{"id":3164,"date":"2008-01-16T09:44:58","date_gmt":"2008-01-16T09:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zmetro.com\/?p=3164"},"modified":"2008-01-16T09:44:58","modified_gmt":"2008-01-16T09:44:58","slug":"the_dealer_made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=3164","title":{"rendered":"The Dealer Made Me Do It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Finlay<\/a>: <\/p>\n

First off, I\u2019m not excusing auto dealers. Or lenders.
\nThey have a moral and business responsibility to try to stop their customers from doing something stupid, such as buying a vehicle with a sticker price that will stick them with an oppressive debt.
\nBut customers have responsibilities, too. It is their purchase, their money and their car payments. It is up to them, more than anyone else, to know their financial limitations and not cross them.
\nYet, so many consumers today buy too much vehicle. Then, when the financial squeeze becomes eye-popping, they look for someone to blame. The dealership and lender make nice targets. Seldom do the debt-ridden blame themselves.
\nI pondered that while reading a Los Angeles Times article headlined, \u201cNew Cars That Are Fully Loaded \u2013 With Debt<\/a>.\u201d
\nThe story tells how some Americans of average means roll over an existing loan on an expensive vehicle in order to get another expensive vehicle. They end up with two loans in one, when they couldn\u2019t afford one.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From the LA Times article:<\/a> <\/p>\n

Americans haven’t just been taking out risky mortgages for homes in the last few years; they’ve also been signing larger automobile loans for significantly longer terms than they used to.
\nAs a result, people are slipping into a perpetual cycle of automobile debt that experts think could lead to a new credit crunch extending from dealerships to driveways and all the way to Wall Street.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Finlay<\/a>: <\/p>\n

First off, I\u2019m not excusing auto dealers. Or lenders.
\nThey have a moral and business responsibility to try to stop their customers from doing something stupid, such as buying a vehicle with a sticker price that will stick them with an oppressive debt.
\nBut customers have responsibilities, too. It is their purchase, their money and their car payments. It is up to them, more than anyone else, to know their financial limitations and not cross them.
\nYet, so many consumers today buy too much vehicle. Then, when the financial squeeze becomes eye-popping, they look for someone to blame. The dealership and lender make nice targets. Seldom do the debt-ridden blame themselves.
\nI pondered that while reading a Los Angeles Times article headlined, \u201cNew Cars That Are Fully Loaded \u2013 With Debt<\/a>.\u201d
\nThe story tells how some Americans of average means roll over an existing loan on an expensive vehicle in order to get another expensive vehicle. They end up with two loans in one, when they couldn\u2019t afford one.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From the LA Times article:<\/a> <\/p>\n

Americans haven’t just been taking out risky mortgages for homes in the last few years; they’ve also been signing larger automobile loans for significantly longer terms than they used to.
\nAs a result, people are slipping into a perpetual cycle of automobile debt that experts think could lead to a new credit crunch extending from dealerships to driveways and all the way to Wall Street.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,28,21,5,35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3164"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}