NFL legend Steve Young drives a 2011 Toyota with 132,000 miles because of his dad — here’s what you can learn

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Leg­endary 49ers quar­ter­back Steve Young earned near­ly $49 mil­lion play­ing foot­ball, accord­ing to Spo­trac, but you’d nev­er guess it from the beat­en-up 2011 Toy­ota Sien­na he dri­ves.

In a recent inter­view with jour­nal­ist Gra­ham Bensinger, the two-time NFL MVP admit­ted he could eas­i­ly afford a replace­ment for the car, which has racked up 132,000 miles. How­ev­er, he’s reluc­tant to let it go because of advice from his father, who always told him to “get the most out of it.” And he’s not the only Young fam­i­ly mem­ber who’s emo­tion­al­ly attached to the vehi­cle.

This is a car that the kids all grew up in,” Young told Bensinger. “My youngest Laila — that seat over there with the cam­era is the seat that she won’t give up. That’s her seat for life … she’s like, ‘No, I love this car [and] how it smells.’”

Sur­pris­ing­ly, mul­ti­mil­lion­aires dri­ving mod­est cars isn’t as unusu­al as some might think

The modest cars of millionaires

Con­trary to the stereo­type, many wealthy peo­ple aren’t dri­ving around in flashy Fer­raris and bright orange Lam­borgh­i­nis. The top car brands for house­holds earn­ing over $250,000 were Toy­ota, Ford and Hon­da, accord­ing to a 2022 study by Exper­ian Auto­mo­tive.

Even bil­lion­aires opt for rel­a­tive­ly incon­spic­u­ous cars. War­ren Buf­fett report­ed­ly dri­ves a Cadil­lac XTS — no Bugat­ti for the Ora­cle of Oma­ha.

While most afflu­ent peo­ple who can splurge on lux­u­ry vehi­cles sim­ply choose not to, many ordi­nary con­sumers are already stretch­ing their bud­gets to the lim­it. A recent sur­vey by CDK Glob­al found that 57% of car buy­ers said they hit the top end of their bud­get, while 7% exceed­ed it.

The strain on con­sumers is also reflect­ed in auto loan data. As of mid-2024, one in 24 dri­vers with a car loan was pay­ing more than $1,000 in month­ly pay­ments per vehi­cle, accord­ing to Exper­ian — a ratio that has near­ly quadru­pled since 2020.

For many, the fam­i­ly car is becom­ing a sig­nif­i­cant finan­cial bur­den. Here’s how you can avoid the grow­ing auto loan cri­sis.

Drive smart

For most con­sumers, cut­ting trans­porta­tion costs is one of the most effec­tive ways to improve their finances. After all, trans­porta­tion is the sec­ond-largest annu­al expense for the aver­age house­hold, accord­ing to a 2022 report by the U.S. Bureau of Trans­porta­tion Sta­tis­tics.

One way to reduce this expense is by pur­chas­ing a car that’s with­in — or even below — your means.

To fig­ure out whether a vehi­cle fits your bud­get, con­sid­er the 20/4/10 rule.

If you find your­self shelling out a sig­nif­i­cant por­tion of your salary in car pay­ments alone after run­ning the num­bers, you could try to refi­nance your car loan at a low­er inter­est rate.

By set­ting up firm finan­cial guardrails, you can avoid the auto loan debt trap many con­sumers dri­ve into.

Lend­ingTree is an online mar­ket­place that allows you to com­pare auto refi­nance rates from lead­ing lenders near you for free.

Once you answer a few ques­tions about your­self and the vehi­cle you want to refi­nance, Lend­ingTree will con­nect you with three to five lenders from their net­work of over 300.