Bought my 2009 F-150 new, and still have it. Wife bought her 2017 CRV new and still have it. Keeping up with normal maintenance goes a long way to a vehicles longevity. We have been retired since 2014, and plan to keep both vehicles for as long as possible . New car prices are absurd !
Car Payments
- Thread starter Narragansett
- Start date
Hair Trigger
US Veteran
In the second quarter of 2024, the average new car loan was 734/month and the average used car was 525. Duration was 68 months. That is the average, I bet the average truck or big SUV loan is over a thousand.
Where does the money come from? Jeepers
Edit: The average truck payment is 913. Loans as long as 96 months.
Those aren't car payments, they are mortgages, and on something that depreciates exponentially with time, where at least real estate appreciates. What makes them worse is that many times, the owner can't make the payments after a period and has to sell or trade the vehicle, which is typically worth less than the balance owed. The owner is "upside down" and whatever he buys he has to finance for more than it is worth when he buys it, making him further in the hole. I don't know how the average Joe can just default on the loan and start over, that's even worse.
I refuse to buy a new vehicle for quite a few reasons
1- They aren't as well built as an older version of the same car/truck
2- They are exorbitantly priced
3- They are more difficult or impossible for an owner to work on themselves due to all the electronics and proprietary engineering
4- They have features I do not want, but can't be had without them and you have to pay for them anyway
5- the list could go on for miles....
Manufacturers seem to refuse to give the driver a basic car with no frills. They don't for a specific reason: those frills don't cost them a lot to put on the car, but they charge outrageously for them to increase their profits. Something as simple as a switch cluster for power windows might cost them a few bucks, but to replace one you get charged hundreds of dollars. Same deal for when you buy the car new.
I saw an article talking about how car parts places like AutoZone, Advance, O'Reilly's, etc. are suffering economic woes because of the complexity of newer vehicles that aren't user-repairable. Their business is based on a decreasing amount of older cars and fewer owners who can or will work on them.
Our newest car is a 2018 and thankfully it is reliable (Toyota) and paid for. My truck (also Toyota} is a 2011 and paid for, and we have a third car ('99 Toyota) that we use as an extra. If I were ever to sell one of these (highly unlikely), I would not buy anything newer than them, so what's the point? I'd rather spend the money that would otherwise go into new car payments into keeping these cars repaired and in good condition. Should one get wrecked, I'd buy something 10+ years old and repair whatever it needed rather than get a new one.
DWalt
Member
Which is tantamount to renting.
Next door neighbor drives a loaded Ford Expedition Max. Says her car payment is $1800, but I think that includes her daughter's Bronco Sport as well. A crazy amount for car payments in my view.
First new vehicle was in 85, paid 10k for a toyota 4x4 sr5 package. I drove that until 96. We buy new and have always staggered the purchases, so we only had 1 car payment at any time then paid it off in 36months.
Trade in or sell the one that is 7 years old and do it again. Right now we have a 2019 Tacoma and a 2015 Grand Cherokee. We have gone a bit longer since I retired 2 years ago. The Cherokee has about 120k on it and the Tacoma 55. We don't put a lot of miles on our cars.
We are in the market for a new Toyota 4 runner now. Looks like about 60 grand. I will either finance and payoff immediately if I can get a better deal.
To respond to an earlier post regarding stripped down trucks - good luck. Last one I bought was in 96 after the Toyota. Bought an s-10 with stick shift and AC only not even a radio. Bought it from the fleet sales and the only reason I got it was the original fleet buyer didn't take the whole order. I drove that truck till 2005 when the timing belt let loose.
We just buy drive and maintain them.
Trade in or sell the one that is 7 years old and do it again. Right now we have a 2019 Tacoma and a 2015 Grand Cherokee. We have gone a bit longer since I retired 2 years ago. The Cherokee has about 120k on it and the Tacoma 55. We don't put a lot of miles on our cars.
We are in the market for a new Toyota 4 runner now. Looks like about 60 grand. I will either finance and payoff immediately if I can get a better deal.
To respond to an earlier post regarding stripped down trucks - good luck. Last one I bought was in 96 after the Toyota. Bought an s-10 with stick shift and AC only not even a radio. Bought it from the fleet sales and the only reason I got it was the original fleet buyer didn't take the whole order. I drove that truck till 2005 when the timing belt let loose.
We just buy drive and maintain them.
Your credit score depends on it.....................
Brake lines????.......Explain how those wear out to me?
Last truck and car we bought(years apart)....We took a sack o cash....We won't allow a payment book in the house.......During our working years we scrimped and saved.......And we are blessed to have all we own paid for.....We don't carry running debt on credit cards either.
DWalt
Member
I wondered about that also. I never had any brake parts other than rotors and brake pads need replacing. Did need to replace a master cylinder once over 50 years ago.
For the last 14 years we've been buying vehicles used, coming off leases, three years old 20,000 miles or less about 60% the price of new.
Local dealer specializing in high high end sports cars.... but can find "what you want' shopping half a dozen auction sites. His cost plus
Currently driving a loaded Dealer Demo 2016 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X I got .... when it was 8 months old w <10,000 miles for about $0.70 on the Dollar.
Currently less than 80,000 plan to keep it for awhile!
For a long time you could earn more on investments minus taxes than interest on payments.
Local dealer specializing in high high end sports cars.... but can find "what you want' shopping half a dozen auction sites. His cost plus
Currently driving a loaded Dealer Demo 2016 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X I got .... when it was 8 months old w <10,000 miles for about $0.70 on the Dollar.
Currently less than 80,000 plan to keep it for awhile!
For a long time you could earn more on investments minus taxes than interest on payments.
Last edited:
Ματθιας;142117509 said:
There is a Ford dealer near my range that has a separate facility for new truck sales. Their lot is full of basic work trucks in any color you want, as long as it's white. If you live in area where trucks are popular, you should be able to find a dealer that keeps work trucks in stock.
I can tell u from experience that in certain regions with severe winters and lots of road salt they do rust out. In the northeast weather and road conditions play hell with vehicles……… also, a lot of post here pop pooing leases. If done right they work out great. The trick is ALWAYS LEASE WITH NO MONEY DOWN. And always get 15k mi a yr so you don’t have overages. My last truck was a leased GMC. Sticker $60k. My payment $399 nothing out of pocket. When I traded it in 2 months before lease end the dealer gave me $1600 more than the buy out. There are many strategies and many reasons for doing things. Not everyone wants to drive a 20 yr old vehicle. And some people are just car people. My wife is one. It’s “her thing”. Just like S&Ws are other peoples thing.
Last July I had to go all the way to Manassas Va to find my f250. I wanted a fairly basic truck but did not want a white truck that looked like it belonged to a utility company. I found exactly what I wanted
Attachments
Quite a few years ago my wife and made the decision to save cash for our next new car. We put the equivalent of a car payment in savings. When we were ready to buy a new car we paid cash although we wanted to keep it under 10K per payment. They worked it out for us on a zero interest loan that we paid off in three months. We have made a practice of doing that since, its helpful that we both buy vehicles that we like and therefore have little interest in getting rid of them for ten plus years, my wife's Toyota Camry Hybrid is over fifteen years old and has been so terrific she has no desire to trade up. My previous Highlander was fifteen years old when I traded up to the one I drive now. I've talked to friends that are in the same income level we are and ask them why pay the interest on a car loan when you can pay cash. Even when the interest levels are low it is still an expense you can avoid. I refuse to pay interest at any level, pay off credit cards each month and stay out of debt at every chance possible. We even paid down our Mortgage quicker by paying seperately on principle only, cut our mortgage from a 30 year to nearly half. Once the mortgage was paid off we put that same amount into savings and investment instead of spending. I have to say were it not for my wife being a saver we would have been in the same boat most our friends are in.
In the second quarter of 2024, the average new car loan was 734/month and the average used car was 525. Duration was 68 months. That is the average, I bet the average truck or big SUV loan is over a thousand.
Where does the money come from? Jeepers
Edit: The average truck payment is 913. Loans as long as 96 months.
Does the American Automobile Manufacturers built a vehicle that lasts 96 months ?
03hemi
Member
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2014
- Messages
- 3,505
- Reaction score
- 6,858
Trying to impress the "Jones".
But, the "Jones" are broke!
Live today like no one else, so tomorrow you can live like no one else.
Doug M.
Member
*
How do I say I am old without saying I am old: I was grandfathered on the CDL I still have.
We were looking at platforms for a custom build and the closest dealer for the company at which I was looking was in Montana. They stick with Freightliner and WS, so we went to a somewhat local dealer to look at some stuff. The biggest issue for us was that my wife has to be able to move it in a pinch, so seeing out of it at her shorter height mattered. While we were looking in the dealer's showroom, a salesman got curious because we did not look like typical buyers.
In the course of our chat, he mentioned selling platforms to a small company nearer to our house. We looked into them and were impressed. They are most oriented toward overland excursion vehicles, so could appreciate and do what we liked. They have been building remote kitchen vehicles for a charity that has global operations; one on a good sized class 6 or 7 Ford; two on a WS 47X platform. Our platform is also a 47X tandem, DD 13 (450/1650); 12 speed DT12V AMT. Should be at the dealer in a week or two. Not cheap, but should last all the rest of our lives. Buy once, cry once.
There are some logistical issues that are a pain. Changing the registration to RV is not all that hard; avoiding the FET on heavy commercial vehicles is. My wife was kind of amazed that even after 30-odd years, I could work my way through the 17 page spec sheet without any real trouble.
Last edited:
The stripper cars I'm talking about are like the Toyota Tercel, Geo Metro, Ford Fiesta/Festiva, Nissan Sentra, Honda Civic, even the Chevy cadaver/Cavalier or SunTurd/Sunbird. little cars, basic transportation. These cars used be be available with vinyl interior, no power anything, and a 5 Speed.
Toyota, Nissan, Mitsi, used to sell small regular cab, 4x2 trucks with nothing other than power brakes in any color available. Most of the 4x4s were like that, too.
When I worked at Toyota, the 4Runners were all SR5 4X4s. It was very rare to see a 2 wheel drive base 4Runner and that was 9 times out of ten a special order.
Even the extended cab 4X4 5sped were base. The SR5s were rare.
Small inexpensive vehicles sold and they sold quickly - they wouldn't last a month on the lot. Those types of vehicles are gone. The new car lots used to be full of them. And you didn't have to go to fleet sales.
Now, all vehicles are loaded from the factory, and add all the dealer add ons driving the prices up to crazy numbers!
Toyota, Nissan, Mitsi, used to sell small regular cab, 4x2 trucks with nothing other than power brakes in any color available. Most of the 4x4s were like that, too.
When I worked at Toyota, the 4Runners were all SR5 4X4s. It was very rare to see a 2 wheel drive base 4Runner and that was 9 times out of ten a special order.
Even the extended cab 4X4 5sped were base. The SR5s were rare.
Small inexpensive vehicles sold and they sold quickly - they wouldn't last a month on the lot. Those types of vehicles are gone. The new car lots used to be full of them. And you didn't have to go to fleet sales.
Now, all vehicles are loaded from the factory, and add all the dealer add ons driving the prices up to crazy numbers!
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2005
- Messages
- 8,956
- Reaction score
- 11,057
Ματθιας;142117936 said:
People have gotten used to vehicles with lots of options. I wonder how well "basic" vehicles would sell today?
