return2ozmaAmericans Are Falling Behind on Their Car Payments
BombOmOmdata 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.
wrath_of_grungei'm really not sure why so many people worry about the value of a car. it's not some super-expensive, incredibly rare car. most are average commuter vehicles. they're a tool. buy them, use them, keep them until they're wore out, and repeat the process.
i never really had a problem with car debt. i currently am driving a Cadillac Escalade with 430k miles on it. i bought it 7 years ago with 160k on the odometer, for $12k. it's been a fantastic vehicle. no telling how much money that truck has made me over the years. it was a replacement for my beat up Tahoe that had about 325k on it when i traded it in.
grueUnless you’re a contractor or something and it’s part of your job, you drive way too fucking much.
I used to commute 1k miles per week. The wage differences, home prices, money saved by being close to family, and job market is such that this made financial sense. And the time inside the car was about the same as when I commuted 350 miles per week when I lived near DC.
COVID and work from home has been such a quality of life improvement it’s insane. On the other hand, the house we sold when we left DC for the Midwest has appreciated about $500k in 8 years (we check every once in a while on Zillow) so maybe that was a mistake. I certainly haven’t made up that difference in salary.