> Average monthly payment: $503 — the first time the average auto payment has gone over the $500 mark.

> Average term for an auto loan: 68 months — this is the longest average term ever seen by Experian.

Do people not remember the economy can go in the toilet really fast? Why aren't people constantly scared and thus saving as much as possible and acquiring good assets? Even if the economy stays strong, your own career or profession can go bad or get disrupted real fast.

As far as why people buy high end cars when they're not very rich, going into significant debt, I suspect it's because a car is a status symbol for so many people. If I could do without a car, I would. I'd be saving about $200 a month on my current expenses if I didn't need one - it's just a crappy old Mazda wagon, certainly no status symbol there.

The unfortunate reality is that (most) subprime borrowers don't have the luxury to consider catastrophic events that can occur in the future because they are too busy worried about today.

Not sure I agree with that. My 72 month car loan, clearly not subprime, is 3%. I have better immediate uses for my money, I'm sure most folks can beat 3% returns over a 72 month horizon as long as your not paying 2 and 20.

Any kind of large car that you would want for a family is well north of $30. I paid as much more for a 1 year old minivan recently than I paid for a year old BMW 15 years ago.

And, to top it off, today's car reliability is way, way higher, as is the quality (in the 60's, we were thrilled if a car lasted 6 years and got 80k miles; nowadays, that's about half of what you'd expect. And the safety is wildly improved (like, for instance, air bags, never mind seat belts!)

Cars got oil changes every 1k miles, not 3k or 7k. Just for starters.