Not that hard. The only shift you’ll screw up is getting third when you meant to get first. No destruction there, just a bog.

Wife and I took out a 60 month loan on a new 17 Civic, we knew car would last fine and hold its value to make the lower payment/1% financing worth it. Now that baby is on the way her parents are wondering why we don’t trade it in on an SUV. We’ll have roughly 23 month left when baby comes along and they can’t…

They aren’t more expensive in the sense of the direct purchase price (they’ve actually held pretty damn stable).  They are more expensive in that we make less than we used to.  So they are just harder to afford.

For most people it’s financial reasons.  For me it’s because new cars are overly-complicated, hideous, soulless appliances.