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Comment by aphextron | Hacker News Reader

>"The average monthly car payment in the fourth quarter rose above $500 for the first time"

I literally cannot imagine paying $500 a month for a car payment, even as a young single person making $100k. People are insane.

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This is absolutely retarded. In my my neighborhood I've seen an increase in luxury cars in the last 3 years or so. Porche SUVs, BMW SUVs, Teslas, etc. I think to myself, 8 years ago these folks were crying in a ditch..and they have forgotten about it already.

I've increasingly noticed this myself. I known a number of people who spent like crazy and loaded up on debt prior to 2008. After the RE crash, some of them even went through foreclosure/bankruptcy. For a few years after it seemed like they were very wary of picking up too much debt but that wariness seems to be subsiding with time and I see them falling back into some of the same spending habits.

I think a long economic cycle is probably beneficial to businesses and politicians since time can insulate them from the consequences of poor decision making, but I wonder if a shorted cycle with less severe but more frequent downturns would be better for society. People seem to have really short memories when it comes to this stuff.

How did you start learning about what kind of maintenance your car needs? Browsed the internet? Asked the local mechanic?

First place I'd look is the book(s) that came with your car. Most all of them have a recommended service intervals enumerated.

You can argue whether all of those items are needed, whether items not listed might be beneficial (I don't believe in "lifetime fill" automatic transmission fluid, for instance), but the glovebox is the first place I'd look.

The manual that came with my car includes an overview of the suggested maintenance. Aside from that there are some very good resources online, especially make or model specific forums, and some handy Youtube videos that give step by step instructions.

I have an older car, model year 2000, which probably makes things a bit easier but my friend has a newer 2010 Lexus and doing the oil change on that car wasn't much more difficult. The oil/oil filter was a bit more expensive and the oil filter was a bit harder to reach, but not bad overall.

Doing your own oil change can be pretty darn easy. The oil filter costs me $6 and the actual oil comes to around $10-$15. Warming up my car, putting it on jacks, putting down some cardboard, draining the oil, installing a new oil filter, refilling the oil, and then cleaning up takes me about 20 minutes by myself.

It also forces you to know a bit more about your car than most people which can come in handy even if your aren't particularly into cars.

I bought a Honda Fit last year; It's the smallest, cheapest car Honda sells in the US and I don't think anyone would classify it as a luxury vehicle. I'm paying ~$500 a month on a 36 month loan w/ 2% interest (a bit over the actual terms).

Depending on your down payment and loan length your monthly price may be higher or lower but it seems to me that if you are buying a new car in 2017 then $500 per month is going to be a pretty good baseline.

The reason why I took out a loan at 2% instead of paying cash is because I'm making greater returns than that investing it.

Agreed. My girlfriend and I are a 200k household and still do quarterly review of various digital subscriptions, which though small can add up to significant amounts. A debt to the tune of $500/month recurring charge makes me... ugh. We recently bought a nice Honda Fit, slightly used, for $16k or so. We paid cash which I think helped us think rationally about our needs instead of starting from what kind of payment we could "afford". Even at low auto loan rates, I feel bad that people are being fast-talked into that kind of debt. The worst thing about this is that it's very hard to save for the next vehicle while making these kind of payments. So when the thing they are driving eventually has to get replaced, they are perpetually stuck in this auto-financing black hole.

I reacted the same when my colleagues discussed their company car plans. "That car is really cheap, it costs you only 300 euros a month!" - Me: "WTF? I'm paying 50 euros a month for my public transit ticket." And that thing holds more value for me (I don't waste time driving to the garage or seeking parking spots, I can read while driving to and from work, etc.).

  I literally cannot imagine paying $500 a month for a car payment

Why not? Consider: I got a Subaru Forester with $0 down and 0% interest which I pay off over 4 years. With options, it's $650 monthly. Again, no upfront costs.

To each his own I guess. I'd rather just write a check for $5k and get a decent used car than worry about making a payment every month for 4 years.

That monthly would have been lower with a down payment and interest; that said, your plan is good

The current one I'm paying off on (for my late wife that "I have to have this"), the payments are only $220 a month.

you're not into cars then :)

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