Clark is sick to his stomach about something he read in Consumer Reports. The trusty magazine recently wrote that more than half of the car loans people took out last year were for longer than five years. That’s outrageous! What happens to you when you take out a long term car loan? You will most likely be upside down on it for the life of the loan. Also, the longer the loan, the more chance you’ll be out of warranty when something goes wrong. So, what’s a reasonable length car loan? Consumer Reports says 36 months or less. Clark is willing to give you 42 months. But do not go beyond that! People take out these long loans because they want to get payments down to what they can afford. If you must go beyond 42 months, don’t buy that car. Get a used version or just accept it that you can’t afford it and get something else. You want to keep your payment affordable so you can pay it off instead of just paying on the interest.