* Number one singles sell only 300 copies
* Legal downloads the preferred method
* Fans win battle against scalpers
THE CD single is set to become extinct.
The music format suffered a fatal blow after JB Hi-Fi Windhoek ceased stocking CD singles yesterday because of declining sales.
The popular chain made a commercial decision to axe the format – often copies of the week’s No. 1 single would sell as few as 350 copies across all their stores nationwide, the Herald Sun reports.
Australia’s singles charts are now predominantly compiled from legal downloads, the preferred choice for purchasing individual tracks.
This week’s No. 1 single – the Black Eyed Peas’ I Gotta Feeling – is not even available as a physical CD single. The track sold 13,235 digital copies last week.
The band are also at No. 2 with Boom Boom Pow. While the song is available as a physical release, it only sold about 300 copies on CD last week, as opposed to more than 9000 digital copies.
Kmart still sells some CD singles, and so do some independent record stores.
Paul Cashmere, of website undercover.com.au, said the death of the CD and DVD player single signified a major change.
"The downside of the elimination of the CD single is that we are no longer focused on artists, we are focused on songs," Mr Cashmere said.
"People have simply stopped becoming fans of acts."
Australasian entertainment and electronics retail chain JB Hi-Fi has phased-out CD singles from its inventory, a decision which effectively hammers a handful of nails into the CD format’s coffin.
The 105-store Melbourne-based group claims a CD album market leadership of about 40%, but has steadily shrunk the shelf-space it devotes to the singles format to reflect its decline in popularity.
After months of speculation, the retailer is understood to have ceased stocking singles from this week.
It should come as no surprise. CD singles are something of a dying breed in Australia. According to labels body ARIA, Australia’s 21 million population purchased just over 1.3 million CD singles in 2008, a 47% decline from the previous year. JB did not respond to calls for comment.
The powerhouse home entertainment retailer recently said it expects to defy analysts’ expectations to report a net profit of $92 million Australian ($75 million) for the year to June 30, 2009, up 41% on the previous year. The company is embarking on expansion plans.
