They’re financing and it’s common to see BMW 5’s sitting on the driveway, or a Tahoe. Even the popular mini-vans runs $40K for the popular model levels. Pick any prevalent SUV and they’re running $45K.
Sure, there’s plenty of affordable Accords too, but there’s a lot of $40-$50K cars and they’re financed.
Take the car payment, add in the sales tax which is all their down payment will cover, take the license tab bill on a new car every 3 or 4 years, and take the insurance and it’s easy to run $1000+/month on a financed car before gas and maintenance.
Could you do it cheaper? Hell yes, many aren’t. Hence my point.
You’re thinking like a guy with cash on hand. They’re thinking monthly payments.
Working class stiffs. They live and their consumption is driven by what they can make payments on monthly.
