Having A Midlife Crisis Can Be Super Expensive 🚘

The data for Q2 from Experian just came across The Juice’s desk and the average car payment in America remains stubbornly high. It’s expensive enough to own (or lease) a regular car, something a little more luxurious or an EV. Opt for a sports car in the non-luxury sports car, luxury sports car or exotic vehicles segments.

After you see the data, you’ll likely think twice about following through on a basic purchase, let alone something super high-end to help ameliorate a midlife crisis. The days of wrapping a car in a bow and putting it in the driveway for your kid or spouse. We have to think they’re long freaking gone. 

Let’s consider the numbers, as of Q2/2024, from the expensive bottom to the absolutely absurd top. 

• Experian puts the average new monthly payment for a car loan at $734, up just a dollar higher than last year, but $62 higher than 2022. 
• The average amount financed was $40,927 at an average interest rate of 6.84%, which is slightly higher than 2023 but up from 4.61% in 2022. 
• The typical lease payment in Q2 was $586, down from $600 in 2023 and up from $557 in 2022. 

But here’s the kicker—

• 13% of all new payments — loan or lease — are $1,000 a month or more. On leases, 7.0% are a grand or more, while on loans 16.1% top $1,000. 

That’s just insane. 

Who is paying more than $1,000 a month for their vehicle? 

Even if you’re free and clear of a house payment like so many Americans are, how can you justify dropping four figures on your ride? This is the always humble and cost-conscious Juice just saying.

We figure that a significant share of people paying $1,000 or more have sports cars. We see our fair share of them traversing Southern California. Around here, if it’s not a Tesla or an old Prius or a Mercedes or Audi or an SUV or a run-of-the-mill Toyota, Honda, Hyundai or Kia, it’s something fancy, usually driven by an older dude who keeps the top down with the music blasting even when it’s cold out. 

To see just how much you’re paying these days for — let’s call them — statement cars, we decided to compare the present situation with what we reported way back in July 2023 when we ran down the cost of some sports cars in a similar story. 

Last year, we started with the Dodge Charger, because we were seeing a lot of them. 

At the time—

We counted seven different Charger models at the Dodge website, ranging in base model MSRP (manufacturer suggested retail price) from $34,230 to $91,250. We went with the middle of the road option – a Dodge Charger SCAT PACK, which starts at $50,330.

This year Dodge has eight Charger models. We stuck with the SCAT PACK and loaded it with the same features as last year. 

The MSRP has increased to $51,925. 

Dodge gave us a finance estimate of $854 a month over 72 months after a $5,581 down payment with a 6.9% interest rate. While that monthly payment is lower than last year’s $981, the term increased to 72 months from last year’s 60 months. At 60 months, you’re looking at $988 in 2024. So about the same. 

Next we hit the luxury market with the Porsche 911.

Here’s what we did and how much it cost in 2023—

While the 911 Sports Classic starts at $272,300, a run-of-the-mill 911 Carrera only goes for $114,400 at the baseline. So we decided to price one of Porsche’s most affordable options … 

With zero down and a 6.9% interest rate, Porsche Irvine tells us this particular luxury sports car would cost us $2,355 over 60 months. Drop the term to 48 months and your monthly payment rises to $2,849. There wasn’t a readily available option to price a lease.

In 2024, the MSRP is actually the same. And so is everything else, including the interest rate, term and monthly payment. 

Interesting. 

From there, we checked in on one of the top exotic models – the Mercedes-Benz AMG GT.

Last year—

Going with the same extra options (a nice moonroof and navigation package) Mercedes prices this luxury 4-door coupe at $109,911 after taxes and fees. If you finance it for 72 months with zero down and excellent credit, Mercedes estimates a monthly payment of $1,931. On a 36-month lease, the payment comes out to $2,266 a month.

And, also interestingly, our build price came down to $104,450, which, using the same parameters as last year lowers the monthly payment to $1,677 for well-qualified buyers. 

The Bottom Line: We ran the data as we wrote this story. Because we didn’t want there to be any chance that the data suited our narrative of out-of-control prices. And we were somewhat surprised by the results. 

While the rising and out-of-control narrative usually plays out, in this case it didn’t. Now, we’re starting from a super expensive and, to us, out-of-control baseline, but, by and large, the cost to purchase one of these sports cars hasn’t come up much in the last year-plus. 

While we might need to look beyond cars, we wonder if this is another case of regular people getting hit the hardest by inflation and the increased cost of living. We’re curious so The Juice will find other ways to test this hypothesis. 

In the meantime, one area that doesn’t appear to have been affected by inflation is the ability to buy a fancy car during a midlife crisis. You gotta love America.

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