except for large purchases where using a loan can actually make you more money (house), buy now, pay later has always been a scam imo. I have never understood purchasing a monthly price for a car that depreciates faster than the speed of light. It is actually terrible seeing all thosee luxurious cars and all those huge trucks that are all 60-70$k on the road in a place where the median and average salary is ~50k.
Honestly, sometimes you just need an auto loan to get out of the “stuck in an unreliable shitbox that leaves me stranded at random every other week and the AC doesn’t work and it looks like shit and fuck this I want something nicer” hole.
I bought a nice new (ish) car about 8 years ago, and 350,000km later, it’s still nice, still reliable, and I still enjoy driving it. Hell, it got me out of the shitty little town I was stuck living in, because I could finally trust my vehicle to go further than an hour from home (being Australian, leaving for any interstate city is at the very least an 8 hour drive, unless you live in Perth, then it becomes a 30 hour drive.) I don’t regret getting a car loan for even a second.
In saying that… I’d never go for another loan unless I absolutely had to. I’ll drive this car into the ground before I get another one.
Idk, if your only objective with a car is to go from point A to B, a well maintained Toyota with less than 150 000 km can be found for under 10k (even under 5-6k is doable) pretty easily in Canada. And idk for the average person, but I don’t really see the point of financing a 5-6k$ car, seeing people are going around paying 500$ per month for a car that’s mid range at best. Plus with a used Toyota you get cheaper insurance and very likely better fuel economy
The point of financing a $5-6k car is that many people simply cannot scrounge up that amount of money to pay cash. Further, especially these days, it’s hard as fuck to find a car that actually half functions for 5k.
True, I guess I’m speaking from the perspective of someone who genuinely loves cars.
An older Camry or something just wouldn’t do it for me, but I’m lucky in that Australia used to make pretty reliable cars (modern post-'09 Falcons are unkillable, and get great mileage on the highway - 800-1000km per tank out of mine) and which also have plenty of power and comfort. Not the most technically advanced cars, but I actually can’t stand the modern obsession with car tech anyway, and feel that '08-'13 era really offers all I need.
I don’t understand why so many people buy new cars. Wasting a year’s worth of income. It doesn’t make sense. I get that people need a reliable vehicle to get to work but even if you just spend a half a year’s income it would make a lot more sense.
The need to fit in and be seen as upwardly mobile and have new things to impress others is so strong in us.
bUt The eConoMy is BoomiNG
I heard there were places financing pizza delivery like holy moly
I’ve been saying for a few years now that the source of the next economic crash is going to be these services. We are essentially allowing the everyday consumer to create lines of credit on lines of credit. How many people are using these to extend their credit cards that are already deficient?
