Car ownership is getting more costly even as vehicle prices dip. Here’s why.

5 comments

1. Prices for new or used cars may have fallen in the past year, but the overall cost of owning a vehicle is growing even more expensive.

   That’s because extra costs associated with having a car, like interest rates on auto loans and insurance, have been climbing. The average interest rate on a six-year auto loan grew to 8.41% in February, up from 6.97% last year, according to the most recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Meanwhile, auto insurance rates jumped 22.6% between April 2023 and April 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

   Those percentages add up to hundreds of extra dollars per month on a car note, automotive experts told CBS MoneyWatch.

   “The all-in cost of car ownership is not what people [would] think if you haven’t shopped in recent years,” said Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at Edmunds. “You’re in for a different experience.”

   **Read more:** [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/car-prices-2024-auto-loan/?ftag=CNM-05-10abh9g](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/car-prices-2024-auto-loan/?ftag=CNM-05-10abh9g)

2. Also, it is no longer possible to diagnose & fix a car yourself.

   Gotta take it in and have a machine tell you.

3. My 18 year old truck is cheap to insure, cheap to fix, and some things are still easy enough to do at home. I plan on keeping it on the road for as long as possible. I don’t like having a car payment.

4. Americans are holding on to their cars longer than ever before. With average age of car owner at around 12 years. With 25 million cars on the roads that are pre 2000 models

5. Ford owner here, $225 for an oil change. Someday I will do it myself because f#*{%% these criminal prices.