Car Prices Might Be Unsustainable for Buyers
Car Prices Might Be Unsustainable for Buyers
www.wsj.com Car Prices Might Be Unsustainable for Buyers
Surging loan delinquencies signal that many consumers can’t afford their auto loans.
125 comments
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The price of everything is unsustainable.
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Why Millennials are destroying the ____ industry, details at eleven.
Unregulated capitalism is why all this stuff isn't sustainable, but it's what capitalism ends up at on a long enough timeline.
The people willing to do anything for more wealth will keep accumulating more and more, and "lobbying" for legislation that lets them make even more.
Money is finite. All those billionaires don't make money out of thin air, they take it out of the economy.
If they do too much of that, then no one else has money to buy anything. Without a large amount of consumers, every industry gets fucked. Because the rich don't buy enough consumer goods to make up for the other 90% of people who can't afford it
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we should have way less children: less engineers to graduate, less companies compelled to hire new workforce then less car companies to exist. there are too many mechanics and mechanical engineers in this world. i think i am suggesting depopulation at this point so that represents another angle of the subject. if ur existence is fine, why would u go out of ur comfort zone and reproduce ? at this point not reproducing serves more one own kind than anything. but also the rich need to be taxed and taxes need to be used to ease people lived and make them retire early. nothing has changed if u reproduce and create free new labour force to serve ur local capitalist located next door. look up vw: agglomerating more than 30 car brands or so, salvaged from banktrupcy. they should in fact have stayed defunct and erased from existence, and yet..
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When a car loan is longer than 5 years and you're still paying $500-700 per month, yeah, it's too expensive.
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Five year loans used to be scandalous twenty years ago. The goal posts always shift.
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I paid for half of my car in cash and it's still over $500 for 48-months. Pickups are damn expensive, but at least they're versatile.
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Versatile in the sense that they do everything in a subpar way. Except if you have something from 1990s, then you should be fine for carrying power and even horsepower. Modern trucks are an engineering joke meant to exploit loopholes.
Also why the hell did you say the N-word!?
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Geez. That’s crazy. My car was bought outright 15 years ago. I can’t imagine paying monthly on a car, to me a car is like a TV, you buy what you can afford. That meant I had a lot of junkers over the years, but I’ve never had a car payment and I’m very glad for that. I feel for the people these days, because even the junker cars are expensive enough that if I had to have a car now because mine died, I’d probably have to finance.
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Cars are unsustainable for our planet. Even EV's. It's already too late to stop the damage they have caused already. The best time to transition to alternative modes of transportation was during the 70's. The second best time is now.
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There is a big culture of shaming and questioning people who buy small vehicles in the US and Canada. From salesmen who use it to push bigger, more profitable vehicles to people, to marketers who prey on fear and toxic masculinity to sell , and to everyday people who perpetuate the myths and fear, teasing and mocking their fellows who might have chosen a smaller vehicle. So here we are, barely a small vehicle to be bought and all maxed out on credit to drive the biggest rig we can. Well interest rates are headed up, gas is only going to get more expensive and suddenly that big rig with the the big operating cost shouldn't seem like such a good idea.
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I'm in the process of buying a car right now and ended up with a Rav4 because it would take six months to get a Camry, it sucks.
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Even smaller vehicles are getting ridiculous. The Honda Civic is a $30,000 car now.
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Why do I only buy used cars?
I've been priced out of new cars.
Edit: I of course also drive cars basically until I can't fix them anymore (a high bar) though so it's not like I buy cars often lol
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Used cars are also getting to be insane. Try finding a ~5 year old Camry or Corolla in good shape for for less than 25K (CAD)these days, even the supply of $500 rusted out Crown Vic’s is drying up. I’ve even seen 10+ year old cars going for between 15-20K in my area.
Anecdata: this is also screwing with insurance. My sister got hit in a minor accident, we were sure the car was going to be written off since it’s 7 years old and more than three body panels would be replaced. But, the car had increased in value by $3,000 since she bought it five years ago, so they got to repair and keep it.
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not only tht but the civic is the size of an accord from the 90s now.
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"Might" thats real cute.
Seriously though, there's some real insidious shit that goes on here in the US as far as mandates minimum fuel economy in large cars, which is definitely not helping this whole cost problem.
Basically, the US both nerfs requirements extremely quickly for more wasteful vehicles (such as SUVs and trucks) and nerfs the requirements within each individual category (like car, truck, mid-size SUV, etc) as the physical size of the vehicle gets closer to the max allowed size within that category.
This is a total win-win for automakers, as they can skate by with lower efficiency vehicles (reducing cost a lot) while making them physically bigger (not that much more expensive) and pocketing the difference. Oh and bigger is better so on top of that you just pay a fat-car tax straight to the automaker.
It's really properly fucked.
YouTube for more: https://youtu.be/mQDegCqiVnU
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There is no reason to ever buy brand new car for your daily commute.
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Used car prices have never been worse, so there's at least one reason
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There's no reason to ever buy a brand new car period. I say this while being someone who likes cars and is planning to buy a new car at some point. The only "reason", if it even counts, to buy a new car is if you're customizing a luxury/sports car and want it to your specifications. That's it. Used cars work fine.
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Work on ending car dependency
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When they say car prices are unsustainable do y'all think they mean the manufacturer website one? (Website is pretty reasonable )
Or....
The one that when I step into a dealership they add $15000 for the "privilege" of me buying the car from them?
From the dealership mindset I must be batshit crazy for not buying a car from them.
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There's a lot of people that will default on car loans with only the most minor financial disruption
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I agree but you could easily fool me with the amount of brand new trucks and suvs I see driving around. Prices will not go down if everyone keeps paying them. And then there are people that can't afford to buy groceries but they have their brand new jeep wagoneer that cost like $80k... that just further drives up prices because you have people that can't afford it still paying the premium, still driving the demand, so the dealers can get away with charging whatever they want.
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Cars are unsustainable.
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Non-paywall link?
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@constvoid take the bus
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Even worse is that our European "low emissions zones" are forcing us to buy new cars (not seond hand ones). Al for the environment right? It is a 360€ fine every time we cross such a zone in an older car.
So if you can't afford a new car, they fine you for it pretty hefty. Long live the rich.
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Where is there an LEZ that forces you to buy a 'new car'? The ones I'm aware of require compliance with either fairly or very old emissions standards.
For example, in London, the ULEZ requires that petrol cars be Euro 4 (every UK vehicle since 2006 complies automatically) and diesel cars to be Euro 6 (mandatory for new cars since mid-2015). So, worst case, the vehicle needs to be newer than eight years old. More than 90% of vehicles driving into the expanded ULEZ area were already compliant before it became active.
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Yes at least 8 years or younger. That is mad. You can afford a new car every 8 yrs? I cannot.
The statistics of the 90% are meaningless. You have to be dumb to drive a non-compliant car into a LEZ. So yea, 90% is complaint, I don't need a statistic for that. I can also tell you that 90% of people who drink are thirsty.
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Low emission zones essentially just reduce the amount of cars where the zones are located - i.e highly urbanized areas with great non-car mobility options. While maybe not implemented in the very best way, they are on balance a positive policy.
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Except it doesn't were we live in Antwerp. Covid prooved that. Our emissions come from the port. During lockdown, it was a year with very little travel. Emissions stayed the same.
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Sounds like the US when they decided to fine us for not having health insurance.
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man Europe is absurd in this regard: cars are almost the same for what ? 40 years or more ? only minor changes are implemented from a model to another. if cars were upgradeable there necessarily would be way less metal junk and everyone could afford a personal mean of transport
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I know car prices are fucked over the past few year's, but growing up I just couldn’t understand why anyone would buy a brand new car, especially in the age of the internet when you can easily learn about the things you need to check when buying used cars
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Might be?
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My understanding is that a big part of the reason car prices are up is that everybody wants luxury brands + high-end trims now. So a lot of these delinquencies could be for people who would have had no problem affording a $300/month car lease if they'd opted for a cheaper car.
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Consumer preference is part of it, but car manufacturers have also intentionally stopped competing for the low end and small vehicle market. It’s textbook tacit cooperation.
During the pandemic, there was a chip shortage that led makers to prioritize high margin cars like trucks and luxury SUVs. Many makers decided that they liked being a low volume high price seller and just cut their lower priced cars altogether. If everyone does it at the same time, there’s no market mechanism to punish them. Many people can’t buy smaller cars even if they wanted. It doesn’t help that all of our car regulations in the US and Canada encourage this by having much weaker regulations for bigger vehicles. The whole market is a mess.
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@fresh The Answer, at least historically, is consumers buying foreign cars. That’s one reason VW’s took off in the 1950’s-‘60’s. Of course, that’s been foreclosed by EPA & NHTSA regs. But EV’s would avoid EPA regulations. IDK what it would take on the safety end.
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You can buy a Kia with back up camera, Android Auto/car play, for 18k. 16k if you are willing to deal with a Mitsubishi drivetrain. People just don't buy them because MOST new car buyers are wealthy anyway. There is some upward pressure on used because of supply chain issues and used inventory but that has already leveled off and has slightly corrected. Add in being used to 1% APR and it the payments ARE more. It will take more time but I really don't think cars are increasing in price as much as media is yelling about it.
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Big if true
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Is that so?
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I think the tacet agreement between csr manufactuerers to let this price hike happen, and followed by Biden's EV rules are just going to accelerate this problem. The working class is going to be forced out of driving very soon.
125 comments