this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2023
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also interesting is how few car makers even produce normal sized cars anymore, let alone smaller ones.
https://www.newsweek.com/its-hard-find-small-car-us-thats-not-going-change-soon-1808174
Also the average length of car ownership before buying something else is about 5 years, but the average loan duration for a new car is 7 years.
The car market in the US is just screwed.
My Honda Civic was built in 2008 and it's fine. My car before that was a Nissan Sentra and it lived 22 years. Drive them until they are piles of rust kept going by duct tape and raw anger, and try not to shed manly tears when they are crushed into a cube.
I am sorry car, but this is a good death.
My 2006 Civic was a lemon. I had to replace it after only 10 years
Only the lower end "economy" Hondas are super reliable. Honda's higher-end models tend to use newer and less well-vetted engineering while the basic models all rely on older tried and true technology. I learned this the hard way with my 2006 Accord V6 which was a blast to drive, but like yours only lasted about 10 years before it started having serious and very expensive problems.
that's insane, I have a 2005 toyota corolla with zero interest in getting a new car.
Those that do loans are much more likely to have negativity equity when trading in. Which is already proven with those who have terms longer than 4 years. This means on trading in, the borrower is looking at an increased car payment on top of the already higher average transaction price of $35,000. If you put money down, default on the loan and lose the car, you've quite literally given away money.
It's true the average loan is 7 years, but within the last few years there are 10 year (!) loans are available. This helps bring down an $800 payment. But that interest is gonna suck if you don't get a very low rate.
Those that pay off their loans tend to keep their cars for 10 to 12 years. Assuming the car doesn't catastrophically fail. Which anecdotally happened to our family. 1.6L Ford EcoBoost defect killed the engine 2 years after a 4 year loan was paid off.
Speaking anecdotally here, I wonder if the banks are trying to push those super long loans, too. I bought my car last year, have excellent credit, and put 50% down. The only loan I was offered was an 8 year loan when I wanted 4. Out of sheer spite, I took advantage of the early payoff and paid it off as early as possible to deprive them of as much interest as possible, and it was much faster than the 4 years I asked for.
As a general FYI for anyone who reads this comment, be aware that bank loans front load the payment of the interest, and the payment of the principal is done on the back end.
So you have to pay off a loan very quickly to avoid the majority of the interest you would pay for that loan.
Finally, if you pay extra to try to finish a loan off early, make sure any extra amount you pay is marked as "principal only". Banks are supposed to always apply any extra to the principal, but a lot of times they apply the extra to the interest, unless you explicitly tell them not to.
In this case, I had a deal that had no penalties for early payoff, so in my case, paying off my car in 1/8 the time saved me 7 years of interest with no serious downside. Unless you count credit scores being BS and paying off loans early technically not being ideal credit management.
Fair enough, but I wasn't actually talking about early payoff penalty. I was speaking to the payback schedule that the loan company has you reimburse them with.
You pay your loan back on a monthly basis. In the earlier years, each monthly payment goes (for example) 80% to interest owed, and 20% owed to principal. Usually around the last fiveish years mark, your payment is applied 10% interest, 90% principal. The bank/loan giver makes sure they get their profit from offering you the loan in the earlier years. In other words, each monthly payment by you is NOT going 50%/50% interest/principal.
Don't get me wrong though, its ALWAYS good to pay off your loan early, from a total $ amount paid when you are done point of view. But if you take ten years to pay off a fifteen year loan, you've paid off most of the interest owed already, where if you pay off a fifteen year loan in five years you've paid less interest owed, % wise.
(The time frames I mention above is estimates for sake of this discussion, YMMV for your actual load, but the principal of what's being said is valid.)
Not all cars are bought with loans though.
Then those data points will have 0 for their loan years and it should bring dowm your average years.
Are those data points even included in the set?
The opposite is also possible: those bought with loans are probably bought new, and would be expected to be held onto for longer. Older cars are cheaper and are probably bought more with cash. They probably also kick the bucket / are re-sold more quickly.
That has to be the case only in the US.
Not really. Even in EU the cars are getting bigger even if not as fast as in the US.
Some year ago the small city cars were smaller than the today version.
Would you rather make more money per unit product or less money per unit product?
well yea, that's obviously why they do it.
doesn't make it good.
Change the laws. If it is a truck you should have to get a CDL, have to go to weight stations, cant drive on the parkway etc. If it is a car it should have to follow the emission rules cars have. There is no point in having standards if we make exceptions so big you can drive a cough.....sports utility vehicle....cough through.
Edit: of course we can pretty much end the pickup market tomorrow if we provide free therapy for men with a micropenis.
I am sure car companies spend a ton of money lobbying politicians to never do this.
Fine whatever. I will start leaving notes in the bed of gas guzzling pickups that say "sorry about the micropenis you feel you need to compensate for"
that would be a great way to undermine your entire cause.
some people just prefer larger cars, and pivoting to some bizarre comment about their genitalia is an incredibly stupid way to go about dealing with the issue.
I was just about to say the same thing to the person you were replying to.
Immature responses doesn't convince anyone of anything.
Oh woah is me. The small dick energy crowd won't be on my side. Oh woah is me woah is me.
Woe*
lol good luck with that
I'm now hearing your comment in a 'Bill and Ted' type voice.
On a serious note, if you want to win people over to your cause, try not to insult them, but instead convince them.
Nah I don't want small dick energy crowd on my side.
Could you give the rest of us a quick education on what that is?
I'n never sure though that the initials a person is using is for the same thing that comes up as the first item on a Google search, so I like to ask the person instead.
I wouldn't have bothered asking if I did.
Not sure how I pissed you off, but I really didn't know.
As someone who didn't know, thank you.
You must be lots of fun at parties.
Fair enough, thanks.
Good to hear. That's important, especially these days.
Boring.........sorry you were shortchanged down there.
From the article...
So, who do I believe?
"Engine and technology advancements" can also be applied to smaller cars so that doesn't really move the needle anywhere.
I think it's quite obvious that unless you discover how to break the laws of physics, the smaller car will be always more efficient due to better aerodynamics and lower weight.
Be interesting to know how much different the two were, if the difference was minimal, or very large.
If it's minimal, and you need the carrying capacity, then it wouldn't be such a bad thing to own a SUV.
If it's not minimal, yeah then it's better just renting an SUV size vehicle when you need to carry something of large capacity. Unless you need that capacity each and every day, then it would be cost prohibitive to rent versus own.