[JumpCrisscross]

> There is a car-debt crisis

To what degree is this caused by car prices versus Americans' compulsion to keep buying new cars? Anecdotally, the folks I know struggling with car payments are almost exclusively in the latter bucket. But I'm open to having my mind changed with data.

[Lammy]

If people didn't buy new cars there would never be used cars.

[dullcrisp]

Tell that to Cuba.

[binary132]

Not entirely true; there are at least the lease, rental, and commercial fleet markets supplying predictable inventory of used cars to the public market.

[bdangubic]

I have 2014 Tesla S which which I recently had drive unit and battery replaced ($20k total). my friends all think I am nuts, but they all have $1k+ payments (some for 72m) while I haven’t had a car payment since 2017 and won’t have another one till 2036 :)

[Aurornis]

If your friends dumped $20K into paying off those loans they’d be a lot closer to paid off or maybe paid off completely, though. And that’s on a newer, lower mileage car.

I’m all for maintaining vehicles and keeping them on the road, but I don’t think you’re in a place to criticize your friends with $1K car payments after putting almost 2 years worth of those payments into a car that’s over a decade old.

[bdangubic]

I put in two years worth of payments for 18 years driving the car (9 since my last payment and 9 more after the maintenance) :)

[Aurornis]

> I put in two years worth of payments for 18 years driving the car (9 since my last payment and 9 more after the maintenance) :)

Plus paying for the car itself

You can’t estimate your future repair bills to be $0

I get it that you like the car, but there are some major mental gymnastics happening with your math

[bdangubic]

I have spent exactly $0.00 on maintenance since 2014 when I bought the car (other than tires, 5G modem and internal battery). not sure what “paying for the car” means, it was paid off in 2017.

to simplify the math:

1. I spent total $90k

2. to have a car from 2014 through 2035-ish

for a $1k/month that would be $252k for my friends :)

[cosmicgadget]

What are you thinking about getting next?

[bdangubic]

nothing till 2035 and even then I might just replace the battery again. people look at EVs as like some disposable thing, when battery deteriorates you chuck it (shows in the pricing of 'used' EVs, my friend bought a 3-year old eTron that was originally purchased for $93k for $35k - 19k miles on it). my tesla is rock n roll now and will be good for the next decade

[LeafItAlone]

Who paid the $20k?

[bdangubic]

I did :)

[hnburnsy]

How many miles?

[bdangubic]

67k