Truck purchases are driving up the average cost of car payments. Some buyers pay over $1,000 a month ( www.nbcnews.com )

More than 1 in 4 car shoppers in Texas and Wyoming have committed to paying more than $1,000 a month, and experts say it is due to the high volume of large truck purchases in those states, according to a report by auto site Edmunds.

More than 1 in 5 shoppers in seven other states — Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Utah — are also forking over more than $1,000 for their vehicles each month.

gothicdecadence ,

These giant “light trucks” are so much more dangerous on the road than smaller cars. This is a good video about it, and he cites his sources youtu.be/jN7mSXMruEo

lemming007 ,

Large trucks are the third-largest vehicle sales segment in the U.S., after compact and midsize SUVs

That’s like saying chicken is the third most expensive meat after steak and pork.

Juvyn00b ,

No, it’s like saying chicken is the third most purchased meat after steak and pork.

HiddenLayer5 ,
@HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml avatar

I am so glad I live somewhere with decent public transit. Never want to buy a car if I can help it.

cassetti ,

Before moving, I specifically chose somewhere that I could commute by bicycle most days - both for work, and to run short errands. My 10 year old vehicle sits parked most days, while I put over 3000 miles a year on my bicycle haha. I'd much rather burn the calories and save money at the same time over having some fancy new vehicle with all sorts of bells and whistles.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

I did that too for several years, then I switched jobs and now I’m back in the car.

I’m looking into ebikes, but the transit sucks so bad that it would take me 4x longer by bus/train than by car (30 min by car, 2 hours by train+bus; I estimate ~1 hour by ebike).

I guess my point is, until the US gets serious about people first infrastructure (instead of car first), it’s going to be an uphill battle for those of us that prefer to avoid driving.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

I’m not sure what part of, " I want a truck and I want luxury features", you all don’t understand.

BruceTwarzen ,

This shouldn't even exist.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

👌👍

sugar_in_your_tea ,

The part I don’t understand is when a truck costs more than my mortgage. That’s just nuts!

In my mind, a truck is for getting work done. If I ever get a truck, it probably won’t have a crew cab and it’ll be all about making sure the towing and bed capacity can do the job. That’s it. I’ll probably get something with an MSRP of $30-40k, because that’s all I’ll need to get the job done.

I dislike driving trucks though, so I guess I don’t get it. In fact, I dislike driving in general, I only do it because it’s the most practical way for me to get around. I’ve driven a variety of cars, from trucks (least favorite) to manual transmission sports cars (my favorite), and I’ve settled on a Toyota Prius because it’s so practical. If I could pick anything to drive for fun, it would be a middle tier sport bike (like SV650), but it’s impractical because my area gets a lot of snow in the winter, so I’d only be able to drive for about half of the year.

Maybe it’s a cultural thing. The only person in my family that owns a truck is my brother, and he pretty much only uses it to haul his MTB or skis out to the trails. It’s just big enough to get the job done and not get stuck. My only friend that drives one drives a beater, because hauling mulch and whatnot is a lot easier with a truck.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

Because after a day of working on my home or racing I want a comfortable ride to home Depot or coming home on a 3 hour drive. If my wife needs her car I might need to use it for I understand not everyone needs these things but I’m tired of the reddit/lemmy standard arguments coming out of fuck cars so here I am mouthing off to dev/null

sugar_in_your_tea ,

To each their own I guess. I find my sedan and minivan are plenty comfortable, so to me it’s a question of efficiency.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

Your mini van doesn’t tow. I don’t understand what’s complicated here 🤷‍♂️

sugar_in_your_tea ,

I don’t have anything to tow (I could tow something small), and I rarely see any trucks in my area that actually tow.

If you regularly tow, then a truck makes total sense. But you don’t need a $1k truck payment to tow something.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

You don’t NEED anything. Many of these are wealthy buyers who have disposable income and choose to spend it on a nicer truck.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

And that’s precisely what I’m getting at. A lot of people complain about their car/truck payment, but most of it is 100% a choice.

People point to average car payments like some kind of evidence that owning cars is significantly more expensive today, but prices for new cars have mostly come back to “normal” and average payments are being skewed by these high value vehicles (e.g. high end electric cars, trucks, massive SUVs).

So if your car payment is too high, there are most likely much more affordable options that’ll fit your needs, so average monthly payment is a really silly thing to look at.

Blaze ,
@Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Thank you for sharing!

NumbersCanBeFun ,
@NumbersCanBeFun@kbin.social avatar

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

    I guess I shouldn’t be allowed my hobbies because of my small pp 😭😭😭😭😭

    NumbersCanBeFun ,
    @NumbersCanBeFun@kbin.social avatar

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

    www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1730245/

    The nanny state loves to exaggerate 🙄.

    Passenger cars and light trucks (vans, pickups, and sport utility vehicles) accounted for 46.1% and 39.1%, respectively, of the 4875 deaths, with the remainder split among motorcycles, buses, and heavy trucks.

    7% delta. The really aren’t that much more dangerous than cars.

    NumbersCanBeFun , (edited )
    @NumbersCanBeFun@kbin.social avatar

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    utiandtheblowfish ,

    Large trucks in this instance are things like 18-wheelers, not trucks like the Ford F-150 or Dodge Ram.

    NumbersCanBeFun ,
    @NumbersCanBeFun@kbin.social avatar

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    ShittyRedditWasBetter , (edited )

    👌👍 let me know when you find that recent data. This is the often stated report for decades due to the lack of research. I’m quite confident you won’t find contradictory data in modern study, but if you do I’m 100% open to it.

    What I find particularly funny is you just assume the slight increase in mass is going to make a larger impact than backup cameras front bumper cameras, and pedestrian avoidance systems (typically the most cited as dengerous due to blind spots) in addition to modern driving aids and a lower center of gravity from that generation…

    It’s quite an assumption.

    NumbersCanBeFun ,
    @NumbersCanBeFun@kbin.social avatar

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

    👌👍 guess you had great success.

    RhetoricalRat ,

    Weird headline. Isn't this basically just stating that (1) new cars are getting more expensive, and (2) trucks continue to make up a substantial share of new car purchases in the US (both of which were obvious)?

    ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

    Yes but let’s not waste a good opportunity to speak want how nobody needs a truck, they all have small dicks, and all are shitty drivers because the American South bus them the most.

    tree ,

    You can just see it some areas, run down houses in need of renovation or at least a paint job with brand new shining pick ups in the driveways, it’s fair game if you actually tow things or plough snow, but other than that just pissing away money for a fancy new car that for the most part do like 15mpg

    sugar_in_your_tea ,

    Yup. I considered getting a Ford Lightning as a commuter to make those trips to the hardware or furniture store easier, but honestly, my minivan works fine. I’ve probably hauled more things in my minivan than my neighbors have hauled with their trucks. I’ve done dump runs, hauled furniture, hardware store runs, etc. The few times I’ve needed a truck I just rented one for the day for $30-40.

    And my minivan gets crappy mpg, but it’s still ~20, which is better than most trucks. And it hauls my three kids and their friends pretty effectively.

    madcaesar ,

    Dude, just yesterday I see this guy who coming out of a rundown apartment, with 4 kids running around with tattered clothing, getting into a 60k brand new 3 row SUV…

    I don’t know who is worse the moron getting the loan, or the fucking bank approving it.

    Eegra ,

    … and that’s how America brought back slavery: volunteers.

    Falmarri ,
    @Falmarri@lemmy.world avatar

    Maybe you should look up the definition of slavery

    JJROKCZ ,

    I don’t really see how signing up to make payments on an expensive vehicle equates to slavery

    Entropywins ,
    @Entropywins@kbin.social avatar

    I believe they are using a literary device called hyperbole to illustrate the wage-slave relationship to consumerism in modern socioeconomics.

    JasSmith ,

    Hyperbole is taking an example and making it more extreme. Voluntarily trading one’s labour for money is the opposite of slavery. It just appears they don’t understand what slavery is.

    ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

    As they ignored reality motorbiscuit.com/ford-f-150-most-popular-car-rich…

    Hyperbole and literary devices aren’t really helpful or clever when you ignore that the owners are quite wealthy.

    ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

    Oh no, I’ll tow my car to the track in my in cooled massaging seats, but fuck me I’ll have to work 30 hours next week and only get to retire at 55.

    Most people buying these trucks are very well off.

    WhatASave ,

    Obviously every type of car has bad drivers but man, pickups have got to be the most terrifying of the bad drivers.

    Alto ,
    @Alto@kbin.social avatar

    It's SUVs in my area. There's enough actual farmers and people who legitimately need pickups to somewhat offset the limp dick compensators. SUV drivers here tend to be piss scared and incredibly timid, which is why they buy SUVs. Think being higher up is safer.

    Which is true until you flip, in which case you're fucked. And that's ignoring that the rise of SUVs and pickups has seen an average of a 6% YOY increase of pedestrian deaths since 2008.

    BingoBangoBongo ,

    I rolled my 3rd gen 4 runner in a snowstorm a few years back. Had it flipped over, popped a couple dents, and still driving it today! I should probably fix the sway bar and get new tires but I like to live dangerously I guess.

    sugar_in_your_tea ,

    I live in a snowy area, and most of the accidents in the winter seem to involve trucks and SUVs. It’s probably just because trucks and SUVs are more popular in my area, but there’s something to be said for getting overconfident, after all, all cars have four wheel braking.

    I have never bought snow tires in >10 years of living here, have only driven two wheel drive cars, and I’ve never wrecked a car. I did slide into a snowbank once with my sporty car when in college, but I was going slow enough that it wasn’t hard to get out (just threw down some microfiber rags to get traction and reversed). I try to avoid unplowed roads, so it’s just not needed once the roads are cleared.

    I hate driving SUVs and trucks, and I only put up with my minivan because it’s so practical with kids (I have three).

    dragoness ,

    I lived in snowy af Ohio for 8 years with a Kia Sephia. I was poorer than now then and couldn’t afford snow tires yet I made it just fine. I’d always see trucks and SUVs driving crazy fast down the highway, and saw 2 crash right in front of me.

    I’m with you, people do not need SUVs for the snow.

    sugar_in_your_tea ,

    Yup. A set of snow tires will do much more for you than AWD or 4WD, though it’ll never hold a candle to snow tires + AWD/4WD. But snow tires and FWD is plenty for pretty much everyone that’s not regularly offroading in deep snow. If you’re really worried about it, get studs.

    Make sure to take them off in the spring because they wear out really fast when it’s not cold. Swapping them shouldn’t cost a ton (like $100 or so), and snow tires are usually a bit cheaper than regular tires. It’s certainly less expensive than gas longer term.

    Madison420 ,

    Being higher up isn’t really safer, sorta feels that way but push come to shove a lower cg is almost always preferable.

    Fox ,

    Had the same perception on a dualsport motorcycle. Great being able to see over traffic but oh man it’s a long way down when you fall.

    chemicalprophet ,

    Sucker is much easier to spell than bourgeoisie

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • [email protected]
  • All magazines
    •