this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2026
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While I agree that buying used is the more prudent option, I don't think we should be distracted from the fact that there are new base model cars close to the 50k range, which is ridiculous
For less than $25k you can buy a new Nissan Sentra, Hyundai Elantra, Toyota Corolla, Volkswagen Jetta, Mazda 3, or a Subaru Impreza. I'm sure there are others.
People just don't seem that interested in buying cars anymore and consumers seem much more interested in projecting status
Nissan Sentra cost us 27k including the tax and interests. The marked price was 21k. That was 3 years ago. Made us feel very poor because we couldn't just pay for it, and had to pay more overall for not having that money outright. We didn't have any other debts.
So I don't think people with other debts can afford a car outright either, so end up paying more. Rich people can avoid all that. Or they can take that loan, make more money from the money they already have (higher returns than loan interest rate), and avoid taxes on loan money, and get richer
Indeed, the boots theory of poverty. So many things are cheaper even in absolute terms if you have enough money to get things cheaper or get better things for not much more money that will way outlast the cheap stuff. Also people are more excited to just give you money when you have money (higher interest rate, even for very safe savings accounts).