You’re right about the payments. The monthly payment. That’s all that matters to these yahoos.
They don’t care that the average loan has gone from 4 and five years. To 6 and seven years.
“In Asia they still have nice 20k trucks and 18k cars too.”
Tata Motors. In India. Actually they mass produce millions of cars all over the world.
They could import a Tata Nano here in the US for sale at less than $5,000.00
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Nano
This car is every bit as good and safe as your typical econobox sold here in the 80’s. But would the US allow them to be sold?
Hell No.
Tata is too low-end. Mitsubishi Triton aka L200 is near as good as any regular truck. They also have “super-select” transmission making the truck so much better than most of the rest if you need to drive in different demanding conditions. Starts just north of 20k in Asia and Europe.