New cars have become luxury items

A

t some point in the not-too-distant past, a new car became a luxury purchase. 

T

he average price for a new vehicle hit $49,500 at the end of last year, compared to $38,948 just three years earlier. Skyrocketing interest rates pushed the average monthly car payment on a five-year loan to $723 in March. 

N

ew vehicles priced under $25,000, a range that the average American might deem affordable, now account for less than 5 percent of all sales. 

C

ustomers who walk onto a dealer’s lot expecting such enticements as zero-APR financing and thousand-dollar rebates are in for a surprise: For the

Read More