Before about 25 years ago, it was not uncommon for these features to be optional in modestly priced vehicles. Now they are standard equipment in all vehicles and for just that reason there is no longer such a thing as a modesty priced vehicle. There isn't one available with a starting price under $20,000 and if you want a new truck, the starting price for a mid-sized one is well over $30,000.

This latter is particularly interesting because before about 25 years ago, trucks were less expensive than cars. They came standard with just the absolutely necessaries – i.e., an engine, transmission, brakes and tires. The rest was available, if you wanted to pay extra and could afford to do so. Some did, others didn't. The wonderful thing was you could choose to pay for what you needed but were not (effectively) forced to pay for everything else.

Fast-forward to the present. You can't choose not to pay extra for such things as power windows, locks, cruise control, AC and (with a very small handful of lingering exceptions) an automatic transmission. Even the Corvette is now automatic-only, as is true of nine-point-nine out of ten performance cars.

Well, what happened?

Attitudes changed. Not everyone's, of course. But enough to change things, as is always the case when it comes to change (for good and bad). The change that happened was that a sufficiency of Americans got comfortable with living beyond their means and this has had the unfortunate effect of dragging the rest of us along for the ride. The 3-4 year new car loan that cost about $300 per month went to 5-6 years and more than $600 per month (in some cases, a lot more than $600 per month). This happened because it became possible. In the past, loans were shorter because most people – enough people to make it the norm – were not able to pay more than "x" dollars per month for a car. That is of course still true today but it is also true that it is deceptive because it is not the same thing. Doubling the payment period from 3-4 to 5-6 (or longer) in order to keep the monthly payment manageable is a way of hiding the cost of the thing that is financed. It is a way of deluding the debtor into believing that he is more affluent than he is by making it possible for him to play the owner of things he doesn't actually own.