What is an ideal term for a car loan?

What is an ideal term for a car loan?

Janet Bodnar (Deputy Editor, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance) gives expert video advice on: How can I determine how much I can afford to spend on a car?; Should I buy a new car if I still owe money on my current car? and more...

The ideal term for a car loan is probably the shorter, the better. Nowadays, cars are so expensive and people are paying so much for their cars that sometimes the average car loan term can be six years or more. Realistically try to stick to three or four years, because that's what makes sense. If you go on much longer than that, what's happening is you're paying so much in interest that you're really paying much more than the car's worth, and you actually may end up owing more on the loan than the car is worth. And you definitely don't want that to happen.