What to do When Your Diesel Fuel Starts to Gel
Are you gellin'? No, this isn't a Dr. Scholl's ad, but rather a question all diesel fuel users should be asking themselves during the cold winter...
The economy may be considered “slow” but that doesn’t appear to be stopping folks from buying cars. This is evidenced by the news that, for the first time, the total amount of outstanding car loans has topped $1 trillion.
After getting soaked by bad loans (their own fault), the industry’s lending practices have changed. They’re being more selective on who they give the best rates to. They learned the hard way that throwing piles of money at everyone under the sun, regardless of income and ability to pay, might eventually bite them in the butt.
The average car payment is now about $400 a month, the average amount financed is over $21,000, and the average amount still owed by consumers is about $18,000 per person. But the availability of so much low-cost money (highly qualified consumers can get car loans at interest rates below 3%) is tempting consumers to take on car debt at a faster and faster rate. One troubling sign is that the average car loan balance is rising at a faster rate than mortgage balances are
For now, consumers are keeping on top of this mountain of debt. Deliquency rates for car loans remain low (<1% of car loans are more than 90 days in arrears) as consumers come out of the Great Recession less able to tie themselves into damaging subprime loans that used to be the norms in the industry.
You may be interested in these other posts:
Image Credit: krosseel at Morguefile
Are you gellin'? No, this isn't a Dr. Scholl's ad, but rather a question all diesel fuel users should be asking themselves during the cold winter...
This past year (past two years, really) has been kind of rough on the gasoline budgets of American families, as supply fluctuations and certain world...
Our automobile landscape is about to undergo a fundamental shift that will forever transform it. We’ve seen tipping points before - points where...
1 min read
New market research seems to confirm what many drivers already know – that more and more people are deciding to keep their cars. It used to be that...
2 min read
Talk to an older driver, and at least some of them will talk about always going to fill up the car with gas before their tank hits a quarter or below.
4 min read
Let’s say you’re in a local auto parts store or even your local Walmart. Chances are that store has a shelf lined with bottles of gas treatment....