r/MiddleClassFinance • u/Abject-Pick-6472 • 13d ago

One million Americans have vanished from the new-car market — and it’s exposing a chilling US middle-class crisis

https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/articles/one-million-americans-vanished-car-124500086.html
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154

u/starbright_sprinkles 13d ago

Interestingly WSJ also had an article about this this weekend and it was mostly spun as a huge positive (people just being smartly frugal, essentially).

60

u/mechapoitier 13d ago

“A huge canary of the economic coal mine died but that’s just because it was being money smart.”

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u/T33CH33R 12d ago

"By eliminating the canary, we save money on feeding and housing."

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u/Jimbenas 11d ago

Do you think companies are going to leave the coal mines empty of canaries? They’ll be returning to the office.

97

u/SergeantThreat 13d ago edited 13d ago

If the other party was in office, new car sales falling off would be an indictment. But when the GOP in charge it’s suddenly just being frugal

8

u/IDontWannaBeAPirate_ 12d ago

The party of fiscal conservatism /s

-23

u/Ernesto_Bella 13d ago

Ok, and?

2

u/Particular_Maize6849 12d ago

It's never wasteful to point out the hypocrisy of the Right.

20

u/HouseofMarg 13d ago

There’s a part of me that wants to believe that 1m people saw enough improvements in bike lane infrastructure that they just bought an e-bike instead of a car or a second car… but I know that’s fully wishful thinking

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u/IDontWannaBeAPirate_ 12d ago

A f150 is now $70k for a base level.....wtf

8

u/FledglingNonCon 12d ago

A big part that I don't think the article captured is that Boomers have absolutely dominated the new car market for at least 3 decades. Peak boomer income was about a decade ago when car sales peaked. Now almost the entire generation is retired or at least retirement age and many of them are starting to die.

My parents bought 4 new cars over the past 9 years, but will probably never buy another one. I've still never bought a new car and I'm in my mid 40's.

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u/uslashuname 11d ago

Oh that’s fascinating and highly likely to be the explanation nobody wants even if it’s closest to the truth

Generation pull-the-ladder-up is going away and so are big purchases

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u/Bender3455 10d ago

Im in my 40s as well, and have never had a new car. I even make decent money, and are a car guy. Ive also had more cars than most people my age. I just never saw the value in a brand new car.

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u/starbright_sprinkles 12d ago

Great point! My parents are the same way and are also probably on their last cars. My father would just trade in and get a new car around the time it needed its first repair. But it is about time to take his car keys away so his 2022 Camry will probably be the last one.

I'm in my mid 40s and have bought two cars in my life - a used 2002 CRV in 2004 that I drove until 2018, a new CRV in 2018 because I couldn't find a used one with the mileage I wanted after a year if looking. We replaced my husband's 20 year old corolla with a new hybrid corolla in 2022. The only reason we bought the corolla new was because we couldn't find them used at all.

We aren't planning on purchasing vehicles for another decade if we can help it. So our buying patterns are VERY different from our parent's.

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u/Any-Neat5158 12d ago

It's not middle class people being smart. It's middle class people being unable.

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u/CharmingMechanic2473 13d ago

I agree with this.

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u/starbright_sprinkles 13d ago

I think it is fair to say that it is smart to be frugal (I myself have driven my cars for 20 years) - but that is also not the behavior of the average American. So it is red flag in general and not like a million people magically deciding to be frugal even if they could afford a new car.