I don’t think you’ve been watching the news... lol.

How far inland, though? Asheville’s at least a five-hour drive from Wilmington, and that wasn’t far enough inland to keep them safe.

They are caught in a doom spiral that is the inevitable result of cost cutting. Cost cutting leads to less R&D and cheaper feeling vehicles, which leads to needing to tap subprime and fleet sales to move metal (upmarket buyers don’t want dated cheap-feeling vehicles). The subprime and fleet sales keep the cash coming…

Nissan’s dealers are killing the company. I had a 2004 Xterra which was a great, bare-bones vehicle. Owned some other cars in between, and in 2018 put Nissan on the list of cars to look at with my wife. The dealers we visited were so smarmy that my wife was categorically turned off by them. (I didn’t love the vehicle o…

Just waiting for the day that Jalop gets a Headline for an article correct...

I don’t know of any prime lenders who require a GAP policy. If it’s that much of a risk, they just won’t underwrite the loan, or will require the borrower to provide a bigger downpayment to mitigate that risk. And leases generally come with GAP (which is one reason it’s better to put $0 down on a lease, if you can…

Having negative equity isn’t the end of the world.

If you're in a wreck with somebody who doesn't have insurance you're fucked regardless.

The true depreciation of EVs tends to be overstated because it ignores the $7,500 tax credit that most buyers receive. Until this year, it was taken after the fact. So you could finance your Mustang Mach-E for $50,000, but then a few months later get a check from the government making your true cost $42,500. You might…

You aren’t necessarily “fucked.” It’s only a problem if you lack the liquidity to make up the amount you are underwater. The fact that you are underwater does not change your economic loss. The economic loss is simply the delta between what you paid for the car and what it is worth now, which is the same no matter…

It most certainly is a hypothetical, until a totaled accident happens. And it doesn’t happen to most drivers. Though that would be cold comfort if you found yourself transitioning from that hypothetical part into the real one.

True. That being said, I did a quick estimate of where the median is based on the top selling vehicles in 2023. I think the Median and the mean are pretty close.

Get one of these.

It’s not all a matter of financial literacy. There was a period of time in 2021-2022 when you walked into a car dealer and the first question you asked was ‘So.... what is the surcharge on this one?’. If you needed a car during that time you paid what you had to pay, which was $2k -$8k over MSRP. My mother’s car got…

The average selling price is $48k. That doesn’t mean the median selling price is $48k. The median is going to be much lower. The average is higher because the high end is stretched out by the expensive cars where sky is the limit.

The Auto Asset Backed Securities Market is currently around $125 billion. The housing backed securities market was like $2 trillion in 2008. So it’s not really comparable. Plus, it’s easier to recover on credit defaults for cars (because repos sell way faster than a foreclosed-upon house), so the risk isn’t the same.…

I agree with both of you, though both of you pointed out the solution for avoiding the consequences of a hypothetical situation.

So, uh, ALL DRIVERS? The statement in the article indicates 31% of FINANCED cars. So not counting people who own outright, drivers who drive someone else’s car (children, spouses) nor perhaps leases, fleet cars, etc. Don’t get me wrong I love this site, but his headline is rather misleading.

This is like saying X number of people are losing money on their stock portfolio.

This is the best Jalop story I have read in ages! Love that you not only revived this doomed car, but were able to race it. Looking forward to more updates!