data from Edmunds says a record 17.5% of borrowers have payments of $1,000 or more
That is a crazy high number. You are approaching mortgage territory there (yes, mortgages can be that price outside of cities). People need to stop spending so much on cars. They do not retain value.
My mortgage is that price inside a major city. Quite a few cars today – and not just hypercars or ultra-luxury ones, either – are approaching the same price I paid in 2009 for an entire 3-bedroom house. That’s just pants-on-head crazy!
I bought mine with 0% interest for 36 months, best believe I’m paying that 1k bill in order to not have to pay interest lol
36k for a new car is a lot for me but that’s not the worst deal. The problem is people are paying over 1k a month for 6-7 years.
Yea that’s crazy to pay that for 7 years. The last car payment I had for 7 years was ~200 a month and I was 18 so credit was nonexistent.
36k isn’t crazy for a hybrid AWD SUV in todays market, I paid a little more for the hybrid and AWD to get 45 mpg instead of 20s and the AWD is a safety feature since my part of the world gets severe winter weather.
I’d love to have paid less but this is market is deranged
That’s $400/mth more than my 2013 mortgage, and you can get a property at the same I paid for mine in 2013 now, just in Indiana instead of Wisconsin.
I’ve thought about relocating because my property is now worth 3x what I paid, and that’s about the only option I have to net any perk from selling, but I don’t want to move somewhere that gets droughts in the best of times, much less with climate change.
But for someone who just wants a place? There are some, and they all come with drawbacks.
You think people can get $600/month mortgages in this economy? You seeing a ton of homes in Indiana for 75k?
Because at 8% interest, that’s all you’re getting for $600/month
Yes, that’s my point. Look at the housing market in Indiana. There are lots of properties under 75k.
They aren’t better than the place I live now, but they also aren’t worse.
The only kind of place you’re getting for under 75k in America is gonna be 100% pictures taken from the outside by a bank representative as they try to foreclose on a very poorly located hovel.
But sure, gl with your mystery box fixer upper.
Holy shit. That’s mortgage territory. I would master the public transportation system and buy an electric bike before spending that much per month.
For ordinary cars, they’re not meant to. They’re meant to be driven. That naturally involves wear and tear.
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Well, yeah, when people are spending $30K-$80K on a car, they’re likely gonna miss payments eventually. The car market, including used cars, has been over-inflated for years.
We had a 2003 Honda Element that we bought in 2008 for $8000. It had less than 50,000 miles on it. We saw that same exact model in a car lot this year, with over 150,000 miles and they were selling it for $10,000. Over 15 years later and over 100,000 miles more on it and it’s selling for more. There is a serious problem with the car market right now.
Honda Element isn’t the best car to illustrate overall inflation. They’re kind of in trend right now, so the price is higher than similar cars of same era/mileage.
Wtf, Honda elements are trendy? We used to rag on my friends element because it was like half plastic. Can’t imagine that has aged well.
Wait till you see FJ Cruisers selling for $20,000+ with over a quarter million miles on em.
During peak COVID, the dealer wanted to buy back my Q50 for $6k more than I paid them for it four years prior.
Elements are enjoying a Renaissance more than a lot of other cars out there
The price of cars was relatively flat from about 1998 until covid, actually. In 2019 cars were a bargain compared to the 80s and 90s.
You’re also comparing 2003 prices to 2023 prices. Inflation occurred in the last 20 years. Like, this is just what happened to all goods and services.
It hurts to agree with you. Like I wanted to downvote you but then I checked an inflation calculator. The problem is wages haven’t kept up. In a normal period of inflation nobody notices because their purchasing power is unaffected. But if prices go up while wages stagnate then everyone notices.
I was shocked… My wife totalled my car 3 weeks ago. It was a 2013, but it was paid for.
I was COMPLETELY unprepared to go shopping for a car and I’m really not interested in having a car payment again.
So $12,000 down thanks to the insurance payment, even financing a small amount through my credit union and having an 800 credit score was getting rates in the 7-8% range. I saw some silliness and nonsense of 12.25%. On a CAR loan.
Called in some markers so I’ll be able to pay the rest in cash.
My current car is 14 years old and fully paid off, but likely won’t survive for much longer. I really want an electric car, but the prices on these are beyond what I can afford. So I looked at hybrid cars and even these were going to be extremely pricey. Finally, I looked at some regular gas cars, but even those would stretch my budget to the breaking point.
If my current car goes, I’ll need to buy another one, but I’m not sure how I’ll afford it.
Yeah, we’re going to invest in electric bikes at some point. Eventually drop down to one vehicle paired with two electric bikes. It’s just too expensive to buy a car any more.
If my car dies my job is gonna be in for a hell of a surprise when I can’t travel to events around the state anymore. I’ve been asking for a raise and trying to get them to understand that I’m struggling to survive even with working a second job.
Chevy Equinox EV will have a Trim under 35k 2024 Equinox The money you save from gas would help with the car payment, plus GM has a deal with getting a L2 charger installed in your home.
A $35,000 car (with what I could afford for a down payment, what I think I’d get for my trade-in, and at 8% interest), would be $655 a month. That’s budget busting for me.
Even ignoring costs to install a charger, I spend about $80 in gas a month, so that wouldn’t be a huge savings. I’d still be spending an additional $575 a month which would be enough to put me in the red every month.
The hybrids I was looking at cost $21K to $29K and even those would stress my budget out.
Your situation is your own, but I was able to lease a phev for less than what I was paying for gas + maintenance on a car I had paid off. It may not be exactly what you want, but lease deals still come around occasionally.
And that’s not even discussing the damn price these days. I wasn’t prepared for the price. Luckily, I found a damn minivan for $3k used with only 70k miles. I hate driving the thing, but for $3k, buckle up.
Americans are falling behind on all payments. Surprised pichachu face…
This is why people are saying they’re not confident in the economy despite “trusted” measures like inflation, fed rate, and Dow Jones.
Because there’s something more going on and no one’s doing enough about it.
Don’t get me wrong, car companies absolutely jacked the price of their cars up, and lenders absolutely loaned money they shouldn’t have, but Americans bought $60k trucks with no money down on 7 and 8 year loans. FFS stop doing this shit! I bought my truck when it was 4 years old, for $16k, it’s now 13 years old, and I still have it. You probably don’t need a brand new car, and you almost definitely need to trade in the one on which you still owe money.
Can you get a 4 year old truck for less than 20k at this point?
Doubtful, but you can certainly get a 4 year old truck for less than a new truck
I feel like the ven diagram of people who are getting behind on their car payments and people who could use any of the tactics listed in the article is essentially two non-intersecting circles. The only one that had a chance is “sell your expensive car and buy a cheap one” but that only works if you’re not to far gone.
It also avoids the question of “who’s going to buy your expensive used car in this market?” The middle class is shrinking every year.
joke’s on you, I don’t have a car payment! fuck cars
Quite a kink you’ve got there.
I don’t have a car payment, anymore. Bc I own my prius and will until I can no longer fix it.
No shit, all you had to do is look at the litany of patents for ways to bully and punish people who miss payments that the car manufacturers have been filing and you could have figured out that people were struggling to pay.
Yeah I mean who doesn’t just regularly keep tabs on patents that car manufacturers file?
First bookmark I check every morning!
Dude, there are posts regularly on here about them, you don’t have to look them up. People do that for you. Ford is making self-driving cars that repossess themselves. Or how about deactivating the radio or making loud obnoxious sirens while the car is on but not moving because you are a few days late? Maybe you would prefer a Lexus that enables a governor at 45mph because you are late?
Worry not: soon it will be mortgage payments.
(How bad it will be depends mainly of the proportion of people with variable rate contracts)
I doubt it. Rates were so low that variable rate mortgages weren’t very popular, additionally after 2008 rates have a lifetime cap on the increase. There also aren’t mortgages that were issued either no chance of repayment, so the default risk isn’t as large as 2008.
While there could be an increase in foreclosures and a puase/decrease in home prices, it likely won’t be a massive crash like 2008.
Well, good for you in the US.
Here were I live - Portugal - salaries are low and the house prices bubble has been unbelievably massive for almost a decade, so a majority of mortgages have variable rates: it really was the only way they could afford paying such house prices with the low salaries they get.
I’m quite curious which countries will turn out to have large mortgage powder kegs and which don’t.
Per market data, ARMs were very unpopular prior to 2021. I’d have to think that the generation stomped by 08 is the reason why. They’re recently up from 3% to around 12%.
Step 1: don’t buy the largest possible vehicle. Buy at or near at what the minimum will work for you is.
Step 2: enjoy a vehicle you can afford
This has McDonald’s Family Budget energy all over it.
Your comment has small dick energy all over it.
Oh no! Not some random person I’ve never met trying to insult my dick size. What ever will I do?!?
Learn some self control and don’t speak out loud every thought that pops into your brain. This is called “self control” as is a sign of a mature and developed persoanlity.
Oh boo, did calling that other poster disconnected from economic reality for most Americans make you feel something bad? I’m sorry I’ll make sure to use my self control to do it again in the future.
I still don’t get if you are implying I am rich or poor.
Rich. Rich to have a car, any car, you can afford. Half of all Americans are below 37k a year in income. If you’re missing the reference, McDonald’s published a suggested budget for it’s employees that was hilariously out of touch and included a second job.
It didn’t make me feel bad, it made me feel very sad for you. I still feel that way as I type.
Putting the utter lack of self-awareness in your comment aside…
You know there’s supposed to be something after the ellipsis?
Again the lack of self-awareness needed to admit you couldn’t fill in the blank with anything is astonishing.
Perhaps you aren’t just giving off small dick energy, you’re a moron and an asshole too.
Are you having a stroke? No really, the best you could come up with is a hamfisted description of Dunning-Kruger?
Shocked.
I don’t eat at McDonald’s
And a McDonald’s employee can’t afford a used car.
Raise minimum wage
There’s not usually much joy found in the minimum.
Who said a car is supposed to be a source of joy. A car moves you from point A to B, you might be able to find joy in either of those two places but the consumerism of financing a larger than necessary purchase is pretty fleeting.
LOL you just had happen to you what the country did to Jimmy Carter who dared to say that people might spend a little less since the economy wasn’t’ happy. It’s why Reagan got elected and we’ve never recovered.
Who said a car is supposed to be a source of joy
Ummmmm, OP i replied to? Step 2…
LOL this isn’t like the 1950s which were filled with propaganda films touting freedom on the road. No, we’re in a world that is slowly collapsing economically and people have to stop chasing the shiny and focus on what they need. Let the monkey brain rest for a while, it will always want more shinies.
Very true that is why it is so sexy when a woman is completely covered head to toe vs say a short skirt.
