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I’m simply shocked by the length of loans people will take on cars. BMW will give you a term of 84 months!?

I was stressed at having a 36 month loan as a public school teacher (I did not, of course, spring for the BMW).

I’m not sure what the significance of the length of loans is? Surely it’s the overall amount of interest that matters.

I probably wouldn’t want to be paying a loan at the point I would want to be trading something in — but even then I keep things more than even 84 months and you can always just pay it off.

I acknowledge it’s psychological, but the significance - to me - is that these long loan terms exaggerate how expensive a vehicle a person can “afford”. I haven’t bought a new car recently, but I would be shocked if salespeople aren’t hyper focused on that long term/low monthly bill when trying to upsell vehicles/trims.

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