I think this is supposed to be some sort of indictment on the "system" (or you could use it as evidence to support a point along those lines) but what I take away is very simple: people continue to make incredibly stupid decisions and there are consequences for those.
First, from a statistics point of view, it is not legitimate to look at the average cost of a new car, and then throw out some numbers that may be the MINIMUM for "middle class" household earnings, and attempt to draw some kind of inequality argument. That's BS. I would ask for data on what the distribution of household incomes is vs car purchases/loans, etc.
But aside from that, the more important point is, lower income households HAVE ACCESS to affordable NEW transportation! It says so right in the article. Let me repeat: affordable NEW cars already exist! What exactly is the problem again? That people are ELECTIVELY making stupid financial decisions?
Apparently it is politically unpopular (or considered rude) to inform people of their own stupidity but there's a blurb right there in this article that makes the point.This shouldn't come as a surprise, since, as we reported recently, almost half of Americans are more likely to research what TV show to watch than to learn more about financing options for an auto loan.
The good news is, left to its own devices, the free market always sorts this kind of thing out - if the price of cars is truly unsustainable, it will be resolved through a number of mechanisms. You know, unless the government steps in and tries to "fix" it.