I'm refinancing this terrible loan and the bank person grimaced when they saw this.
this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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As a non-American it seems wild to me that you would take out a loan for a car.
Where are you that cars are affordable to a point where this is an usual thing?
Yeah, u buy a used one for like 2,000 - 3,000€. Or you lease. But taking on a loan with 16.9% interest would not cross my mind.
If i cant afford a car, then i aint buyin one.
(This post was presented to you by "living in a livable city" Gang)
it's extremely rare to find such a cheap used car. my partner spent $8k on one that lasted a year. also, you might be surprised to learn that driving isn't optional in most of the US - it's literally impossible to live without a car. I live in a suburb. it's several miles of dangerous roads to get to a grocery store. there is no nearby public transit. even large cities like LA were completely designed around cars. zoning and urban planning here completely screwed us.
yes, it sucks, yes I'm aware, yes I'd love to live in a walkable European city with commuter rail and cafes on the street corner, no I don't have a choice.
I know about american circumstances, thats why i added that part in parentheses.
In the european countryside, car dependency is definitely on the same level as in America.
On the topic of prices: the first car my brother and i shared was a 2008 ford fusion. We bought in 2019 for 1.5k.
😭
American, I bought a 2005 Honda Civic in 2020 for $7,500
America: third world country, first world prices.
But for there to be used cars, there needs to be new cars... How do the people that buy new cars pay for them?
Those are older/richer people that saved enough money to buy new.
Either company cars, leased cars or someone has the spare 30k for a car.
And of course people take out loans for cars too, but thats less common. And not really necessary in the cities.
You take that 10k you were going to drop on a crap used car, use that as down payment on a new car. Get a longer loan with lower interest and keep monthly payment lower. The larger the down payment, the lower the monthly will be, and now you have 10 years to set aside money for the next new car or "out of warranty" repairs.
There are still new cars that have a sticker less than 30k, after warranties and any desired upgrades, probably closer to 35k-40k for anything not a truck, EV, or sport car.
There's also people who lease, they pay lots of money to rent a car for around 3 year, after that they trade in for a new car and the old car gets sold as used.
What'd you buy?
True. The entire car market from new to beater is gonna get fucked up by tariffs pretty soon
Nobody with financial sense is taking out a 16.9% loan on a car. 5% is pretty typical right now for people with a decent credit history.
Whether or not that's reasonable, is certainly up for discussion.
Buy the car you can afford. If you can't buy it outright or make a significant down payment (20-30%), don't take out a loan, look for a cheaper option. Those interest rates are insane, I'm amazed how anyone would accept them.
I ageree, but that's his predatory loans work, there's enough people out there who simply can't afford not to have a car.
You have the option of not buying one if you cant afford it.
And there are some used cars around the 2-5k€ pricepoint if you really need one i guess.
Edit: my main point was that it always shocks me to have such a car dependence in the US that you'd even have to go into debt. I am not saying Americans should just not buy cars...
Not really, depending on where you are.
When I was barely above broke out of college, I had to buy a shit box just to be able to go to work, because the only job I could find in my field was >20 mi from where I lived and had no public transit options that wouldn't add an hour of walking on top of how long the bus ride took. And that's assuming clear weather, which we get for maaaaaybe half the year. I don't know about you, but I'm not about walking for an hour in the blistering cold with spotty sidewalks in busy areas
So, while I could take the option of not buying a car, it would turn a <30 min commute into 2-3 hours one way on a good day. Buying a car was the only way not to lose >25 hours a week on work transportation alone.
No, you don't. Go look at America on Google maps. Then take a good hard look at the transit schedules.
2-5k is not something people have laying around now days.
If they do, they're not the kind to buy them.
But I'm speaking from UK market, might be worse down here.
Americans are bad with money.
Americans are also bad with money.
Womp womp
You can do school loans if you start paying bigger. Not sure what your debt is or how large your financial cushion needs to be, but if extra cash is sitting in checking not earning interest, its loosing value while your student loan interest keeps ticking up.
For me after setting aside money for savings, I kept what I needed + plus a small amount for whatever and the rest got dumped into loans, had that shit payed off in a few years. Think my total interest payed was around 3k, I know some people basically end up doubling their debt over the 10 years with some crazy interest rates. (Went to state school, so loans were about 50k for everything, I know some private schools are triple that)
(Also open a saving account or something, your checking account shouldn't have access to all your funds in the event of debit card theft, especially if you use that online)
And if your handicap is the vision test you’re just stuck
how are you buying cars? Because I'm in Europe and they're expensive here too.
You save up and get a second hand car you can afford. Why buy a new one, even a car with 30K miles or 50K KMs is a lot cheaper, while its still new enough to drive for a while without major repairs.
50k km is still "need a loan" territory for most people. The absolute newest car I've owned was 144k km, 3 years old, and still cost near 30k.
Plus when it's like 2% + 6 months euribor for a lease you get to keep at the end, it starts looking hella more attractive.
Now the APR in the OP, that's predatory af.
Thanks for clarifying this. I know the EU does a lot of things better but I was confused about how you're paying €5k for a good vehicle lol
I mean you could buy a lightly used Dacia maybe? Or a Fiat 500 maybe.
But if you want a decently comfy car, nothing luxury, but also not a basic model, 20-30k is minimum for lightly used. German cars depreciate quickly so they're your best bet in that price range. Toyotas and Volvos will actually be more expensive for same year, mileage, size.
I just checked in NL when I search for cars 2010 or later and max 60K KM (50 isn't an option on the site I used). I can find multiple small cars starting at 3000 euros. I selected a price range at 10K euros max and found almost 3000 cars, there are definitely decent options for way less than 20-30K
The process of dying involves lots of debt too because of our corrupt funeral and burial industry
Cars are expensive and necessary in areas without good public transit (read: basically everywhere except a couple of areas in specific cities). Most of us don't have a year's salary just sitting in the bank, especially when you're young.
If you need a car to get to work, you'll pay what you have to because the alternative is no job which means no home, no healthcare, and no food.
We got rid or public transit because of racism so we are totally dependent on driving to go anywhere
I have a three year loan at 1.9%. Why would I cough up an additional $20k now, when I could hang on to my cash and, at the very least, leave it in an account that earns twice that (and then some) in interest?
As a European it seems wild to me that my peers would pay a loan for a car. But they do. That's crazy...
"American" here. We are obsessed with financing depreciable assets.
We are also obsessed with appearances and status.
I'm sure you can see from this thread some of us cannot comprehend driving a $5000 car. They will whine and come up with tons of excuses for why that just cannot happen.
Reliability is a problem when car trouble can mean losing your job. $5000 doesn't buy that much car anymore
We don’t - hence the loan