Technology

That's my car in the picture that I bought this year! Subaru and government fucked me out of my 8K rebate and locked me into the purchase to try and get it or losing $3k.

I have to pay 20% of my income on this loan, Subaru provided a low interest rate loan because of the rebate thing while loan interest rates were over like 6%. I do pay more though making it 25% of my income. Combined with my mortgage I am paying 50% of my income on loans.

Since it is electric and my commute was costing me $160 prior, I am saving about $100/month on gas at least. After 3 years I should have it paid off early. Thinking of getting solar afterwards so hopefully one year in my life my costs will go down enough that I can afford to do nice things or retire.

The example the article gives is pretty extreme to me:

[Greg] McBride, the Bankrate analyst, walked MarketWatch through a hypothetical car-buying scenario for an average-priced new car that cost $48,000. Taking into account the trade-in value of your existing vehicle, let’s say you knock some money off the sticker price and finance a $40,000 purchase price at 7.5% for five years. That’s an $801 monthly payment — which means you would need to make $96,100 a year if you wanted that payment to be 10% of your income.

I don't think I'd ever want to spend half a yearly income on any single purchase. An investment in a house being the only exception.

I'll rather buy used car and have no monthly payment anyways. A new car is among the worst investments to spend your money on.

They're also pretty much exclusively sell SUVs or heavier cars, these are intentionally pricier

Out of curiosity I went looking to see what the 2023 price is for my car and I'm really scared of how I'd afford a new one. After having two used cars turn into death traps I'm not interested in used cars. Even used cars are expensive now too.

Great news!

Across the pond in the UK they're expanding ULEZ and this is a major sticking point. You need to upgrade to more fuel efficient cars, right when buying shopping is expensive enough. They want you to get new cars, and the majority cannot aford them.