WSJ: The Seven-Year Auto Loan: America’s Middle Class Can’t Afford Its Cars

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With the shift of consumer demand to CUVs and other bigger vehicles that cost more than cars nowadays, how many of these folks are really able to afford them?
 

mmcartalk

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^^^^^^Unfortunately, WSJ has a paywall...they don't give the public free access to many of their articles.

Next time you post a WSJ article (assuming you yourself have access to it) I'd recommend copying the whole article and pasting it...also assuming it will allow you to do that (some paywalls blank that option out, for obvious reasons)
 

mikeavelli

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To summarize loans are up to 72/84 months because car prices are so high and continue to climb and people are trying to afford these loans. Then they are upside down major if they try to get rid of the car.

I get sticker shock all the time.
 

mmcartalk

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bump.... 0% for 84 months due to the current economic climate by multiple brands....


GM is now offering the 0% / 84 months...and no payments until September. In addition, some dealers will pick up and deliver your car for you if it needs service....or want to test-drive a new one. Lincoln is matching the no-payments-till-September and dealer pick-ups, but not the 0% / 84 months.
 

CRSKTN

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Is it any surprise? Look at the average income of a household, and go and talk to the average household and see what they think is 'reasonable' to spend on a car. The number of times i've spoken to someone who makes a fraction of what I do, talking about splurging ridiculous amounts on vehicles, and showing me their friends who similarly have their entire net worth (or lack thereof) tied up in a car.

It's insane. It's like a generation was raised without any guidance or discipline, and influenced everyone else to be just as ridiculous.

What's the median purchase price of a new vehicle these days? What're the chances of it being more than 50% avg household take home pay? Pretty high i'd say.
 
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ssun30

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Scary to see car manufacturers and banks in USA are still trying to keep the endless debt cycle despite how it imploded catastrophically twelve years ago. Greed never dies.

Most of us on this forum probably don't feel it. But getting scammed into debt for almost a decade for something just to get to work (and have no alternative like public transport) must be a boot on the neck.

It's insane. It's like a generation was raised without any guidance or discipline, and influenced everyone else to be just as ridiculous.
It's not 'a generation of' people's fault for the lack of financial literacy and inability to work out a complicated loan deal. Not all people impulse purchase. They buy things they couldn't afford because they thought they could afford them. Even disciplined people make bad decisions based on misinformation. Dealerships use lucrative monthly payments to trick people into thinking long term loans are great deal, but in fact it's always the opposite.

The only way to deal with this is widespread financial literacy education at high school level to promote austerity. But it doesn't play well with the consumerist economy. And too much austerity could actually back fire, as is the case in Japan.
 
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Let’s get through some statistics. In 2020, the majority of British households (36.15 million) owned one car. Meanwhile, an estimated 17 million households in Great Britain owned no cars. On average, there are 1.88 vehicles per U.S. household. Also the fact is that the pandemic is causing more people to buy cars on finance instead of outright. A survey carried out by Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS) found COVID-19 has driven down the percentage of people buying cars outright from 45% before the pandemic to 36% now.
 

CRSKTN

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buy things they couldn't afford because they thought they could afford them
This lacks understanding of how most people function.
You think most of these people deep down don't know it's a lie?
The "everyone does it" rationale is popular for that reason.

And I'll trust stats/disclosures from VW only when I'm desperate or there's transparency to methodology. VW doesn't have magical line of sight to sources of capital for buyers, only what people tell them. I bet you most buyers lie to their salespeople.

Also Tesla is now tying up cash in financing, a business with thin return on capital, as they are compressing the margins and resale value of their vehicles and they now need to grow and invest. Brutal.

Also I have a feeling financing/insuring of Teslas is gonna get tougher with all the value coverage gaps their price changes have caused.
 
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Flagship1

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In other news (this is not the onion but really happening in select markets), talented marketers are now selling dealers to run "Upside Down Sales Marathons", whose whole premise is to appeal to customers who lack basic understanding of home econ, and portray the image of dealers as a business which will pay off your neg equity and get you into a new factory fresh vehicle.

In reality they will get the owner to trade in their vehicle at a loss, then repackage that neg equity into a new jumbo loan, probably with a higher interest rate.....smh

Dealers doing some shady shady stuff.
 
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