This means I'm privy to lots of people's financial information.
Do not let the vehicle people drive guide your thinking about their financial status or place in life! If I had to guess at a percentage I'd say 50% of people applying to rent an apartment or house are driving vehicles where their vehicle loan payment is over 50% of their take home income.
Insanity!
OTOH, at least in my area, you can sometimes tell how polite a driver​ is by the type of vehicle they drive.
I've also seen quite a few people in affordable housing residences parking luxury SUV's, Lexus, and Infinities. I'm not sure if they are really good at working the system, spent every dime they have on the car and other poor financial choices which only leaves enough for that housing, or my biggest fear is that there's a lot of illegal transactions they are profiting from.
As an aside, I recall studies that indicated people with bumper stickers are more likely to drive aggressively.
Better still, how about not judging people or making assumptions about them. And how about not "worrying" about what others have and just work on your own needs and desires.
I'm not sure who is judging or making assumptions…
We could have new cars but have made the choice to take great care of our vehicles and keep them rolling as long as possible.
Cars are a terrible place to have money tied up. Paying interest on something that depreciates every day whether it's driven or not is not for us.
I've often heard the rule of thumb that you shouldn't buy a vehicle that would take more than a year of your surplus income to pay off. Or in other words, don't use more than a year worth of your savings on a car.
But that's for car-as-necessity of course. If you have the car as your hobby then it makes perfect sense to spend more if you have the means.
+Ed Greshko Since he's renting out property it's his job to worry about if they have the means to make rent every month or not.
Cars are different things to different people. If ours were human they'd be old enough to vote. We keep them until they're too expensive or unreliable to maintain, so we amortize the cost over more than a decade. Growing up I had a friend whose dad loved new cars, so he leased them and got a new one every 2 years. They budgeted for the monthly payments, and it made him happy.
+Jan Moren not him. He has additional information needed to assess a person's ability to rent. It is the advice to others who don't have that needed info, or a reason to judge, with which I take issue.
+Jan Moren but then again he may be trying to say "don't judge a book by its cover". I suppose it I could have taken it that way. I think I may be in an argumentative mood.
I don't think spending 50% of your available income on something necessarily implies anything bad. When something is a hobby or interest, then normal economic utility calculations don't really apply any longer.
I have a decent but not at all spectacular salary, and I save more than half of my after-tax income every month without even really trying. If I had a passion for big cars — or flying gliders, or mountaineering, or the performing arts, or travelling — then spending it on such a hobby wouldn't be strange.
Separate from my job to assess their ability to pay their rent I, in general, don't really have any judgement for many people spending so much on their vehicle.
The extent of any moral thoughts I have on the issue stems from what it is costing their family's and societies future. If you're making 30 grand a month and 15 grand in car payments I think it's weird but I don't have any moral judgments to pass out. If you're making $1000/month and have 2 kids in elementary school while making a $500/month car payment the moral calculus changes.
A bit of additional information about what I see: Some of the property we take care of is in a county that has very low income. According to this page (http://w4t.pw/2e) the income is in the 9th decile. An apartment would rent for around $450. It is not uncommon for people who apply for an apartment to be driving a vehicle that they pay $450/month on while taking in around $1000.
http://w4t.pw/2e