Current Events > The used car market is increasingly inaccessible for low income people.

(+) Yeah! (+)

A new car is a luxury item reserved for high earners now.

New cars average $47k these days.

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/02/1109105779/monthly-car-payments-record-700

Who is buying them?

Cash for clunkers fucked the whole market up in a way that it hasn't quite recovered from yet

I just bought out my lease on my 2019 rogue for $18k. to lease a new one would have been $35k lol, shit is absolutely insane. the lot didnt have a single preowned car on it

And I thought my monthly payments on my 2014 Fusion were high at $450 back when I got it new. Jesus Christ $700 a fucking month for a car?!

My shitty 8 year old Honda civic is still worth 8500.

Remember when they say cars depreciate like shit. Well my cousin bought his 2nd hand merc for 17k in 2019. And it's still 17k now.

He's proper laughing

Well obviously. Cars were always a luxury item. Millennials need to learn to ride the bus. Maybe they can afford a car when they learn to stop eating avocado toast and drinking fancy coffee.

EVERYTHING is becoming increasingly inaccessible for low income people.

LinkDaLunatic posted...

Well obviously. Cars were always a luxury item. Millennials need to learn to ride the bus. Maybe they can afford a car when they learn to stop eating avocado toast and drinking fancy coffee.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/8/0/AADAKwAADaO4.jpg

I want a Tesla Cybertruck.

https://youtu.be/nRlWUm6_TH0

I bought a new car about a year and half ago before all this craziness. I feel bad for anyone trying to get a car right now. Used cars are so high that it's causing more people to buy new which is making the cheaper new cars fly off the lots

Leasing a 2021 Kia Sorento for $506/month for 3 years. Buyout when its done will be like 21k iirc

I really want to find a decent backup car I can pay cash for but anything under like 8k is shitty nowadays

Or, and hear me out, how about just not being a low-income person? Literally just work harder and earn more money. If your one job isn't enough for a car, why not three jobs? I believe that a person working less than eighty hours a week is a lazy bum. Now, I myself might only do four or five hours of work a week, tops, but that's because I worked REALLY HARD to get where I am. I deserve everything I have. My dad gave me the money for my first startup back in '02, and I've been #onthegrind ever since. That's why I get to drive a lambo and you can't afford a civic. I just work that much harder than you frankly ever can or will.

But we're getting off topic. One hour of my time is basically fifty hours of work, so I basically work 250 hours a week. If you don't have that kind of work ethic, you don't deserve nice things.

LinkDaLunatic posted...

Don't even bother reading this guys. Just move along

Axiom posted...

Don't even bother reading this guys. Just move along

its obviously sarcasm

you could honestly say that about most of my posts

The logical solution is to get rid of the need for commuting and have companies set up living facilities at their workplace and have workers live on site.

Corporate serfdom ahoy

littlebro07 posted...

its obviously sarcasm

In my defense I didn't read anything past the first sentence

LinkDaLunatic posted...

Or, and hear me out, how about just not being a low-income person? Literally just work harder and earn more money. If your one job isn't enough for a car, why not three jobs? I believe that a person working less than eighty hours a week is a lazy bum. Now, I myself might only do four or five hours of work a week, tops, but that's because I worked REALLY HARD to get where I am. I deserve everything I have. My dad gave me the money for my first startup back in '02, and I've been #onthegrind ever since. That's why I get to drive a lambo and you can't afford a civic. I just work that much harder than you frankly ever can or will.

But we're getting off topic. One hour of my time is basically fifty hours of work, so I basically work 250 hours a week. If you don't have that kind of work ethic, you don't deserve nice things.

sigma male #grindset

I bought my 2014 Honda CRV with 133,000 km on it for $17,000 CAD 2 years ago. With taxes and extended warranty on top of that, it was around $22,000. There's one being sold right now with 106,000 km on it for $25,000 CAD.

Yeah its ridiculous. Ive been in the market for a new car, but the market is shit right now. Going to a dealership is pointless because they have no cars on the lot and the only ones they do have are used cars with huge markups because they are legally allowed to do that. Like why would I pay more for a 4 year old used car with a lot of mileage on it?

Pitlord_Special posted...

The logical solution is to get rid of the need for commuting and have companies set up living facilities at their workplace and have workers live on site.

I feel like that would lead to mass suicide.

Just dont buy a new or used car and keep the one you already have.

Just like housing, they say low income earners

LinkDaLunatic posted...

I feel like that would lead to mass suicide.

The company doctor can give you pills to cure suicidal ideation.

Lots of people don't like modern handhold nanny cars with more electronic bullshit that ruins the driving experience, so they stick with buying older cars.

pogo_rabid posted...

Lots of people don't like modern handhold nanny cars with more electronic bullshit that ruins the driving experience, so they stick with buying older cars.

No one ever said people were smart

_HayleyWilliams posted...

No one ever said people were smart

The enthusiast market is never driven by logic. 99% of drivers are happy with soulless toaster cars and that's ok.

JordanStout posted...

I want a Tesla Cybertruck.

https://youtu.be/nRlWUm6_TH0

Seven
Billion

Again it must be asked: who the fuck is actually buying this shit?

I believe the average car payment is over $700 as well.

Freaking crazy.

HylianFox posted...

Seven
Billion

Again it must be asked: who the fuck is actually buying this shit?

I already have a pre-order on the Cybertruck.

Everything is increasingly inaccessible for low income people.

This market sucks ass. Working in manufacturing, I at least know dealers aren't full of shit. Materials and shipping are taking longer, jobs are getting frozen.

I'm lucky to be able to able to navigate this situation actually just end of last week.
Car got in a wreck (jury's still out how bad exactly) on Thursday.
I put down a deposit on a new car that is allocated with a VIN on Friday

Because otherwise:

• While I don't want to plow down the money on short notice, I need to still make money.
• Rental car prices last year screwed me and my mind was already warming up to "fuck it, I might as well buy a backup car". Just didn't think it'd be now.
• other local dealers don't have allocations, let alone VINs
• everyone in my area is willing to bite on allocations with mark-up. I had mark-up in a guise of some BS accessories, but nowhere as bad as I heard others were accepting.
• it's a car the family is already familiar with, so I comfortably can do this sight-unseen, no cross shopping, etc. Just have to worry about my own car not having a stroke of bad luck of being a lemon as can happen with any other car

Basically I had to play with being the least screwed* as possible. It's a very impossible situation for some people, and that sucks not even having the means to make a strategic/worthwhile big picture move. Probably something like buying a $18k used car that's not worth it vs a $30k new car that is worth it (despite mark-up), because they straight up can't afford more than $18k

*when I say screwed, I don't say by the dealer. I just mean in general. Some dealers will do a worse job and see how much they can make, but most will have no choice. So counting all the small victories, I can say mine was upfront. They didn't try to bullshit me with a pitch about justification, partially because they simply don't have to. They clearly have an empty lot and no shortage of buyers.

The nice thing about the modern market is everything is online now, so you can see just how much a dealer is fucking you by. They aren't going to nail you on the upfront cost, so much is they're going to get you with back end stuff like warranty packages and financing. Somebody I know just bought a 2016 Toyota RAV4 with virtually zero extra features to it. It didn't even have a backup camera. He paid $25, 000 CAD for it. That's grossly overpriced, but that's the current market.

Cobra1010 posted...

My shitty 8 year old Honda civic is still worth 8500.

Remember when they say cars depreciate like shit. Well my cousin bought his 2nd hand merc for 17k in 2019. And it's still 17k now.

He's proper laughing

Brand new cars depreciate like shit. If you buy second hand it doesnt have too much leeway left to depreciate unless its straight up dead

The blue book value (in canadian) on my 98 rav 4 is 3500-4000 bucks.

That's fucking ridiculous. I paid 2500 and I thought that was too high.

Alucard188 posted...

The nice thing about the modern market is everything is online now, so you can see just how much a dealer is fucking you by. They aren't going to nail you on the upfront cost, so much is they're going to get you with back end stuff like warranty packages and financing. Somebody I know just bought a 2016 Toyota RAV4 with virtually zero extra features to it. It didn't even have a backup camera. He paid $25, 000 CAD for it. That's grossly overpriced, but that's the current market.

Depending on where you are, some dealers just show MSRP or conceal the price altogether.
Crazy part is, this sounds like a ploy to make an appointment and show up in person.
But if you do, you can find out there's no cars anyway. What you saw on the website, hasn't even been there for a while. You can even find that dealer's next allocations are already spoken for.

From what I made out, out-of-state shopping and/or playing a pre-order waiting game for a new car has become more realistic to get anything "fair".

Gonna drive my 2007 Honda CRV with 170k miles into the ground. Hopefully the market is better by then.

SwiggitySwoogit posted...

Gonna drive my 2007 Honda CRV with 170k miles into the ground. Hopefully the market is better by then.

In my far-out thinking, I can see the following happening:
Manufacturer/New Cars Dealerships are more and more going to be order basis only, and lot vehicles will carry a premium as there will be relatively less. We are getting closer and closer to an EV transition, so the run of current ICE models will probably be more controlled as to not exceed demand, even though it's really high right now.
This will be able to allow dealerships to downsize and/or repurpose. I can even imagine home delivery becoming more common place.
Carmax/Carvana/Shift/Beepi, etc are going to continue to grow as a mainstream, trying to weed out the smaller private used car dealerships
I would expect used car values drop down, or at least stop climbing. Part of it is because of how demand may possibly level out, but also the possible sooner obsolesce of certain vehicles by technology and laws.
Ideally there will be a stronger recycling plan, albeit a long ways away. Metals and such are finite. As much as we think the "chip shortage" is a matter or reopening and adding manufacturing plants and shipping portals, it's simple logic that the amount of materials we have now is less than in the past. Stuff doesn't grow on trees.
Values will still also be driven by shipping politics and fuel issues. I personally don't see said issues just magically going away despite us seeing gas dip here and there.

it won't be so much that the accessibility to automobiles has a doomed fate. It's just that ownership culture in the US is going to shift a bit more towards how it is in other countries. We've had it so good. Owning a car (or at least leasing/financing one) is far easier than in many places, and we've been able to pick and choose inside of whatever tier we shop in.

I got a decommissioned cop car Crown Vic for $2500 a couple years ago >_>

I'm gonna keep driving my 2008 Corolla until either it croaks or this market returns to some semblance of normalcy.

2013 Malibu LTZ 32k miles I got a car loan for 6 years ago was $19,000

It's' already at 136k miles so imma get fucked soon when I need a new car.

BlingBling22947 posted...

New cars average $47k these days.

Lol what

My 2018 Elantra is worth pretty much what I paid for it 4 years ago lol

ShineboxPhil posted...

Lol what

Yeah highly doubt that's the average

Nerevar791 posted...

Yeah highly doubt that's the average

Back in 2019, I bought a brand new Acura ILX A-Spec for 43k CAD.

Lol TC prolly looking at an Infinity or Lexus claiming "cars are too expensive"