New cars got ever-so-slightly more affordable this year, with more incentives being offered to get inflation-weary buyers off the sideline. While this is good for your average buyer, there’s been a trend towards long loans with $1,000+ monthly payments that hasn’t reversed post-pandemic. In fact, new data shows it’s getting worse.
I feel confident that my Morning Dump proclamation that 2024 was going to be the year of the hybrid was correct, and I see no data to indicate that’ll change in 2024. Early Q4 numbers from Hyundai and Kia show real enthusiasm for cars with both kinds of powerplants.
Rivian is a pure EV company and has no hybrids to lean on, which means it has to convince people to buy its expensive electric vehicles. Supply shortages constrained production, but it looks like a strong end of the year allowed Rivian to squeeze out a sales increase this year (INB4 someone points out that Rivian still loses money on every vehicle).
Rivian wasn’t the only automaker with production issues this year. The entire nation of Italy saw its lowest production since… well, since most of us were born.
Nearly 1-in-5 Shoppers Spent $1,000 Or More On Monthly Payments In Q4
I managed to finance a new car this year and keep the monthly payments roughly similar to what I paid eight years ago. The catch? Because of a more expensive car and higher interest rates, I had to add 12 months of payments. It’s not ideal, and my current plan is to keep my Honda CR-V Hybrid for at least 12 years/120,000 miles.
Data shows that I’m the exception, benefiting both from a good credit score and a trade-in, which I got a good price for when I made my purchase. According to Edmunds, in Q4 a record 18.9% of consumers got a car loan for above $1,000 a month.
Some of this has to do with rates, of course, with Edmunds reporting that just 2.4% of all new vehicles were sold with a loan featuring 0% financing. Some relief appears to be coming with the average APR dropping to 6.8%, down slightly from last quarter.
“Although they tend to skew a bit higher at year-end, the record highs in auto financing amounts that were set in Q4 are the culmination of major challenges to new-vehicle affordability that consumers faced in 2024,” said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ head of insights. “It’s getting more and more difficult for the average shopper to walk into a new-car dealership and leave with a set of keys without feeling like they are forced to create extra room in their budget from some other aspect of life. The one bright spot is that interest rates seem to finally be on a downward trajectory, so buyers are at least getting more car for their buck rather than allocating their payments to interest.”
This reminds me of that video from the one dealership a couple of years back that showed employees there spending upwards of $1,000 a month on new car payments. It was treated as an aberration at the time, and the dealership faced a huge backlash in the media. What’s clear is that it’s not an aberration. While it’s not the average new car loan, it’s more common than it’s ever been.
Not to oversimplify, but it does seem like there are two distinct types of buyers in the market. Many consumers want/need a new car and end up attempting to get a deal. A lot of these people are moving into the compact SUV and subcompact SUV space. Then there are people who want a specific car or truck and are willing to take a huge monthly payment, a longer-term loan, or both.
The average new car loan in the US last quarter was 68.8 months, with a $754 monthly payment at 6.8% APR with $43,113 financed and a down payment of $6,856. Doing a little math and keeping everything the same, that’s more than $1,000 a month for a 48-month loan at the same rate (though, you’d likely get a better interest rate for the shorter term). This is why I say it’s “the new normal,” because the market is continuing to stretch payments.
This isn’t to say there aren’t good deals to be had, but since Trimflation kicked in it’s clear that automakers don’t want to go back to lower pricing unless they have to, and will instead keep ratcheting up incentives. That’s fine if you want a Nissan Rogue, but good deals are going to be harder to find on something like a Range Rover.
As you can see in the graphic above from Cox Automotive, there’s a real split between the popularity of more affordable compacts and more expensive SUVs and trucks when it comes to market share.
What do you do if you want a reasonable car payment? Edmunds has some good advice:
“For longstanding new-car buyers coming back to the market for the first time in years, used purchases and new EV leases are your best bets to keep your monthly payment in line with what you were accustomed to in pre-pandemic times,” said Ivan Drury, Edmunds’ director of insights. “Going down either route presents traditional new-car shoppers with a couple of options: sticking with what you know — buying a used car similar to your current one but with some upgraded features — or embracing the future with an electric vehicle.
Pretty much, yeah.
Kia And Hyundai Set New Records On The Back Of A Lot Of Hybrids
It’s quite amazing how much Kia and Hyundai have grown in the United States, and if there’s any hint for Nissan and Honda on what to do when your country arranges a marriage for you, I guess step one is hiring Jeff Bridges.
My brother-in-law got a hybrid Santa Fe this year to replace his Ford Flex and it rules. I could not argue against the choice in any way, though I was sad to see the Flex go. He was not alone in his purchase, Hyundai reported a record Q4/December/Year, delivering a total of 836,802 vehicles in 2024. The company said it hit new monthly sales records for the Santa Fe HEV (+87%), Tucson HEV (+133%), and IONIQ 5 (+41%). Hybrid vehicle total sales jumped 85%, while total EV sales grew 12%, overall.
Kia came within striking distance of besting Hyundai, with 796,488 units sold in total. The brand didn’t break out hybrid sales, but with similar lineups, my guess is that Kia sold a ton of hybrids.
We’ll have more sales coming in from other automakers this week, so we can see if this trend is isolated to the South Korean automakers.
Rivian Turns It Around, Sort Of
The Rivian R1S and R1T are great vehicles, but like all startup automakers, it’s been a tough transition for Rivian into the new EV paradigm. The company was probably on the way to decent sales and production until an embarrassing mistake led to a supply shortage of critical motor wiring.
Rivian says the issue has been resolved and it’ll get production back, though it’s not clear quite how much production Rivian will need. Last year, the company made 49,476 vehicles, down from the 57,232 vehicles it made in 2023. By comparison, the company did sell 51,579 vehicles, which is slightly up from the 50,122 vehicles it sold in 2023.
In Q3, Rivian lost $39,130 for every truck it built, which is not great. The company has had better news lately, securing a major investment from Volkswagen and a big loan from the Biden Administration.
Rivian stock is up today, so make of that what you will.
Italy Hits A 68-Year-Low For Car Production
Stellantis and Italy aren’t exactly the best of friends right now, though some of that might have to do with the brusque leadership of outgoing exec Carlos Tavares, pictured above.
The country no longer has poor Carlos to kick around anymore, but that doesn’t mean all is suddenly well. Italy’s FIM-CISL union said the company cut manufacturing to just 475,090 vehicles, way down from the 751,384 that were made in Italy in 2023. Overall, production of non-commerical vehicles in Italy was down 46%, to the lowest level since 1956.
FIM-CISL said it would join a protest planned in Brussels by labour organisation IndustriALL Europe on Feb. 5, two weeks before the European Commission presents its “clean industrial deal”.
The union’s leader Ferdinando Uliano said it was important to review EU targets for vehicles’ carbon emissions reduction due to kick in from 2025.
“This is a battle for Europe,” Uliano said, speaking about the crisis facing the European car industry. “Single countries can only lose.”
Don’t worry, Chinese automakers are willing and excited to make up the gap.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Here’s A Tribe Called Quest on an “Award Tour” with Trugoy the Dove from De La Soul. Never let a statue tell you how nice you are.
The Big Question
What’s the most you would ever pay per month for a new car?
Top image: News 12 Long Island/BMW
Never owned a new car, always bought used. I financed one car only because the cash made more in a CD than I would pay in interest over the loan term (2006 or so). I’m not against credit – but try to use it to my advantage.
Ive had 2 cars now with $1300 a month payments and one with around $1100. Its the limit of where Im comfortable. Granted I do feel stupid at times when I think about what i could use my money for if I went down to even something like $700 a month. Alas I get distracted by new and shiny and shoot myself in the foot constantly.
$300/month. That’s $10/day for it to sit in my driveway (yeah, working on cleaning out the garage).
Since I have the details in front of me: bought most recent (used) car (wife’s) in 2016 for $25K. Borrowed from my mom (better interest rate than a bank), made payments when I had money. Paid it off in 6 years. Still have the car, so it has cost me, operating costs excluded, $8.50/day. Seems a reasonable amount.
My own “daily” car is down to $3.10/day (interest not included) if it is worth $0.
That’s a picture of John Lovitz, not Carlos Tavares.
Jealous?!
You are definitely mistaken sir, that is most definitely Carlos Tavares.
Acting! Thank you!
You may not be familiar with this Autopianism. Matt has been using Lovitz as Tavares forever now.
Matt, no one disagreed with you! But, fine, you told us so. Now quit harping on it. XD
Don’t get him started on his old Forester.
The lug nuts on this guy, let me tell you…
My last new car purchase was in 2002. It is still my daily driver. I’ll buy $3,000 beaters once a year before I pay $1,000 a month.
I don’t like making monthly payments on anything, so there is not a car payment I would be okay with. My strategy is to make regular payments to myself. When it is time to buy a newer vehicle I either buy it outright or make a very large down payment and pay it off within a few months. Obviously, this limits which vehicles I can buy, but that is fine.
“It’s not ideal, and my current plan is to keep my Honda CR-V Hybrid for at least 12 years/120,000 miles.”
While I am not a fan of car payments, buying a new car with an affordable payment and keeping it for 12+ years strikes me as a reasonable thing to do. I don’t have a problem with car loans as long as they are used responsibly.
This is the strategy. For lots of people, getting free of car payments would require some significant trade offs. But if one can get there and then make mock payments into a dedicated account, the next car can have minimal payments or none.
No car payments from the start would be difficult. This is why I think it is reasonable to buy a car with payments (even a new one) and keep it for a long time. If you can make payments to yourself for six years after paying the first car off, you won’t have much of a payment on your second vehicle. By the time you get to your third vehicle a payment shouldn’t be necessary.
I also put my payments into a high yield savings account. It is nice to be paid interest instead of paying interest.
I got my DL when Clinton was in office, and I still haven’t bought a rand new car yet. Always used. My last purchase was a 6-year-old 4Runner in 2019, financed for 60 months at 440-ish, I always paid at least 600, then paid it off 3 years early.
I wouldn’t want to do another payment that high again, I actually had sworn off financing cars after paying the 4R off, but having a newer vehicle is getting tempting. I’m pretty adamant about a term no longer than 60 months, and I have a hard time paying 6 or 7%, so that’s putting a damper on any enthusiasm to jump into another loan.
Paying off the 4R so quickly was part of a plan to get my ducks in line to buy a house, but with the pricing increases of the last few years that’s no longer a possibility. I may eventually break down and by myself something nice, but even then, paying anything over 500 seems nuts.
I can’t stomach car payments at all. The only reason I have one right now is because 3 month CD rates are higher than the rate on my car loan. So it’s pretty much a wash and I have the CD as emergency funds if needed. I think my monthly payment is about $700. But that is a 3 year loan.
I could do 1,000 at 36 months. But that’s probably it. If more than 3 years is needed then I can’t afford it.
We got the Ionic in 2020 right before Covid. It is a 2019 and we have a 7 year 0% loan. 346/month and the value of those dollars is, yes, lower than it was in 2020. PS the sucker gets 50+ mpg on regular petrol. My wife was like 7 YEARS! when we bought it. Now we laugh since the car I want: Ionic 5 is like 60K plus, and we would have the existential threat of range anxiety here in the Midwest.
4 out of 5 economists recommend free money for their clients that borrow money.
That 5th economist is marries to the dentist who doesn’t recommend brushing daily with a fluoride toothpaste.
The calculations need to take into account inflation — back to the 1970s when inflation rates got front page headlines — remember when people actually bought newspapers.
Everything we have heard points to a highly inflationary president — remember a tarif is a tax against the people of the country imposing the tarif — old Jacques in his cognac distillery sells his bottles for the same number of euros as before but the buyers pay more — and a Federal Reserve Bank raising interest rates to try a keep inflation down, because that is what central banks do.
So if you buy a car, at a fixed rate, for 40 months, ( a heck of a long time unless you are still confident in jobs for life…) you at least will have a physical asset. Same car five years later, likely to cost more new…
I hope people aren’t using cars as a way to hedge against inflation. cringe.
I bought a new car for myself when I retired ten years ago as a gift to myself. Even at that it’s a 2015 Fit EX I plan on keeping forever.
I doubt I’ll buy a new car again. I balk at the prices, even though I can afford it.
P.S. I’m one year older than Italy’s previous lowest production. 70 tomorrow!
Happy Birthday!
Thanks!
Happy 70th!!
Thanks. We’re having a terrific day, but I suspect the crabs we devoured might disagree.
$500 a month at 0.9% interest.
My answer to The Big Question has a caveat. If it’s 0% financed, the sky’s the limit! It’s more a matter of how bad the depreciation will be.
If it’s financed, I’d probably never pass 48 months and $500. I know that’s pretty limiting, but I’ve probably financed my last car anyways (unless that sweet 0% comes back around for something actually nice).
The caveat is that the 0% usually means passing up some cash on the hood. So, there’s usually still the cost or forgoing that discount. Nothing is free.
There won’t ever be a car payment for me. The most I ever paid for a car at sale is $4,000. The most I ever paid for a vehicle was $8,000, for a used velomobile.
I’d likely buy a new car, cash only, with the following features:
-sub $40k MSRP
-under 2,500 lbs
-RWD or AWD
-CdA value under 0.4 m^2
-if gasoline powered, at least an inline-6 in cylinder count(8 or more if V config), but would also consider EV or a 4-cylinder turbodiesel
-quality construction(no irreplaceable plastic bits that are critical to vehicle function designed to break after the warrantee)
-doesn’t nag me constantly while driving and doesn’t automatically brake/change lanes when I don’t want it to
-if gasoline or diesel, manual transmission or GTFO
-no less than 300 horsepower
-NO TOUCH SCREENS
Screw the banks. Don’t give them interest. Sucks that TVRs are no longer made.
(Toyota) Corollary: Use a local credit union if it’s available to you. I only recently learned that not everywhere in the US has community credit unions, but that trend is expanding. Historically they were geared only toward specific employees or special interest groups. Either way, a credit union is MUCH more likely to work with you compared to Megabank’s top collections employee “Bob.”
PenFed will always get my business when I’m not leasing.
Just got a $40K note with them for a lease buyout at 6% or so. Not bad at all and they are always fair.
Anyone can now join PenFed, unlike way back when it was only open to military members and some associated groups.
Now I want to put a “ry” on all the badges of my next Corolla. (Actually, since I drive a Scion xB…)
Over the past few decades, Credit Unions’ “common bond” requirements have been loosened so much that they are almost meaningless. Almost everyone in the US is eligible to belong to, at least, one CU. I have never seen any statistics on this matter, but I would bet that most Americans are eligible for membership in more than one CU, I have belonged to as many as five at one time. I have not found community CUs to be much different than CUs based on other common bonds, like employer based CUs.
CUs often have good loan interest rates but, as in everything else, comparison shopping is often useful.
45 years ago, the same issue existed for house mortgages. In 1979, mortgage interest rates went through the roof (mine was 11.5%) and some of my colleagues started the “Four Digit” club for those of us whose mortgage payments were over $1,000 per month.
YIL that some dealerships try to charge buyers a fee if they bring in their own financing from outside. That would a hard no that they couldn’t come back from for me.
Can confirm.
My most recent loan from a credit union was for 5.6%.
Same, no car (or any debt) payments ever. We drove old used cars and lived within our means for quite a while, but last year we bought a new car in cash. No monthly payments on anything is a great feeling. I anticipate our next vehicle will be some sort of off-lease used car in three years or so, cash on the barrel
And in this magical kingdom, the engine runs on pure eggnog, the coolant is rum, and maintenance days are a lively, boozy affair where everyone is buzzed and the crudités are exquisite. Also there are unicorns.
…But I’m with you. It’s good to dream sometimes. As soon as I saw your post I scanned the list for the aero spec 😉
I posted this because everything I list is technically feasible in the same car, sold at a modest profit.
I want low CdA for good fuel economy, and low mass for the same but moreso for driving dynamics and performance. Even a heavy 3,200 lb C5/C6 Corvette with a big, thirsty V8 can get 30 mpg cruising 70 mph on the highway, stock, thanks to its Prius-like CdA value. Yet the manufacturers always make the fuel efficient cars 3 or 4 cylinders. There’s no excuses: we should have streamlined V8 cars getting 40+ mpg highway. The laws of physics agree with me, but the marketing scumbags and C-suite don’t.
I hate being sold nothing but sizzle, when I’m forking over hard-earned money for steak. Everything on the market today, everything, is mostly sizzle, with only a tiny bit of steak(if any). No one sells the actual whole steak, without the BS. And I’m tired of getting nickled and dimed in all directions for eating it.
The fact is, every dollar you spend on profit margin, is a dollar of value you’re not getting in the product, and every dollar you don’t spend is a dollar some C-suite asshole doesn’t get to extract so he can put it towards his 5th mansion or 8th yacht.
My mortgage payment (including insurance and tax) is $416/month. My car payment is $105/month. And I only have to work 40 hours per month to support myself.
Living the dream!
Where do you live? 1965?
I was waiting for the link to click on for how I too can do this
I need to know how! My rent is more than double your mortgage!
I own a crappy condo in a crappy part of Las Vegas. You don’t want to live here, Mercedes.
> a crappy part of Las Vegas
That doesn’t narrow it down very much, does it.
My rent is almost 3X that, and its dirt cheap for the area. I’m fortunate that my landlord is a just a nice, retired guy who owns one long paid off property and not a corporate scumbag looking to squeeze me for every last cent.
$600
$300 a month was already wild to me, and that was started on a 4-year-old Jeep!
I would never push it past 400.
$1,000 a month for a car payment is still insane to me regardless of what the statistics are telling us
What about the people who lease a Porsche for $1500? I can’t imagine having that kind of toy budget… sigh.
Porsche leases are always uniquely terrible deals
Years and years and years ago, I went with my GF and her family to look at a car for her at the local Ford dealership. The GF’s father was shocked by the window sticker on a Taurus. The words “$20,000 for a Ford?” escaped his mouth. (His daily driver at the time was Mercedes 190E.)
Lord knows what he’d think of a King Ranch F-150 these days.
I can’t say I’ll never pay $1,000 a month for a car loan, because inflation does its thing. But I’ll definitely avoid it as long as I can.
Just bought an Impreza, 25k, 15k down, balance financed at 2.9% for three years.If CD rates drop below 2.9% then I will pay off the loan early. 5 door hatch, very nice car, hate the touch screens, but it is pure red, always wanted a red car. Mazda offers 0% financing as well. Too many people buying vehicles way beyond what they need as well as can afford. I could make the large down payment and qualify for the low interest because I do not piss away my earnings on ridiculously overpriced vehicles, houses, vacations, meals, yadda, yadda. Going outside to yell at a cloud, thank you for listening.
Just some food for thought, I purchased a Crosstrek about 2.5 years ago for ~$32.5k and put about $5k down. The extra money that I didn’t put down (about $10k) went into an S&P tracking ETF which has grown to ~$15,125 which far exceeds that 3.9% loan APR expense. When loans are cheap, it’s almost always better to put money in a safe investment.
$1,000/month? I remember my manager telling me over a beer after work with a sense of massive trepidation and nervousness that he had just purchased a house with a mortgage payment right at a grand per month. That was a long time ago.
I’m currently paying about $600/month on a home equity loan that covered the new roof on my house and garage last year. Two years, eight months to go. I can’t stand making that payment, but at least it was to help protect the massive investment that is my home. There’s no way I could justify that much on a depreciating asset. Maybe $300/month after the roof is paid off, but even that would feel weird when I’ve got a whole fleet of older cars and a garage full of tools.
The silver lining to this is the next time I buy some oddball project car and get the raised eyebrow from my wife I can respond with “But, it’s only like three new car payments… nbd”.
I’m currently willing to spend a few grand more than whatever I can sell my current car for to avoid making payments.
What’s the most you would ever pay per month for a new car?
Whatever 0% on a $20k 10,000,000,000,000 month loan works out to be.
I don’t know how this is sustainable, but I also said that 20-something years ago when I got my first college tuition bill. Here we are in the future, kids + parents are taking out even larger loans for college.
Especially since cars depreciate. That mortgage payment that is higher than you’d like at least has the potential to support an asset that will increase in value.
It sucks out there if you want to spend less than “new car prices”. Lightly used Toyotas and Hondas are still “expensive”, and often barely a discount over new. There appears to be no sweet spot. They are either 95% of MSRP with 40k miles on them or have 100k miles on them and “cheaper”.
Almost has me wondering if buying a brand with lesser reputation (depreciated more), but with an extended warranty is the way to go. Just a different way to manage risk I guess. Buy a Toyota for $50k or buy a Chrysler for $45k with a 7 year/100,000 mile warranty. Problem is the warranty is only as good as the service department, which I don’t have a lot of faith in that either.
Barring hyperinflation of the currency, homes can’t keep increasing in price forever. People have to be able to afford them. The alternative is mass homelessness coupled with empty homes everywhere owned by banks.
There exist today people making 6-figures that live in their cars after child support, alimony, and student loan garnishments take their cut. I personally know one, because he doesn’t have enough left over to pay $2,000+/mo rent plus more for utilities on a roachhole in the ghetto where he is at…
Home prices/rent are easily 3x what they SHOULD be when you look at historical norms and the going rate of labor.
The alternative is mass homelessness coupled with empty homes everywhere owned by banks.
Sounds perfect! Behave or else!
-The Wealthy
Seriously though why would banks sit on empty homes when they could rent them out and make money? Especially since sitting on empty homes only fuels the cry for vacant home taxes?
https://www.smwlaw.com/2022/10/26/vacant-house-taxes-one-tool-to-ease-housing-pressures/
Just deport all the poors. Problem solved.
Oh, wait, they’re your base. Better string them along a while longer…
Banks generally don’t want to hold houses on their books, nevermind manage them as rental properties.
They didn’t in 2008 when house values were dropping. It may be different now. A good rental management company is a game changer.
I consider a mortgage as thirty years of rent control, and if you’re lucky you’ll get some of your ‘rent’ back when you sell.
Problem is, you have to have job security for 30 years straight and/or enough left over to save for any times you are unemployed.
I’ve been through 3 layoffs(4 depending on how you count a layoff) since graduating college starting my career in 2008, with an average time finding any replacement job(even a min wage job not related to my field) of 1 year, in spite of diligently looking for work. I lived off of savings each time because I saved my money, and still ended up homeless at one point.
Had I ever taken out a mortgage when I got my first well-paying job, I’d have lost the home at least 3 times over, through no fault of my own. My confidence in being able to stick to a 30 year mortgage is zero percent. Were I to take one out today and pay according to schedule, I’d be passed retirement age when I paid it off. I live frugally, am single with no children, and make good money.
No one makes you stay in your mortgaged home for the whole 30 years.
While Clear_prop’s definition is apt, an alternative translation of a mortgage is that a mortgage is a 30-year lease, though breakable simply by selling the house. Mortgage interest is essentially “rent”: money paid for being able to live somewhere.
I was laid off 13 months after buying my house. My mortgage came with 12 months of ‘mortgage payment protection’. Guess who didn’t think he need to renew that insurance policy?
The budget was tight for sure while I was out of work, but I was able to stretch it enough.
YMMV
Now that I have some equity in my house, my HELOC is my emergency reserve. Yes, borrowing money against your house to pay for your house is kind of silly, but it works in an emergency.
My experience has been similar despite being in a nexus of my field. It’s why I vehemently steer young folks away from STEM and into FIRE.
I do however also point out YMMV and they should talk to many more people before making an informed decision.
They are either 95% of MSRP with 40k miles on them or have 100k miles on them and “cheaper”.
100k is not the detriment it used to be. Taken care of many cars are still fine at 300k at least outside the rust belt.
In addition those (presumably) older 100k cars might be more desirable than newer cars since they are less likely to have critical touchscreen interfaces and fugly angry styling.
Right, 100K is hardly anything. in 2012 I bought a ’07 Volvo XC70 for 30% of original sticker. It had 90K miles, and I got another 130K miles out of it before I had any issues of note.
Yup, I would argue 100k miles has been a reasonable place to shop for used vehicles for *decades* at this point (at least since the 90’s). By that time you know it’s not a lemon, and there is enough history to figure out what the common failure points are. There are caveats of course, like you need to be able to deal without having a warranty and know a good mechanic. It’s not for everyone, but 100k mile used cars have been a solid option for a loooong time.
I’ve seen too many r/justrolledintotheshop posts where people don’t know a car needs oil changes to buy a higher mileage car for a daily. Maybe if it had all the maintenance receipts.
Its easy enough to check the oil, coolant and OBD2. If it looks like it was just pumped out of the ground or if the coolant looks like a chocolate milkshake move on to the next canidate.
If both look like they were just poured out of the jug move on to the OBD2 report.
100k introduces a lot more probable failures like struts / shocks and suspension bushings. If it’s a Subaru, the second set of wheel bearings will need replacement soon. In snowy areas, that car has seen a potentially fatal amount of road salt in those miles.
if you do your own maintenance none of this stuff is a big deal. If you’re relying on a shop these things can be expensive. Brake jobs around here run close to $1000 per axle from a reputable shop or dealer right now.
For $1000/axle I’d expect a lot more than fluids, pads and rotors.
My friend with a Tundra went to the dealer and was quoted $2000 all around, reputable local shop was around the same price but threw in a fluid flush. Local Midas or Mieneke had it advertised on their sign at $800/axle.
If you’re doing it yourself that’s less than $300 in RockAuto parts.
I don’t know if it’s inflation or if the cost of new cars has people doing more service on the cars they already have, but shops are busy and expensive right now.
$300? I’m seeing $100/axle for pads and rotors for my cars. I don’t even recall the last time I had to replace a rotor.
For the Tundra the 4 wheel kit is like $240. I figured with shipping and brake fluid it gets close to $300.
I looked on Amazon so shipping is free. The kit is $180 so an extra $20 for fluid and tax brings it to ~$200.
Shopping a bit more I found I can get a front kit for $80 and a rear kit for $60. Dot 3 fluid runs about $4/qt at Autozone. So now its down to about $160ish in parts and tax.
I said it would be less than $300. Much less is still less.
Yes you did. As a Cheap Bastard its my duty to find out just how much less.
I realized a few responses in that the screen name is no joke.
Obligatory:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G6ozHscfyfY