There may have been earlier ones, but Nash used this image in their 1951 ads.
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We see these kinds of ads so frequently at this time of year it is just part of the background noiseâŠ
Just curious, has anybody ever been gifted a car for Christmas? Or given one? Anybody even know someone that has?
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Also curious. My answer to all three questions is no.
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I am taking that you mean that by personal you mean someone you know and not some movie star etcâŠ
Yes, movie stars and celebrities donât count!
I personnely donât know anyone who has given a car for Christmas.
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Ummmm NopeâŠ
Me neither. I donât see much tv anymore so maybe itâs not on this year but I like the ad where the guy bought his and her gifts, except she took the truck to the chagrin of the guy.
Someone had excellent taste!
The Mercer Raceabout was a worthyâpossibly superiorâcompetitor to the Stutz Bearcat. It was manufactured in Trenton, NJ, by the Roebling familyâthe same folks who engineered and constructed the Brooklyn Bridge.
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Yes, neighbor had a white Chevy pickup as a Christmas present, complete with giant red bow.
RE the Nash, in â61 we had a â50 Nash Statesman 2 door in pea green.
At the 1964 Worldâs Fair in NYC, NJâs pavilion paled by comparison with the pavilions of many other states. However, the centerpiece of the NJ pavilion was a Mercer Raceabout, painted in the same yellow color. Naturally, I was attracted to that pavilion.
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Just think, this lovely ad shows a 1940âs or 1950âs red brick house, probably 3-bedrooms, 1-bathroom, about 1180 sf of living space, plus the garage or carport. And the family who would have lived in this house would have consisted of a man who worked an average job, his wife, and one to three kids. This family would have lived comfortably on one average salary of the day.
Now, you need two people working, and this house would be out-of-reach financially to all but the highest-income households. Average people, working average jobs can barely afford to rent a 1-bedroom apartment, and the number of people who cannot afford any type of housing has soared.
And itâs not just the cost of housing which has soared beyond the ability of average people to keep up. Food, healthcare, insurance, utilities, and of course new vehicles. Look at magazine ads from the early 1990s, and prepare to be amazed how cheap a new Chevrolet Cavalier, Chevrolet Corsica, Dodge Shadow, Ford Escort, Ford Tempo, etc, was compared to the incomes of the day. A young person starting out could comfortably afford to buy a new (or nearly-new) car, now they canât.
Well if you are going to go that way I also have been 
gifted that way
My mom bought my dad a 1954 Chrysler New Yorker for his birthday.
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Nonsense. My mother worked from the time i was born so that we could afford a little more than an average life. It all has to do with ambition and aspirations and how youâre brought up.
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Yes!
My parents bought their 1200 sf home in 1961 for $18,500 with dad making $6500 a year as an engineer when a new car was $1800 paying $20 a month for utilities. Two kids and a non-working mom. In todays money, that is $192K for the house, $66.8K salary, an $18.5K car and $205 a month for utilities.
In 2023, the average home in Ohio is $235K, car is $42K, Utilities $300/mo and an engineer a few years out of school is an easy $77K.
In 1985 we bought our fixer-upper home for $42.5K, had a $17K new car, $150 in utilities making about $36K a year as an engineer. These are worth $121K house, $45K car, $428 utilities making $94.2K in 2023 dollars.
Looks like middle class professionals at least have kept pace with todayâs costs (at least in Ohio) so where is the disparity? Maybe $5 Starbucks every morning? Doordash meals several times a week? 5 streaming services plus cable and internet? $250 sneakers? Or paying 25% interest on credit card bills that arenât paid off every month? All things that are discretionary that destroy finances.
I donât think itâs useful to make blanket statements like this . . .
Yes, that house may be unattainable for CERTAIN people in CERTAIN locations
In many cases, broadening your horizons . . . and a willingness to relocate . . . makes homeownership possible
There are lots of people who did just this, found home ownership easily within their reach once they swallowed that bitter pill and relocated to another state
And many of them couldnât be happier and arenât looking back
Iâve done this myself, btw
Long ago, I relocated and bought a house in an area I didnât grow up in
And Iâm still surviving . . . in fact, one of my houses will be paid off in just a few more months
I donât look back with regret
Homeownership wasnât possible for me, if I had stayed
So if something doesnât work . . . try something different, relocate, choose a different path, etc.
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Yup!
After I retired from the school system, I went back to college for my third academic degree. I wasâby farâthe oldest student in my classes, and I think that I was somewhat of a curiosity with my brown bag lunches, while the18-23 year olds spent their money on restaurant lunches and fancy coffees.
When I landed my final jobâas a Paralegal at the stateâs child protection agencyâI was the oldest person in the office. I brown-bagged it, and brought coffee in a thermos, while the 25-35 year old caseworkers had restaurant meals delivered each day. By my calculations, most of them were spending at least $50 per week for lunchesâover and above their daily fancy coffee drinks.
I asked a couple of them why they didnât just make a sandwich at home, and I was told that they âdidnât have time to make a sandwichâ. (Yeah, it takes all of 2 minutes to make a sandwich 
) One of them frequently had a tiny bag of corn chips and a side of salsa delivered as an afternoon snack. When I pointed out that she could keep a large bag of corn chips in her desk, and that she could keep a jar of salsa in the office refrigerator, she looked at me like I had made an outrageous suggestion.
Naturally, almost all of them complained about having a hard time âmaking itâ on their public employee salaryâapparently oblivious to how much they were needlessly spending each week.
I was able to pay-off my 30 year mortgage in 23 years, due to my careful budgeting and control of my spending. Now, at my advanced age, I can afford to buy anything that I want, and my heirs will be very well taken care of, but I have serious doubts about whether those younger co-workers will ever be as financially secure in their old age as I am.
Itâs all about self-control and fiscal discipline.
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Agree 100%.
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