Unlike one of my Washington Post colleagues, Warren Brown , I'm not a car enthusiast. I see the metal box as merely a way to get from point A to point B. So long as it has a decent radio and working heat during the winter, I'm good.

This is why I'm floored at the amount of money so many people spend on a vehicle, especially given that a car depreciates the second those front tires leave the dealership's lot.

I'm further stunned when people say a car holds its "value."Right. A car holds its value like water running through a strainer. It just doesn't happen.

If you need more convincing, read Sunday's column . I also write about the increasing number of buyers who are purchasing cars with longer loans. It's lunacy (don't even get me started on foolish folks who lease their cars)!

A Hypothetical House

Is it possible for you to live in the same county where you work? For many people it's hard to do, but perhaps not impossible, reports The Post's new real estate columnist Elizabeth Razzi in " Teacher's Montgomery Trade-Off " (Apr. 29).

Razzi takes a hypothetical couple, both teachers, and looks at whether they could afford a home in Montgomery County, Md., a high-priced suburb of Washington, D.C.

This was a good exercise, but one reader questioned whether this hypothetical couple could actually afford the half-million-dollar home the realtor suggested.