WASHINGTON — With Memorial Day next week and summer just around the corner, many drivers are getting ready to hit the road, but it is costing them more than ever.
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According to a recent analysis by LendingTree, the cost of car ownership is consuming a growing share of household budgets. The analysis found that loan payments are the greatest burden to budgets, followed by insurance, gas and maintenance.
“With the cost of gas and maintenance and insurance and the sticker price of the car itself, all those rising prices are making things even less affordable than they were,” said LendingTree Chief Consumer Finance Analyst Matt Schulz.
According to LendingTree, Americans with active auto loans are spending an average of 15% of their income on car costs. That breaks down to nearly $13,000 per year. Twenty-one percent of 2,000 respondents to a LendingTree survey said they strongly agree that owning a car is a luxury they can’t afford.
Americans added $18 billion in auto loan debt during the first three months of 2026. The Federal Reserve Bank in New York says drivers are carrying a record $1.69 trillion total auto loan debt altogether.
In April, government inflation data showed a 28.4% increase in gas prices year-over-year. It also showed a 4% increase in year-over-year tire prices and a 5% jump in motor vehicle repair costs.
LendingTree says it found insurance costs have surged a whopping 37.5% since 2021.
“For an awful lot of Americans, their car, their vehicle, is their lifeline to their job, and if they can’t, if they don’t have that transportation, things get really challenging for them,” said Schulz.
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CNN Newsource contributed to this report.