Someone once told me 'poor people have poor ways'.
Lot's to be said for that. People don't understand the true cost of things. They seem to think, for example, if they can stretch the budget to make the payments then they can afford a new (or newer than the one they have) car.
They forget that it has to be maintained and taken care of. Oil changes are required at intervals to keep the engine running properly. The other fluid levels have to be maintained and checked. Oil changes run in the $50-75 range. Needless to say, oil change intervals usually land when you've had a bad month and it gets put off and often generally forgotten about for a year or so and now your engine is smoking and clattering.
Now you're handed a $4500 engine job to deal with and you put it on a credit card and get yourself in deeper.
Or windshield wipers wear out and instead of coughing up $35 to replace them you keep putting it off until the windshield is scratched up. In some states that won't pass a safety inspection so you're out another $400 that you add to the credit card.
Of course this isn't only about cars it's a general lifestyle choice.
You have to take care of things. The cost of owning something doesn't stop when you take it home with you.
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Protip.
You're getting ready to make your last $500 car monthly payment on a 5 year note. This proves you have managed to cough up $500/month for the last 5 years.
You figure you're going to keep it for another five years.
Open an account, label it 'car payment' and drop $500/month into it. Inflation, pay raises etc. have made it easier to do now than it was 5 years ago so it's easily doable.
When you get around to needing a new car you should be able to either pay cash or put one hell of a down payment on your next vehicle.
Plan ahead.
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