Auto loans could pose a bigger threat to young Americans than student loans. For the first time, the outstanding volume of auto loan debt just surpassed student loan debt.
Our expenses are a little less but my wife and I have two kids. Although if we had bought a house around now instead of 7 years ago, it would easily be much more. If we had decided to buy a new car, add that on top.
But one thing to note is that is the average so that is anywhere from a single person to someone with six kids.
To be fair, the automobile centric city has worked for about 70 years.
The cost of cars is being driven higher by demand for more features. The car companies can make a really cheap car, but consumer's want air conditioning, power everything, fancy infotainment systems, heated seats and quick 0-60mph times. Then additionally the government mandate for safety and emissions increase the cost further.
You can buy a new car in India for under $5,000 USD.
but consumer’s want air conditioning, power everything, fancy infotainment systems, heated seats and quick 0-60mph times.
This is the same lies that the big three have been trying for decades. I want a normal boring fucking car. I want to spend as little money as I can on repair maintenance and fuel. I don't want some garbage bullshit infotainment system.
And no I can't buy a new car in India. Go ahead and sell me one.
As far as I can tell, it has every feature you’re saying is responsible for western automakers charging around 6 times the cost of this car… sans heated seats and purported safety standards.
Chevy charges an additional $1K for the package that adds heated seats to their Bolt EV.
So, am I to take you at face value that you’re inferring that safety concerns and standards are responsible for the remainder of the price gouging?
I grew up believing all loans is money banks lend you from their own money they have on hand. But that is a lie. That money is created by the fed reserve when the paperwork is signed. And all the bank has to do is follow rules their lobbyists write.
Why do we even need private banks? I bet people could handle their own fianaces a lot better if we had direct access to fed money creation and we didn't let bank lobbyists write the rules.
This may partly be because basically all of them are legal for highway use, so even if all you need is a car that is safe to drive a couple of miles to the grocery store at 35MPH, the safety features and engines (and thus emissions system capabilities) have to be designed with the expectation that the vehicle will be used at 80MPH beside all the other vehicles out there.
It might help to have a wider variety of vehicle licensing options to allow for low-speed, lower-spec 'city cars'. Though enforcement would probably be an issue, and the safety standards would still need to be robust enough that people in small cars wouldn't be too badly killed by the gigantic pickup trucks they have to share the road with.
I wouldn't mind a Tuk Tuk. Could use about half the year without issue. My daily commute doesn't involve highways and for repairs any motorcycle shop could handle it.
Auto loans are terrible and I always pay them off as soon as I can, but they will never really be that big a threat because you CAN sell your car and buy a substantially cheaper one, in most cases. Sometimes you can sell your car and just use public transit or bike/walk.
People still need cars, usually. So people who owe $50k on a car can sell and buy a $20k car while people with $20k cars are selling to that person and buying a $5k car or whatever. People are in different ranges based on their situation with income and needs.
What, thats crazy. I bought my car certified pre-owned, fully paid it off, and have been driving it for 8 years with hopefully another 8 more to go. I know car prices have been going out of control though, whats going on?
It's wild when I was looking to do something similar and instead ended up buying a newish electric vehicle because it was about the same price as what I'd otherwise have gotten.
This is probably by design. The “system” keeps cities designed and built in a way that they are impossible to traverse without cars, which forces people to buy cars. Youngsters are earning shit wages but can’t get to work without a vehicle so they get into debt. It’s all fucked. I live in the Netherlands and can do everything I need to do with just my cargo bike. It rocks.
Certainly car loans can be predatory, and it is worth improving oversight, limiting what loan providers are allowed to offer. While I’ve seen plenty of people in trouble with car loans, it was always predictable/likely and my first thought had been how could a loan provider have approved that. I’m sorry if people are desperate for transportation and short of options but it’s not helpful to offer rates like credit cards, nor roll over previous loans, nor offer loans at high percentages of people’s incomes
Student loans are not just difficult to discharge, they're practically impossible to discharge. There are so little valid cases for it, you could count them on one hand. And that does not even take into account the fact that the sitting President and their cabinet can just say, "No, **** you." Even after you qualify and a court agrees with you.
I just looked up, the median commute distance in the US is 10 miles and time is ~25 minutes.
You can get a vehicle that will get you 10 miles away in about that time for ~$600. Ebikes are great. Regular bikes can be found for the cost of a fast food meal, if not free. As much as people say "cars are mandatory", that might be an untrue assumption to start from.
However, the car-focused layout of American cities has made it less safe to use bikes, which would be great to push back against.
Ah yes, the one theoretical counter-example that completely nullifies my argument. You're right, all hail Cars. What percent of Americans experience -40 degree weather again?