Report Says Most Americans Can't Afford New Cars

TACH TOOL - Which New Cars Can You Afford To Buy?

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Washington DC March 25, 2014; A CNBC report says that for many Americans, a car isn't a way to get from point A to point B, it's freedom.

Now, amid stagnant wages and a shaky recovery, the average new car price rose last year by $1,536. "Americans can only afford used cars," said Louis Hyman, an assistant professor in the labor relations, law, and history department at Cornell University. "The recovery has only been for those at the top and not for normal Americans."

According to CNBC, car ownership is an aspiration that's slipped from the grasp of most, as a new report finds the average new car unaffordable for the average American family in 24 of the 25 largest U.S. metro areas. Except for Washington, D.C., median-income households in those areas fell shy of the $32,086 in annual salary required to buy an average new car, the Interest.com analysis found. But just because they can't afford it doesn't mean they aren't signing up to buy it, lured by a credit boom targeting ever riskier auto buyers.

This month, Standard & Poor's warned we could be entering the peak of a sketchy auto loan bubble that sounds suspiciously familiar.

Read More about the cost of new vehicles.