But also don't pretend that your prime rate example is the typical case for the 7-year loans, which are mostly subprime borrowers who don't plan on perfectly maintaining and keeping the car forever.
Assume some charity here. Everyone was speaking in generalities about the trend. You can always find non-central, imperspicuous examples, but that's not really responsive. (Scott Adams has made the acronym BOCTAOE, but of course there are obvious exceptions, to head off such replies.)
The recognition that something -- like your case -- is an extreme exception proves the general validity of the rule. (Yes, I know there's a frequently misused version of the quote, but I use this modified, correct version.)
>That’s only true if you are already bad at personal finance.
That's kind of the point: you can't just assume away the case of "people making bad financial decisions", and that might be -- and probably is here -- the reason for the trend.