For years, the automotive industry has focused on monthly payments rather than vehicle prices, and now the bill is coming due. Americans owe roughly $1.7 trillion in auto debt, repossessions have climbed to levels last seen during the Great Recession from 2007 to 2009, and lenders are increasingly finding themselves reclaiming vehicles from borrowers who simply can’t keep up. The blame doesn’t land on the repo industry, the financing, or reckless buyers.

 

 

A recent investigation by The New Yorker laid bare plenty of dramatic human stories around repossessions. Beyond the anecdotes, the wider trend all comes down to economics. According to the report, only two out of ten new vehicles and four out of ten used cars are purchased outright. That leaves everyone else financing. That makes sense to a degree, given that the average price of a new car last year topped $50,000. Since 2019, the average monthly payment for a car has jumped by roughly $300.