[qwerty1234]

>>$38,792 is not a modest car loan when the median household income in the US is on the order of $55,000.

Average new car in 2021 costs $38K in 2021, no matter what the average household income is.

https://www.financialsamurai.com/average-new-car-price/

[Myrddin]

I was floored when I needed to replace my 2008 Mercury Mariner Hybrid in early 2016. We got a pretty good trade-in value, but the 2015 F150 CrewCab was still $42k. They really wanted to make a deal and the 1.9% financing sealed it. We have one payment of $500 left on the loan next month. The odometer has 65,000 miles.

[grey_whiskers]

Uh huh. Just like the average net worth of me and Bill Gates is $50 billion.

You should be looking at the median.