So my neighbor is a non-union plumber with 3 school age kids and a stay-at-home wife. He just bought a $120k Ford Raptor.
My other neighbor is a prison guard and his wife is a receptionist. Last year he got a fully-loaded Yukon Denali and his wife has some other GMC SUV.
Another guy on my street who’s also a non-union plumber recently bought a 2023 Dodge Ram 1500 crew cab with fancy rims.
These are solid working-class people who do not make a lot of money, yet all these trucks cost north of $70k.
And I see this going on all over my city. Lots of people are buying these very expensive, very big vehicles. My city isn’t cheap either, gas hits $4+/gallon every summer. Insurance on my little car is hefty, and it’s a 2009 - my neighbors got to be paying $$$$.
I do not understand how they can possibly afford them, or who is giving these people financing.
This all feels like houses in 2008, but what do I know?
In the end, you don’t know other people’s financial situations. Stop measuring your circumstances against someone else’s. Remember, comparison steals your happiness
I have a friend who works at a bank, and they’re approving loans for these vehicles that are equivalent to house-sized loans. This seems to be a common practice, which I also find strange
My family thought it was perfectly acceptable for my 19-year-old nephew to get a $70,000 truck. They justified it by saying it was for work, but he works indoors selling to contractors, and they have work trucks available if needed (though that’s primarily for the warehouse staff, not him). Earlier in that same conversation, they belittled my niece (his sister) for accumulating $40,000 in college debt (which will be her total when she graduates next term), calling her a naive little girl for being scammed. I definitely pulled her aside and told her she has the real investment, while they are just crazy MAGA asshats
It’s truly surprising how willing people are to go into debt for a luxury truck, but the situation is quite different from 2008. Cars are much easier to repossess, so if someone defaults, the bank can quickly retrieve their collateral. Additionally, people aren’t buying these vehicles with the expectation that they will increase in value, even though those same individuals often mistakenly refer to them as an ‘investment’ when discussing a splurge.