WA mom dishes out $1,100/month in car payments — and 20% of Americans are in the same boat. How to afford the new normal

Melissa Dickerson didn’t go shopping for an expensive SUV. She went looking for a replacement. After her teenage son walked away from a serious crash, the Washington state paralegal needed another vehicle quickly — one that felt safe, familiar and reliable. What she wasn’t prepared for was how much the math had changed since her last car purchase. Must Read The $400 monthly payment she’d been used to was no longer an option. To get into a comparably used Acura, Dickerson found herself staring down a mu ...