They may drive automobiles that cost more than mine, they may take better and more-frequent vacations than I do, and they spend more on clothes, their personal homes, and such than I do. 

We've bought a couple of automobiles off eBay with success, but never r/e.

Pictures I saw of a grow house that became REO was that automobile jumper cables were used to make the connections, where the OP mentioned alligator clips being used.

Restaurants, groceries, utilities, rent, insurance, travel, automobile, etc.)Once you build a history of data, you'll be able to see how much you've spent in each category.

Here's an idea used in automobile sales: no lemons.

Does it matter to me if the price of automobiles is climbing rapidly?

Collectively we've been sold an "american dream" that has been shaped by a surplus of land, relatively low population levels, racism, cheap financing, and automobiles. 

Originally posted by @Justin O'Malley:Hey BPers,So I've been brainstorming about how to start stacking up my finances to come up with a down payment...I have a nice truck but I can't sell it because I use it for work and it's nice having a car nice enough that I don't have to worry about it starting up everyday.I came to this realization....the only considerable amount of money to my name is what I have been putting in my 401k....I don't mean to be critical and supercilious as the once-owner of a bought-new 2009, bought-new 2012, and current owner of a bought-new-and-finally paid-off 2015 Toyota RAV4 that I intend to drive into the ground, I have made my mistakes when it comes to automobiles and they have bled me dry for a long time.

And so they decided, for example:- off-the-shelf software is going to last 3 years- computers, automobiles and appliances are going to last 5 years- construction equipment and office furniture is going to last 7 years- parking lots and fences are going to last 15 years- residential building, both houses and apartments, are going to last 27.5 years- commercial building are going to last 39 yearsDon't try to make sense out of these weird decisions.

Of all the MASSIVE advents of the 20th century; rockets, jet engine, harnessing nuclear energy, hell harnessing energy and electricity itself, automobiles, REFRIGERATION!