It's amazing how quickly people's expectations change. Once they get in that new car it's the new normal. They'll get just as angry and frustrated in it as any other, but it's now an essential with an insanely high cost.
It's also full of hidden costs. People can usually tell you how much they're spending on rent, but what about how much they spend on the car? You need to add up any interest, depreciation, insurance, tax, fuel, regular maintenance, repairs, consumables, tolls, cleaning, and that's not even counting your priceless time spent driving.
Car people will just gobble up a random 1k credit repair bill when their gearbox randomly gives out then forget all about it in a few months and never once question if this thing is worth it.
Normal rates are doing to shock consumer consumotion, really soon.
This is a perfect place for a facepalm emoji.
I mean, I get it. When everyone else around you is doing it (and frankly, they probably can't afford it any more than he can), it's a legitimately hard thing to not buckle to the pressure. Especially since it's a huge indicator of your "value" these days.
But for a $1500+ monthly payment... Yeesh.
But the OP's brother is not alone, the problem is there are lots of 35, 45, 55 and 65 year olds making similar decisions.
Not the worst? Perhaps technically. That loan payment is going to be an absurd burden on that young adult for a period of time they can barely relate to. Especially if they lose their job for any appreciable amount of time, or encounter other sudden costs (such as rent being jacked up).
Remaining employed full time for 7 years at the age of 19 with a wage good enough to make $1500 vehicle payments is... well, I would have failed that test.
I had a 300 hp turbo'ed Miata while still a college student at 21 years old and a few years later a 380 hp Dinan M3, all while living with roommates or cheap apartments. Once I got a bit older and lost interest in cars like that my vehicles were mostly econoboxes on leases or lightly used entry level luxury cars.
It's a very different thing than someone who is established in life with real responsibilities spending an outsized portion on vehicle expenses.
Perhaps you're right though. I went to uni etc so didn't have that kind of cash until much later but might be different for those who leave school earlier.
Children in the US can begin work at 14, and assuming he either bought or was gifted a low value project car that he began putting money into from the age of 15 when he would have been eligible for his learner's permit, he could have been earning for up to 5 years before his latest job.
It's also not unheard of for children to own vehicles before they're old enough to legally drive them. There are no license or minimum age requirements for ATVs in some states, and in rural areas, some children begin using them to commute (off-road) as soon as they're large enough to operate them. One of our local schools had stables for horses, and another had chargers for golf carts. While helmets weren't legally required, the schools encouraged them.
In 2020, McDonald's paid cashiers just over $11/hr, so if he worked there just 500 hours each year from the ages of 15 to 18 (10 hours a week), he would have been able to earn over $20K before he was 19 without much effort - or earned all of that in a single year after graduating high school and working full time.
If he was a car enthusiast who wanted to work at an auto shop, like NAPA Auto Parts ($15/hr base), he'd have been able to earn $15K in two years working the same part time schedule. He also would have received full state and federal taxes back each year, so it would have been near to gross earnings.
This isn't really uncommon here. Everything costs something, so most people have to work starting from their teens. Insurance, for instance, is expensive for young men, so if he hadn't been paying on his car's current cash value (or at all) to control costs, he may have received nothing on the vehicle after it was totaled, but he wouldn't have owed anything. By 19, he'd already be used to living paycheck to paycheck.
And while there's no limit to what someone can spend on their car, I'm also taking $15K as an embellishment. $8-10K is more normal for moderate aftermarket work, including labor, and some people buy, sell, and trade up often. I'd believe a teenager spending $3-8K on used aftermarket and then telling people it was "worth $15K", estimating it would have cost around that if they'd bought new and had the work done professionally.
On the other hand, you're not wrong about its capabilities. And honestly, if it's just groceries, one could easily go for a used car or hatchback.
If anyone knows of a left hand drive, all wheel drive diesel hatchback, let me know. That's my unicorn car. I'm not even sure something like that exists.
"Ah no but the used truck doesn't have a touchscreen or a radio with bluetooth or builtin GPS" /s
> I think a major culprit is our social-focused society creating this desire to keep up with the Jonses' in your social/work circles.
Society may very well pressure individuals to keep up with the Joneses, but individuals do not have to yield to that pressure. Let's retain some individual agency. Nobody has to put themselves in a lot of debt to appear a certain way to their peers.
Agreed, but those outward pressures can be pretty harsh. I left real estate because I was told by my boss I needed to upgrade my car to, at a minimum, 2yr-old Lexus NX or I'd be relegated to internal work rather than meeting with clients. I was driving a 2019 Kia Forte at the time. Some industries just tie your personal life and expenses to your work life way too much.
I was a real estate in Idaho in the mid 00s and the only people I knew who had the super nice cars were the long-time brokers and the real estate school instructors. People that rarely if ever met with clients. That said, I worked low end stuff. I could see high end stuff very much requiring outward signs of "success" otherwise the clients might think you suck at your job.
I left the field because the incentives and commission structure was so out of whack with what it should be. Selling a house and doing 95%+ of the work got you half of half the commission. 6% total, 1.5% to buyer broker, 1.5% to buyer agent, 1.5% to seller broker, 1.5% to seller agent. The agents (not the brokers) did 95% of the actual work, but the law required a licensed broker to "oversee" the transaction. People only got paid when a house sold, so there was heavy incentive on both sides of the transaction to get the right person into the right house, and as the great Lionel Hutz (Phil Hartman) tells Marge Simpson, "I'm going to let you in on a little secret. The right house is the house that's for sale. And the right person is anyone." I could go on for a long time, but suffice to say it seems absurd to me that the fee to a seller is directly proportional to the value of the house, completely disconnected from the amount of labor involved in the transaction.
Yeah, I grant you that is the case in certain occupations. It's funny, because in other lines of work (like accountancy, for example), you're actually discouraged from meeting clients in a flashy car.
to which you should be replying "sure, let me send you the receipt so you can expense it". If it is for work, the employee cannot expect to pay for a required piece of equipment.
You can still buy an old Toyota sedan for $2k.
I need to buy another used truck, but I'm sort of waiting for the flood of used cars from these people to saturate the market a bit and drive down prices for me when the recession hits.
In today's society, you can completely disregard someone based solely on the car they drive (cough, Prius).
How rude.
No, seriously though, a Prius is pretty underrated. Especially when you put it in sport mode and push your passengers into their seat with the acceleration. And you'll still beat 30mpg.
Heck, I bet it has better power:weight than that F-150...
Societal wealth indicator trends are stupid in many ways, and what car you own is just the latest stupidity. I'll happily laugh my way past the gas pumps in my pariahmobile.
I have always said, however, that if you're looking a for a good value reliable car you should always take note of what cars taxi drivers buy.
He's not the best candidate for an insurance policy...
Not sure about the US market but this could be a factor?
In US its “hey have you seen a car in your life, here have those keys”
I think a major culprit is our social-focused society creating this desire to keep up with the Jonses' in your social/work circles.