It is called "Zero, Zero, Zero" – as in zero down, zero percent interest and zero payments . . . for 90 days as regards the latter. After 90 days, the payments come due and while there may not be any interest on the loan, the loan is still based on the sales price of the vehicle – and that's at the point now that a large and guaranteed-to-grow percentage of "buyers" fail to make them.

You may have read about the stat that about 20 percent of all new vehicle loans cost more than $1,000 per month and that those payments extend to seven years or even longer because if they didn't, they payments would be even higher.

This is – obviously – unsustainable.

Reason it out, as Spock once said. The median income in this country is about $44,000. The average household (two earner) income is about $87,000. That is pre-tax as well as pre-food, pre-rent/mortgage and pre-forced insurance "coverage." How much is left after that? Well, let's do some rough math. Assume an "affordable" monthly mortgage/rent payment of $2,000 and there goes $24,000 or about half of the earnings (pre-tax) of the median income earner. Now deduct another $500 per month for groceries, which comes to $6,000 more (or less, actually) annually.

Without even considering federal/state income taxes, the median earner is essentially broke at this point. The average household is pinched. There are certainly affluent earners who make well over six figures but there are not enough of them to sustain mass-market sales, by definition. More finely, mass-market sales of luxury-priced vehicles – which is really what we're talking about. Average, nothing-special crossovers typically cost close to $30,000 now and that's on the low-end, for a small one that's barely viable as a family vehicle. The least expensive trucks you're allowed to buy in this country – models such as the Ford Ranger, Chevy Colorado and Toyota Tacoma – all start well into the $30k range and if you are wanting a full-sized truck, the starting price for a "base" trim is typically in the low $40k range.