re: The average monthly car payment is $745 for new cars and $521 for used

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We drive pretty reasonable vehicles relative to income. My wife has a 2024 Accord. Honestly, the ones that were a year or two old with 30k miles on them were close enough price-wise to new ones that I'd rather just have the warranty. She drives little enough where we'll get the full 3-5 years out of it.

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I wish I could do that. I’ve always liked nice cars so it’s usually something I spend more money than I should on.

It’s for sure a want vs a need. I run the dog shite out of my sales car for work and keep it for 10 years but my wife’s suv and my truck usually don’t see more than 60k miles before I get rid of them.

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Most of the folks on this site are absolutely ridiculous when it comes to finances.

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From what I’ve read most on here are balling like Kobe.

The newest vehicle I have is 6 years old. The oldest of the four is 21 years old.

I drive them until they go to the salvage yard.

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You buy a beater, aka a car you can afford

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It's super liberating to drive something that wouldn't bother you if it got dinged or scratched.

Problem is that I'd still care. I'd have to find like a 15 year old white Taurus or something to get there....

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How long before 10 year auto loans and 40 year mortgages to become a thing?

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36 year mortgages were common in the 70’s and early 80’s. My parents got a 36 year mortgage in 1979 with 18% interest

LINK

- 1 in 5 new car buyers take on $1,000 monthly payments
- Loans lasting 84 months or longer made up a record 22.4%


Then you have all of these Buy Now, Pay Later plans available for damn near anything from NFTs to your weekly groceries…

all of this is just mind boggling to me

Coworker and I were talking last night about how neither one of us can bring ourselves to buy a new truck.

Between the problems they’re all seemingly having and the prices, it’s insanity. I think we’ve become so inundated with technology that we have successfully priced ourselves out of vehicles.

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When you’re buying a car, it’s helpful to use the average car payment amount as a benchmark

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Advice like this is exactly why these numbers keep going up.

Worst money trap you can fall into.

At what point is it acceptable to have a $745 note? What if you make $300k and you have savings and investments that can cover the vehicle cash, but your interest rate is sub 5%. Is it worth taking the $60k+ out of investments to pay cash?

I agree 95% of people are making bad decisions, but it's also not automatically a bad decision. I used to think it was without a doubt. I thought I'd never pay a note higher than my first vehicle out of college because I'd just build more savings. Then got to a position where I could afford those vehicles, but when it came time to purchase, it didn't make sense to pay cash.

And don't get me started on used vehicle prices. Sure you can get a beater, but we do well and don't need to settle for that. A used truck or SUV with less than 80k just isn't enough of a deal most of the time compared to new.