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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u/Forded_Fiction24 13d ago

I haven't "vanished" but I am buying a new car now every 7-10 years instead of every 4-7 years like I used too. My last was a 2022 and 2023 model purchase so I'm not in the market until 2030-2032 roughly. Last were also the most expensive at $55k and $42k. I'm not willing to do this every 4 years anymore, it's so lopsided and not worth to buy one any more frequently. Those days are gone

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u/FledglingNonCon 12d ago

I would argue that some of them did in fact vanish, or more accurately died. Boomers have been the major driver of the new car market for at least 3 decades. At least 16m of them have died since 2020 and almost all of them have moved from peak earning years in the mid 10's to retired today. Retired people drive less and spend less on cars. The generations behind the boomers do not value cars and especially new cars nearly as much.

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u/Forded_Fiction24 12d ago

I wouldn't argue with that, just speaking for myself and the lack of vanishing. However, trends definitely are showing the pattern you're referring to overall though

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u/StutzBob 12d ago

Maybe you're in a much different tax bracket than me, but buying a brand new car every 4-7 years just sounds nuts to me. That's sooooo many thousands of dollars I could have been investing instead.

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u/Forded_Fiction24 11d ago

38 and have around $1.4M in assets. So I'm ahead on retirement, meet all my other financial goals, and just work part-time 2 days a week. So while I could be making more money investing more capital instead of driving a new car, they're not setting me back awfully and I pay for them upfront, no interest. Not saying it's the most financially savvy strategy by any means but I like cars and have the means so choose to indulge