Comment on Anon tries to understand credit scores
ryathal@sh.itjust.works 14 hours agoA car is absolutely doable without financing l. It’s a poverty trap to finance a car. What you can’t do is have a brand new car.
Same with phones. Buy a second-hand flagship from a couple of years ago (eg pixel 8), and use a pre-paid plan.
It’s not just a few hundred dollars saved on the phone, it’s also a few hundred per year on less overpriced contracts.
Prepaid plans have to be more competitively priced because you can switch at will.
I buy all my phones off eBay from reputable resellers. There are plenty that make a living at refurbishing phones, rate each one on a scale, post pics of the phone you will receive. I pay around $120 for mine, $180 if it’s a bangin’ deal and I really want that unit.
caredge.com/…/used-car-price-trends-for-2025
In October 2025, the average used car listing price sits at $25,512.
moneyzine.com/…/savings-statistics/
… that’s as of 2022.
Its worse now, considerably.
But, even assuming 2022 savings levels… that’s half the population that would need their savings to multiply by a factor of ~x42.5, to be able to afford the average used car, without financing.
… You are wildly, incredibly out of touch.
Sure, yes, its technically possible, technically doable, in approximately the same way that it’s technically possible and doable that I could become a millionaire by the end of 2026.
The average cost of a car is wildly skewed by luxury models and the absurd prices of new cars. The market has gotten more expensive, so it is more difficult to find reliable cars in the sub 5k range, but under 10k is possible. It’s possible to save a few hundred bucks a month and get progressively better cars without financing them, because depreciation isn’t significant at the low end of the market.
The average cost of a car is wildly skewed by luxury models and the absurd prices of new cars.
Yep. And?
Its also reality.
Most used cars on the market are luxury cars that are 5 years or less old… because car companiea just largely stopped making non luxury cars.
This is what the used car market looks like right now, I don’t care that its abnormal, I care about trying to evaluate you statement … in reality, as it currently exists.
It’s possible to save a few hundred bucks a month.
This is the idea you’re not getting:
No.
Its not.
Not for half the population.
Pay is too low, costs of living are too high.
Savings rates are going down, not up.
You don’t understand how many people were operating on razor thin margins, and now, huge numbers of people are running net negative, getting stuck in some new poverty debt trap, maybe this time its chaining loans to keep buying groceries.
Your evaluation of what is possible is again, yes, technically possible, for a very small amount of people… but generally… it is laughably and wildly insufficient, useless to the vast majority of people it is potentially relevant to, because of how much the overall situation has changed, because of how out of touch you are with the basic parameters of the situation.
The US is a society where car ownership is mandatory to participate in society… and at least half of society cannot actually afford that expense, financed or not.
We need a systemic solution, otherwise, we will experience a systemic collapse.
How to skip steps 2-4?
Pay cash for a car that runs. You aren’t getting a loan without income in the first place.
Oh, ok then.
I’m 18, just outta high school, have no money, no friends or family willing to cosign a car, public transit sucks where I live.
How do I get a job?
Or car?
Which one do I get first, when they each require the other?
RamenJunkie@midwest.social 30 minutes ago
It used to be, butnthse days the average person can barely afford groceries without a loan.