scott wrote:

> 
> The cheapest one on the UK site is the 116i for 16185 pounds.

I find it astounding that you can purchase *any* car from new at under 

tags...

>> If that's the case, why do all the people driving them act like they 
>> own the entire road network then? I always thought that the BMW 
>> drivers' massive superiority complex comes from the fact that the car 
>> costs as much as a small house...
> 
> Well it depends which model you get, like I said the cheapest is 16k, 
> but it's very easy to spend double that if you want a bigger one that's 
> a bit faster.

Mmm, I guess.

>> I wouldn't drive a Ford if you paid me. I have no idea what a Peugeot 
>> 407 is, but it sounds much more inviting...
> 
> The Ford Focus is actually a really nice car to drive, the handling is 
> great and everything seems of pretty high quality.  If you told me I had 
> 10k-15k to spend on a new car for my family, it would probably be my 
> choice.

Maybe I'm just baised. Every Ford I've ever seen has been so riddled 
with problems that I just want to get away from it as fast as humanly 
possible...

>> Well, I guess at 10k it might as well be 10,000k - either way I don't 
>> have that kind of money
> 
> But you said you spent 6k on your car.  10k isn't much different, in 5 
> or 10 years it's not going to be impossible that you might be thinking 
> of spending 10k on a car.

Oh, sure, it's only nearly *twice* as much. Not much different at all. ;-)

Still, I guess it I get a loan and spend 10 years paying it back I could 
theoretically do it...

>>  - but I find your statements extremely surprising. Cars contain 
>> *metal*, and metal is very expensive.
> 
> No it's not.  The cost of the actual metal is pretty much zero compared 
> to the other costs.

I always thought that this is why stuff is so much cheaper now. Not so 
long ago, everything was made of metal, and it was all very expensive. 
Today everything is made of plastic, and it's jaw-droppingly cheap. It's 
such an obvious correlation that it seems almost self-evident that the 
only possible explanation is that metal is expensive.

If metal isn't expensive, why do they insist on making *everything* of 
plastic? Even items that really *should* be made of metal?

> Designing a car that works is the expensive bit.  A 
> lot of people have absolutely no idea how much effort and how many 
> different companies and people are involved with designing something 
> like a car.  It usually takes around 6 years from concept to production 
> start, with literally hundreds of different companies involved.  It's 
> totally amazing that anything actually ever gets built.

But aren't cars rather like processors? Sure, it costs a lot to design 
one, but once it's designed you can just go on churning out copies of it 
forever. I mean, hell, when was the Ford Fiesta designed? And it's 
*still* on sale today! Surely they've more than recovered the original 
design costs by now?

>> Cars require extensive safety testing, and that's expensive.
> 
> Much cheaper nowadays with accurate computer simulations that don't need 
> a supercomputer.

Oh, I have no doubt. But still pretty damn expensive, I would think.

>> And few people make cars, so they can charge the earth for them. Why 
>> *wouldn't* they be expensive?
> 
> Actually lots of people make cars, especially in the high-volume 
> low-price market.

Really? Interesting...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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