A lot of this has to do with obscenely low interest rates. I have a 6-year car loan simply because the interest rate on it (under 2%) is lower than what I'm get

A lot of this has to do with obscenely low interest rates. I have a 6-year car loan simply because the interest rate on it (under 2%) is lower than what I'm getting on a (by today's standards) high-yield savings account. I could have bought the car outright, or gotten a shorter-term loan, but why bother when you're paying effectively no interest rate? If you have good credit is the US, you can basically borrow money for free to buy a car.