These days I am seeing a lot of FL5 Honda Civic Type Rs on the road. It’s a real curiosity because one, Honda does not produce many, and two, the Type R is rather expensive. A cool low $50K when it’s all said and done (got to pay the tax man, you know), and then there’s the super high insurance premiums. (Thanks to the totally not a war in Iran, gas is not cheap either.)
How are folks affording these cars?! The demographic of Type R buyers skews young, mind you. This isn’t a case of boomers buying cars they can easily budget for. I myself can mathematically afford an FL5, but I simply would not be comfortable plucking down that much money on mere transportation, even if it looks and performs awesomely.
Perhaps I’ve aged out of being irresponsible with money vis a vis cars. I’ve done it, thankfully financially recovered from it, and have no desire to do it again.
Or, my mother would say: “Everybody has money. It’s you who don’t have money.” That’s probably true. Sure it’s easy to run credit and get into debt in America for shiny things, but the fact is there’s also statistically a lot of people out there with money. The median income in the San Francisco Bay Area is mathematically apparent. So it actually should not be a surprise that I encounter a large concentration of FL5 Civic Type Rs on the road around here.
It’s just frustrating sometimes that my better financial senses are restricting the possible experiences that I can pursue as a car enthusiast. That is why, out of spite, out of jealousy, and simply as a cope: I’ve stopped watching YouTube videos of cars I cannot begin to afford. Another unobtainable special edition Porsche 911? Watching about it only brings sadness.
Living on a vine.