74% Of Americans Say New Cars Are Unaffordable

If it feels like everything is more expensive these days, and you’re struggling financially even on what used to be a healthy income, you aren’t alone. It may sometimes feel like you are, especially if you spend a lot of time on social media, but I promise plenty of other people are struggling, too. In fact, according to the latest ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, nearly half of those surveyed said they no longer make enough to maintain their standard of living, and 74% said they feel like new cars are unaffordable. 

In fact, more Americans consider new cars unaffordable than any other category covered in the survey, including a weeklong vacation (60%), healthcare (56%), going out to dinner (49%), groceries (45%), home energy/utilities (45%), their current rent/mortgage (37%), and gasoline (28%). So yeah, you may not be able to afford to replace your old car, but at least you can probably still afford to put gas in it. That’s something. Sort of. 

As you can imagine, affordability is a much bigger issue for lower-income Americans, but middle-income families are still feeling the squeeze, too. While 87% of those making less than $50,000 consider new cars affordable, that figure only dropped to 82% among those making between $50,000 and $100,000. Meanwhile, among individuals with incomes greater than $100,000, 64% still consider new cars unaffordable. 

Since young people don’t have any money, you’d also probably expect there to be a divide among age groups, and there is, but the vast majority of older Americans find new cars to be unaffordable, too. In the survey, 82% of those between the ages of 18 and 49 said new cars are unaffordable, while 67% of those over 50 said the same. Put another way, for every American over 50 who feels like new cars are still affordable, two would say the opposite.