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> I guess I'm old fashioned but I buy cars up front for cash. A large portion of people buying cars barely have a couple thousand to put down for a down-paymen

> I guess I'm old fashioned but I buy cars up front for cash. A large portion of people buying cars barely have a couple thousand to put down for a down-payment. When you add in registration fees, sales tax, etc - a large portion of car owners can't do this without financing. Maybe none of them should be car owners - but most of them live in places where you have no option to get anywhere besides private vehicles, so...

baggy_trough 1y ago
Those people should buy older cars used. But if you only have a couple thousand to put down, you're going to have a bad time.
- onlyrealcuzzo 1y ago
  You can't get an older, function car - with sales tax and registration fees - for less than $2000. >50% of Americans have less than $2000 in savings: https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2025-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2024-savings-and-investments.htm https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2025-economic-we...
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - selimthegrim 1y ago
    I paid $1300 and another $320 in fees for a 20 year old car but this is New Orleans where no one maintains anything so there was further down the pike in short order.
    - onlyrealcuzzo 1y ago
      If that passed the functioning test, then great for you! Statistically, the vast majority of buyers would prefer to buy a nicer car and finance it. The reality is - unless you know a lot about cars - more times than not - you're going to spend WAY more money on a 20 year old car with >150,000 miles - then you are on financing a car 4x the price - and, especially, you don't need the $1520 that those people don't have to begin with. >30% of Americans wouldn't even have the $1520 you paid. Either you get ripped off at the point of sale (the car is totalled from any sane valuation) or you'll eventually get ripped off by mechanics. Again, if this doesn't apply to you - then great - but it's not really surprising why people ignore the age-old adage to buy a car in cash when interest rates were negative in real terms for a generation.
      - selimthegrim 1y ago
        I ended up spending about $3000 more on top of the $1620 to fix it up (160k mi) fully so while that was within my means, I am now free of a car payment for the foreseeable future so it really is kind of a Sam Vimes’ boots problem. I do know a fair amount about cars as do my friends.
  - ethbr1 1y ago
    There's ample financing for used car purchases. E.g. 4.54% at 36 months https://www.penfed.org/auto/car-buying-service https://www.penfed.org/auto/car-buying-service
    - selimthegrim 1y ago
      And they need doubtless a verified pay stub for six months or a W2. How many service industry people are going to have that?
- actionfromafar 1y ago
  It's expensive to be poor. They may know they can't weather a broken engine on an older car, neither in time nor money.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- tpmoney 1y ago
  The used car market is pretty rough too. A 10 year old Toyota Corolla with 100k miles is still a $10-15k car. Not terrible if you have the cash for it and you know it’s been maintained, but $15k is a lot to gamble on the previous owner having kept up with the maintenance. Not saying that means you drop 50k on something else, when when a new Corolla can be had for between $22k-28k MSRP, I’d think pretty hard about gambling my $15k on a 10 year old unknown.
  - baggy_trough 1y ago
    I hear you... I have done the same analysis. The cheaper end new Japanese cars are a sweet spot, for sure.
- sonzohan 1y ago
  This used to be what people did before COVID. Now it's a hardcore seller's market in the US: The car chip shortage caused the resale value of cars to skyrocket. In the past few years my 15 year old CRV, which just passed 100k miles, has gone UP in value according to my mechanic because the used car market is so bad. Many car dealerships, already well-known for poor consumer practices, have straight up refused to sell cars to people who don't wish to finance because they can make a lot more money off someone who wants to finance. You used to be able to convince them you planned to finance, then buy the car in full at the last minute, and the salesperson would do so because of sunk investment. Not anymore, many of my friends have experienced this firsthand when shopping for a new vehicle. Combine this with it being all-but-required for people in the US to have a personal vehicle and drive if they want a job ("reliable transportation" in job postings), new & used car dealers have the additional leverage of time pressure as people can and do get fired for their car breaking down. What I see a lot of wealthy people do, on the other hand, is finance a luxury vehicle, drive it for 3-5 years, then trade in for a newer model. Used to be lots of luxury vehicles, like the Giulia Quadrifoglio, with 20-30k miles for 30-40% of the original vehicle cost (25k-35k) which is an incredible deal for a luxury brand. This isn't really a thing anymore as the cost of a new car skyrockets.

baggy_trough 1y ago

Those people should buy older cars used. But if you only have a couple thousand to put down, you're going to have a bad time.

onlyrealcuzzo 1y ago
You can't get an older, function car - with sales tax and registration fees - for less than $2000. >50% of Americans have less than $2000 in savings: https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2025-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2024-savings-and-investments.htm https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2025-economic-we...
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- selimthegrim 1y ago
  I paid $1300 and another $320 in fees for a 20 year old car but this is New Orleans where no one maintains anything so there was further down the pike in short order.
  - onlyrealcuzzo 1y ago
    If that passed the functioning test, then great for you! Statistically, the vast majority of buyers would prefer to buy a nicer car and finance it. The reality is - unless you know a lot about cars - more times than not - you're going to spend WAY more money on a 20 year old car with >150,000 miles - then you are on financing a car 4x the price - and, especially, you don't need the $1520 that those people don't have to begin with. >30% of Americans wouldn't even have the $1520 you paid. Either you get ripped off at the point of sale (the car is totalled from any sane valuation) or you'll eventually get ripped off by mechanics. Again, if this doesn't apply to you - then great - but it's not really surprising why people ignore the age-old adage to buy a car in cash when interest rates were negative in real terms for a generation.
    - selimthegrim 1y ago
      I ended up spending about $3000 more on top of the $1620 to fix it up (160k mi) fully so while that was within my means, I am now free of a car payment for the foreseeable future so it really is kind of a Sam Vimes’ boots problem. I do know a fair amount about cars as do my friends.
- ethbr1 1y ago
  There's ample financing for used car purchases. E.g. 4.54% at 36 months https://www.penfed.org/auto/car-buying-service https://www.penfed.org/auto/car-buying-service
  - selimthegrim 1y ago
    And they need doubtless a verified pay stub for six months or a W2. How many service industry people are going to have that?
actionfromafar 1y ago
It's expensive to be poor. They may know they can't weather a broken engine on an older car, neither in time nor money.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
tpmoney 1y ago
The used car market is pretty rough too. A 10 year old Toyota Corolla with 100k miles is still a $10-15k car. Not terrible if you have the cash for it and you know it’s been maintained, but $15k is a lot to gamble on the previous owner having kept up with the maintenance. Not saying that means you drop 50k on something else, when when a new Corolla can be had for between $22k-28k MSRP, I’d think pretty hard about gambling my $15k on a 10 year old unknown.
- baggy_trough 1y ago
  I hear you... I have done the same analysis. The cheaper end new Japanese cars are a sweet spot, for sure.
sonzohan 1y ago
This used to be what people did before COVID. Now it's a hardcore seller's market in the US: The car chip shortage caused the resale value of cars to skyrocket. In the past few years my 15 year old CRV, which just passed 100k miles, has gone UP in value according to my mechanic because the used car market is so bad. Many car dealerships, already well-known for poor consumer practices, have straight up refused to sell cars to people who don't wish to finance because they can make a lot more money off someone who wants to finance. You used to be able to convince them you planned to finance, then buy the car in full at the last minute, and the salesperson would do so because of sunk investment. Not anymore, many of my friends have experienced this firsthand when shopping for a new vehicle. Combine this with it being all-but-required for people in the US to have a personal vehicle and drive if they want a job ("reliable transportation" in job postings), new & used car dealers have the additional leverage of time pressure as people can and do get fired for their car breaking down. What I see a lot of wealthy people do, on the other hand, is finance a luxury vehicle, drive it for 3-5 years, then trade in for a newer model. Used to be lots of luxury vehicles, like the Giulia Quadrifoglio, with 20-30k miles for 30-40% of the original vehicle cost (25k-35k) which is an incredible deal for a luxury brand. This isn't really a thing anymore as the cost of a new car skyrockets.