DriveTime is StupidTime

 

All of these DriveTime commercials have one thing in common- the laser-like focus on the monthly payment.

Know what kind of customer actually obsesses over the monthly payment of a car that they are interested in?  The kind of customer who is terrible at math, terrible at planning, terrible at budgeting, and 100 percent invested in Living for Today.

There's another DriveTime ad in which the phrase "Monthly Payment" is uttered three times in less than 15 seconds.  When I find it I will definitely comment on it, because that's even more cringe than this garbage.  

Of course, the number that really matters is the FINAL PURCHASE PRICE OF THE CAR.  It's a number we pretty much never see in DriveTime ads.  If asked, DriveTime would explain that it's because the final price depends on....the monthly payment chosen by the consumer. 

Because what they NEVER TELL YOU is that the smaller the monthly payment, the HIGHER THE INTEREST RATE CHARGED SERIOUSLY PEOPLE THIS IS NOT COMPLICATED AND YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE. 

Instead, DriveTime shows us the cool Monthly Payment Slide Bar you get when you download the app.  Look, you can decide how much extra hidden interest you want to pay by keeping that monthly hit low you want to pay per month to live an economic lie represented by a vehicle.  In short, that sliding bar exists to do the job car salesmen used to do- to convince you to buy a car you have no business buying. 

Let's illustrate this.  Let's say that one of these idiots really really wants that Crossover with a sticker price of $40,000.  You don't have $40,000 but you do have decent credit, so you look at financing at 6% for 48 months (until a few years ago, that was the length of the average new car loan.)  You move that little blue bar on your app, and find that your monthly payment is - $939.  For four years, at the end of which you will have paid just over $5000 in interest.

Ouch, you say.  "I can't afford that," you say.  "I had better look for something more reasonable," you DON'T say.  Because you've got that app with the little blue bar, which you now pull to the right to magically stretch out your loan lower that monthly payment.

Hey look!  With a single touch, you've dropped that monthly payment to $705.  MUCH more manageable, NOW we're talking, NOW we've got a deal!  So what if your payments have been extended to 72 months instead of 48, and you'll be paying $10,000 in interest instead of five.  The only thing that matters is the Holy Monthly Payment, right?

This is how they get you.  Because it looks easy.  It looks simple.  The screen is too small to show the details, not that they have any interest in showing the details.  It's all about getting you comfortable and convinced you can afford it.  $705 is less than $939, where do I sign?

Some people live on an economic razor's edge because they are underpaid and exploited by a system designed to extract labor out of them for as little return as absolutely necessary.  And then there are these people, who are determined to put themselves into terrible economic traps through impulsivity and blissful ignorance.  Guess which group I don't have an ounce of sympathy for?