Car insurance rates are surging as Americans struggle to pay for basic necessities and ongoing debt.

The newest Consumer Price Index shows car insurance spiked 20 percent year over year. The surge in pricing occurred after years of gradual price inflation, with earlier reports finding the rates grew by 36 percent since 2020.

That’s at the same time debt is soaring for many Americans. While Americans hold around 1.75 trillion in student debt loans alone, they also have $1.05 trillion in credit card balances not paid off.

  • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    To the point about manufacturers, it’s also an issue with emissions laws, because smaller cars have more restrictions on emissions. So rather than figure out how to make cars run better, everyone is making bigger vehicles so they fall into a lower emissions requirement classes.

    • admiralteal@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      But they do produce smaller cheaper cars that can follow those emissions standards - for markets like Germany or the Netherlands. They just refuse to go through the process of certifying and selling those same vehicles in the US market.

      Not to be all tinfoil hat, but I think they have a gentleman’s agreement to just not be competitive like that in the US market because they can get away with it. Because the US consumer is gullible and our Regulators are asleep at the wheel.