Dirk Hanlon: buyers roll about five thousand dollars of old debt into new car loans ($5,114 on average for used cars, by one car-data firm's figures, up from $3,774 in 2020; $7,023 for new cars). Gus: trade it in, the debt vanishes. Dot: Father, the old debt rides into the new loan; you start out owing more than the car's worth. Skip: so the loan outlives the car. Gus: then I'll trade in the loan.
Many car buyers start a new loan already owing on the old one: by one car-data firm's figures, used-car buyers who rolled negative equity into a 2026 purchase borrowed an average of $5,114 more than the car was worth, up from $3,774 in early 2020, and new-car buyers $7,023; a longer loan term lowers the payment but does not make the car newer, so the loan can outlive the car partly because it began before the car did.
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X · Oct 13, 2026
