20% of american buyers are spending over $1000 a month on car loans. 22.4% of new loans were 84 months or longer. It means someone who buys a car today will be paying it off until July of 2032

Car dependent infrastructure is indentured servitude with a shit load of extra steps

It seems really normalised in America to get a brand new car on a loan as soon as your existing one has run out. I’ve bought every car I’ve owned with cash and I’ve never struggled.

I'm well over 200k on a car I bought in 2016 with 100k. Currently replacing the compressor because it decided to shit the bed during a heat wave. There's no point in buying a new car, people just want new cars.
I also have always bought used. I've struggled, but not because of my car. I'm just broke.

The big beautiful bill added an item to allow new cars bought in 2025/26/27/28 to have the interest deducted from your gross income.

This won't save people much, but it's just going to reinforce the trend. I expect car prices to go up because of this.

Seriously? I'm almost impressed with how they're managing to help richer people out, encourage unnecessary consumerism and hurt the environment in so many ways that the average person can not understand or keep up with
- Pack in that pork. 🐷
What the actual fuck. Just redistribute the money like a normal person instead of creating subsidies for things with negative externalities.

Every day I'm happy I live somewhere I don't need a car. Even if housing costs were $1000/mo more (they're not), I'd be getting something worth having for that money.

I was able to get a used Honda Fit for a reasonable price last year and paid it in full. I'm so glad I did, in addition to living in a commutable city.
I have my car as an option if I absolutely need it (which is rare). I only have to pay for insurance. It's tiny so it's easy to park, it uses almost no gas, and it can fit four people plus luggage. I can easily leave my city if I need to. I love the damn thing.
But I'll also emphasize that it's secondary to living in a commutable city

Are movies and TV shows really accurate when it comes to American attitudes towards cars? I remember watching something where a character lamented how old their 5-year-old car was. This simply does not compute to me. My mortgage is less than the equivalent of $1000 USD a month - I'd much rather have an "old" car.

The auto industry spends $30+ billion per year on advertising. Some of that takes the form of product-placement in TV/movies.
Americans do love their cars, yes.

Get used. Non turbo mazda skyactive but turbos are good too, older mazda/Ford focus avioding auto trans. non turbo honda (turbo gas has fuel dilution problems), can't go wrong with a k20/k24 Honda, but the Trans are weak and requires 40k fluid changes. Toyotas. VW with the gen3 2.0l engines, but the dsg needs 40k fluid changes. Old GM with the 3800. Ford 4.6l engines are good too-crown vic or mustang. Smaller and lighter vehicles always last longer cuz easier on wear parts like suspension. AWD 4WD needs more maintenance and tires are recommend to be changed at the same time and snow tires perform better than AWD with all weather tires anyways-- I use michelin crossclimate 2 tires all year round and they are create in the snow. Wagons and hatchbacks are superior :).

I bought a car in 2003. Hopefully, that will also be the last car I buy. "BuT rEpAiRs ArE eXpEnSiVe!!1" See above. Also, when your infotainment system takes a shit and makes it so you can't use your AC anymore, let me know how that goes.