Americans can no longer afford their cars

Lee Duna@lemmy.nz to News@lemmy.world – 377 points –
Americans can no longer afford their cars
newsweek.com
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22k for a used car seems like a bad deal

Depends on how used, make, model, and trim. Not everyone is in a race to a bare bones compact.

You got it. My first was a pretty basic sedan that I upgraded to from my old retired police Crown Vic. My current car was a two year old lease return in the top trim level available and ~15k miles.

Key word in there is certified used.

Certified used means it comes with a warranty. My mother purchased a certified used Crosstrek. It was a returned lease. In fact most certified pre-owned vehicles are returned leases. The manufacturer powertrain warranty still applies and the dealer adds a warranty for everything else. She also had the option to purchase a manufacturer extended warranty because it still qualified, which she did. All for $24k. It's 2 years old, less than 10k miles. It's not a bad deal at all when you look at the bigger picture. The new cost of this Crosstrek in the configuration she got it in would have been $31k.