Americans paying $717/month for new cars - 16% paying $1000+

[ort]

My wife and I have a collective $0 in monthly car payments.

 

We made decent down payments and then paid them off and just keep driving them.

 

I'm so glad I'm not a "car guy". I'm more than happy to drive around my Mazda around forever if it means not having a car payment. Spending a bunch off money on a car is crazy to me.

[Jason]

4 hours ago, johnny said:

are there more people putting hardly anything down? 

 

After having a close to brand new car totaled I'd rather not put anything down.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

No car payments for either of us. His 2011 Camry sits in the garage most of the time with 58k miles on it since he works from home now. 
 

My 2017 Colorado was paid off in a year since I used all of my insurance check as a down payment when my old truck got totaled. 
 

I don’t feel a need to have a new vehicle all the time and I like not having payments. My truck is just at 45k miles and I’ll drive it for another few years so long as I don’t have issues. I’d rather just save up and put a lot down up front rather than have high payments for years. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

2 hours ago, Jason said:

 

After having a close to brand new car totaled I'd rather not put anything down.

There’s that and the opportunity cost of that cash. Even just sitting it in a low yield savings account you’re coming out further ahead than putting cash into a depreciating asset where you may not even get your cash back out of it after selling (to presumably buy another one of these depreciating assets)

 

Like with the same rate, costs of purchase (taxes, title, etc), and term on a $25k car, the total cost over a 5 year note at 4.5% is only ~$600 more if you pay $0 down vs $5k down and at the end of the day you end up with the same asset. Difference in about ~$100/month for payments. 
 

so if you bought a 2018 civic brand new assuming it cost roughly $25k and wanted to sell it now (for about ~$23k) unless you were pocketing the difference each month, (probably not if the $100/month was an issue in the first place) you’re relatively down $5k plus whatever little interest accrued that could have been used for other things. 
 

the only financial reason to pay cash for a car, similarly, is for the peace of mind of not having payments. Otherwise you’re probably losing out bigly

[Jason]

31 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

probably not if the $100/month was an issue in the first place

 

I mean if the extra $100 a month is an issue then just put the $5k in a HYSA and don't touch it except once a month to take out the $100 needed to cover the $100 extra on your car payment.

[Joe]

Honestly I think these numbers aren’t quite as bad as they are made out to be. 
 

How many people are trading in or selling their cars to buy a new one? How many are going EV? Our payments are close to this number for our EV6, but I was able to get a ridiculous amount for a 2010 Honda Accord Coupe from Carvana and I timed it so the payments for our other car stopped when we bought the EV. So all in all when you add that plus the savings of no longer getting gas, it wasn’t a bad financial decision at all. Plus this car will easily last far over a decade!

[Spork3245]

For used cars, CarMax + their ridiculously cheap 5-7 year full coverage warranty was the way to go until YouTubers ruined it. Now those warranties are priced appropriately based on estimated issues instead of the flat $1500-2500 extra. There’s people who would buy knowingly unreliable performance/luxury cars from CarMax, buy the 5 year warranty, and have $10-15k worth of repairs done for “free”, some even getting completely new engines and/or transmissions.

[MarSolo]

I’m a city boy so I don’t need a car.

[Comet]

On 3/1/2023 at 3:16 PM, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

No car payments for either of us. His 2011 Camry sits in the garage most of the time with 58k miles on it since he works from home now. 

Those are numbers I am so jealous of. I have a 2015 RAV4 with 90k miles and it is used to take kids to school, go to the gym, and to guitar class. That's about it. It's been paid off for years and my wife has pushed me to upgrade and I couldn't think of a worse reason to spend money than that. 

[SoberChef]

While it's set up to be a shade over $350/month for a 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited (fully loaded) & I pay $400 each month anyways ... this is unreal!

[CitizenVectron]

I pay around $480/mo CAD ($350 USD) for my 2022 Prius Prime, but I did put a reasonable downpayment on it ($18,000?). Total MSRP was $42,000 CAD ($31,000 USD). My mortgage is $1,450/mo, I can't imagine paying close to that for a car, as well. We're a one-car household, so at least we save a bit in that regard. 

[mclumber1]

We were lucky enough that we ended up with a lot of equity when we sold our house in Oregon 4 years ago, so that cash on hand in addition to having recently paid off car loans has meant we've been able to pay cash for our new cars with appropriate trade-ins.  Heck, because the used car market was so hot in 2021 and 2022, I was able to trade in my practically base model F-150 for my Maverick and they had to cut me a check.

[SuperSpreader]

[Jason]

2 hours ago, CitizenVectron said:

reasonable downpayment on it ($18,000

 

[69los]

I was gonna say that that downpayment was the MSRP of my 2018 Hyundai Kona but also need to factor in that this was in January 2020 before supply chains went to shit.

 

I really lucked out here with the pandemic; saving money on gas and leisure expenses. My monthly payment was $415 ($3,000 down, would have been more but I forgot my checkbook and that was the limit of my check card). It was supposed to be a 4 or 5 year plan but I paid it off last summer by doubling-up payments every other month. I've only put like 23,000 miles on it and most of that was in 2022.

[CitizenVectron]

44 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

 

My old payment (for Ford Focus) was around $500/mo, so when I paid it off I just kept paying that same amount to myself for a few years and stuck it in a high-interest savings account (2-3%/yr) because I knew I would be buying a new vehicle. 

[TwinIon]

I still have my 2003 BMW but my wife's 2003 Merc C230 eventually had some issues that too expensive to bother fixing, so we got her a electric Niro and it's been great. We bought it in cash, so no car payments for us.

 

I'm holding out for hope for the upcoming electric Boxter/Cayman and hoping that they turn out well and aren't priced exorbitantly. Really I'd love any small, reasonably priced electric sports car, but that hasn't really been a thing yet. What will probably happen though is that they'll get released, I'll spend too much time thinking about buying one, but probably won't be able to justify the price tag given how little I drive now.

[Zaku3]

Car died so went backcto Lincoln and the usual fuk sedans SUVs are cash money.

 

Got a Corsair a loaner car and it was a gas vehicle unfortunately. Sales guy could have upsold me.

[marioandsonic]

On 3/7/2023 at 11:51 AM, CitizenVectron said:

 

My old payment (for Ford Focus) was around $500/mo, so when I paid it off I just kept paying that same amount to myself for a few years and stuck it in a high-interest savings account (2-3%/yr) because I knew I would be buying a new vehicle. 

Okay Richie Rich

[Zaku3]

Forgot to add 680 with all the service plans because it's my mom's car more then mine. My credit and her down payment since I work from home and don't need a car per say. 

[Uaarkson]

Lots of people backing up that rich coastal elite stereotype ITT

[CitizenVectron]

11 minutes ago, Uaarkson said:

Lots of people backing up that rich coastal elite stereotype ITT

 

Yo bro I live in the centre of the continent, I'm hillbilly elite

 

[Dodger]

I got relatively fucked with these car values and I’m working towards not needing to buy a new car for well over a decade. I foolishly leased some luxury truck in 2019. Lease was coming up, I wanted to just get a used car but 5 year old civics were still like 25k. So I got a new civic, which ended being 35k and I’m paying $514 a month for a fucking Honda civic. I mean it’s an awesome car for what it is and gets great mpg, but Jesus Jenny this is too much. I got some other stuff going on so sadly I can’t pay Extra towards the payments til probably next year but I’m paying this damn thing off asap and keeping it as long as I can. Only 2100 miles on it in 6 months so it should last a long time.

[SaysWho?]

On 3/1/2023 at 7:01 PM, Joe said:

Honestly I think these numbers aren’t quite as bad as they are made out to be. 
 

How many people are trading in or selling their cars to buy a new one? How many are going EV? Our payments are close to this number for our EV6, but I was able to get a ridiculous amount for a 2010 Honda Accord Coupe from Carvana and I timed it so the payments for our other car stopped when we bought the EV. So all in all when you add that plus the savings of no longer getting gas, it wasn’t a bad financial decision at all. Plus this car will easily last far over a decade!

The car rental place we just used on our return home has on gas cars available so we had to use an electric.

 

I loved it. And Florida has been doing really good expanding electrical charging stations. One day…

[Nokra]

Pretty sure this topic jinxed me.  Today my 2007 Prius didn't pass an emissions test for renewing the registration and it's probably because of the aftermarket catalytic converter I had installed after the factory one was stolen a couple of years ago. Going to take it to a mechanic soon and see what they can do, but it almost certainly is going to cost more to repair than the car is worth (280,000 miles). 

[Brian]

4 hours ago, TwinIon said:

I still have my 2003 BMW but my wife's 2003 Merc C230 eventually had some issues that too expensive to bother fixing, so we got her a electric Niro and it's been great. We bought it in cash, so no car payments for us.

 

I'm holding out for hope for the upcoming electric Boxter/Cayman and hoping that they turn out well and aren't priced exorbitantly. Really I'd love any small, reasonably priced electric sports car, but that hasn't really been a thing yet. What will probably happen though is that they'll get released, I'll spend too much time thinking about buying one, but probably won't be able to justify the price tag given how little I drive now.

Look at the Hyundai Ioniq 6. It has a lot of Porsches design language and if you get AWD, it’s pretty fast. It’s releasing this year and I don’t expect it to have a lot of supply in the US. 

[Brian]

The Growing Auto Loan Problem Facing Young Americans

WWW.VISUALCAPITALIST.COM

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After a borrowing spree during COVID-19, younger Americans are struggling to keep up with their auto loan payments.

 

[Zaku3]

On 3/8/2023 at 3:04 PM, CitizenVectron said:

 

Yo bro I live in the centre of the continent, I'm hillbilly elite

 

 

Does me being a minority living in a decaying American city of my own free will count? Or does relating to rap music not count because my mom and me make like over 150k after taxes between us make me a costal elite. Places in my hood are like 1.6k+ I'd legit need to rent a basement to have any hope of survival if I moved out on my own and probably get a 2nd job. That's not what's really good in the hood.