Americans Just Spent $15 Billion On Buying New Pickups In One Single Month

[deserteagle56]

The price people are willing to pay for a new vehicle is just insane!!! I mean people have car payments more than my house payment. Sadly the new vehicle price market is so high, it has dragged the used market to insane levels as well. I just don't understand how this is sustainable.

I was reading a report recently in one of the financial forums that said that car dealers cannot sell cheap cars - bare-bones models that sell for less than $30k. Very little market for cars like that. Their (the financial site) research showed that people whose financial situation dictated that they buy a modest used vehicle still insisted on buying higher end new models - and then financing them for 84 months.

These are the same people who complain about the high cost of living these days......

 

[vintageracer]

Hey now, credit card points are great. I just took a nice tropical vacation with a beachfront hotel for practically no money.

Did you enjoy the "Kool-Aid" you drank during your supposedly "Free" trip?

 

[vintageracer]

I was reading a report recently in one of the financial forums that said that car dealers cannot sell cheap cars - bare-bones models that sell for less than $30k. Very little market for cars like that. Their (the financial site) research showed that people whose financial situation dictated that they buy a modest used vehicle still insisted on buying higher end new models - and then financing them for 84 months.

These are the same people who complain about the high cost of living these days......

Dealer can sell "Bare Bones" vehicles buy why?

Their customers will not buy em!

Just look at the Ford Maverick forums and see all the buyers that have complained that a heated steering wheel or cooled seats was not an option on a vehicle when introduced was a MSRP $19,999 vehicle. 5 model years later it's a $30K base vehicle.

Dealers are going to stock and SELL what customers want!

 

[crazysccrmd]

Did you enjoy the "Kool-Aid" you drank during your supposedly "Free" trip?

No koolaid but I did enjoy the refreshing drinks on the beach while not spending the nearly $6k the airfare and hotel I would have paid. I haven’t paid a dime of interest on a credit card in probably 15 years. The only reason to use a debit card is to get cash, otherwise use credit cards that give rewards and pay off in full every month. It’s literally free stuff for financially responsible people.

 

[vintageracer]

No koolaid but I did enjoy the refreshing drinks on the beach while not spending the nearly $6k the airfare and hotel I would have paid. I haven’t paid a dime of interest on a credit card in probably 15 years. The only reason to use a debit card is to get cash, otherwise use credit cards that give rewards and pay off in full every month. It’s literally free stuff for financially responsible people.

Every person I know when asked about credit cards tell me how responsible they are using them and also they never pay interest and always pay them off monthly.

I guess all my friends must the 1% Billionaires who can pay off their credit cards each month as I apparently have no friends with credit card debt!

Simply AMAZING!

 

[ExpoMike]

Well.... we are another couple who doesn't pay credit card interest, as we pay off our card every month. Prior to 2020, we just used our debt card to pay for the daily stuff. After the pandemic started, we started seeing a lot if issues locally with skimmers being used (even in Target) so we changed over to using our credit card to purchase everything, since if something happened, they didn't have access to our "real" money in our checking. We change for security but the side benefit is, we have racked up so many points, we easily have multiple trips we can fly and not cost us airfare. We don't use our credit cards as credit cards (like so many do). They are just easier to deal with than carrying wads of cash and getting the points is a bonus. We only have the one card (unlike a lot of our friends who have 5-6 and are always in debt).

 

[crazysccrmd]

Every person I know when asked about credit cards tell me how responsible they are using them and also they never pay interest and always pay them off monthly.

I guess all my friends must the 1% Billionaires who can pay off their credit cards each month as I apparently have no friends with credit card debt!

Simply AMAZING!

I don’t see what’s hard to understand. Pay all your usual monthly bills (groceries, utilities, shopping, etc) with a credit card, just like you would with a debit card, cash or even a check in years past. Everything but my mortgage is run through a credit card.

 

[2025 deleted member]

CREDIT makes it sustainable and the OEM's know that!

It does until it doesn’t. It’s a cat chasing its tail and eventually the tail will be too short. All these folks with thousand dollar payments and 10 year loans rolling over negative equity. Some can afford to pay cash but most can’t.

 

[rgv]

Dealer can sell "Bare Bones" vehicles buy why?

Their customers will not buy em!

Just look at the Ford Maverick forums and see all the buyers that have complained that a heated steering wheel or cooled seats was not an option on a vehicle when introduced was a MSRP $19,999 vehicle. 5 model years later it's a $30K base vehicle.

Dealers are going to stock and SELL what customers want!

Exactly.

I recently bought a 2026 3500 dodge to replace my 2004 dmax, and I had to order to get a bighorn level truck which is still (to me) well optioned. Every dealer had their lots stuffed with trucks 10-30k more expensive than mine which i still would never have bought if I didn’t have fleet pricing.

 

[2025 deleted member]

The cost of labor for all business's has increased rapidly in the last 5-7 years making this cost section of the Profit and Loss statement a much greater number than in past business budgets yet employees today still think the value their labor is still worth more and demand Mo Money!

That GREED for HIGHER PAY means HIGHER PRICES for items you wish to purchase. Now you want/need to make Mo Money to finance more things you really do not need but want and therefore you financed since you are already BROKE from buying and financing all the other things you could not pay cash for in the last 5-7 years and you also drank the Kool-Aid to a get another credit card to get Mo Points to get more free schidt you could not afford all while paying 20%+ interest on the stuff you already purchased and could not afford but still got points for flights and vacations you could not afford.

The wheels on the bus go ROUND AND ROUND!

Maybe just Maybe is time for most everyone to get off the bus!

The great thing is you don’t have to participate in it. You can enjoy the higher wages but reject the notion of materialism to the nth degree.

 

[2025 deleted member]

Every person I know when asked about credit cards tell me how responsible they are using them and also they never pay interest and always pay them off monthly.

I guess all my friends must the 1% Billionaires who can pay off their credit cards each month as I apparently have no friends with credit card debt!

Simply AMAZING!

Definitely some embarrassment to that for folks- it’s like asking people about the casino and they always win, never a loser… Dave Ramsey did the largest study of millionaires ever- not a one contributed credit card points as a path to their success. All that said I think it can be done responsibly if you have self control.

 

[deserteagle56]

We only have the one card (unlike a lot of our friends who have 5-6 and are always in debt).

I would never restrict myself to having one card only. A card can get lost or stolen - or, in my case, compromised. Went to pay a bill one day, handed them my card and when they swiped it, it was refused. Right there in the office I called the 800 number on the back of the card and was told that that card had been fraudulently used - in Europe! So the credit card company shut it down and said it was not possible to reinstate it - they would issue a new card with a new number. Which they did - but it took nearly two weeks for the new card to arrive.

So I always carry two different credit cards. Both are paid off every month.

 

[vintageracer]

The great thing is you don’t have to participate in it. You can enjoy the higher wages but reject the notion of materialism to the nth degree.

Fat chance of that every happening in today's digital world!

 

[SnowedIn]

The price people are willing to pay for a new vehicle is just insane!!! I mean people have car payments more than my house payment. Sadly the new vehicle price market is so high, it has dragged the used market to insane levels as well. I just don't understand how this is sustainable.

Don't forget what new house payments look like, also. What a car or mortgage payment looks like that someone took out 10, 15 years ago doesn't really have anything to do with what new borrowing looks like. Plus - government inflation numbers are pretty bogus. Adjust car payments at like interest rates for similarly optioned vehicles and they aren't that much different.

I still buy new. Too many complete morons who don't know how to operate or maintain a vehicle, resulting in used cars that are ticking time bombs. It's just not worth the hassle to find private sales where the owner has a clue. Most common thing is probably the people that stop the vehicle by putting it into park, or put it in drive while still rolling backwards.

Current vehicles are 1.5, 11, and 12 years old. We keep them around for the long haul, though when one of the older two ages out we're likely to go back to 2 vehicles.