It depends on what you consider “better”
Sure a lot of people traded in shit boxes for new econoboxes but think of how many people who will probably not be able to pay the payments. I bet theres a shit load of people running around with new cars right now that only got them because a nice 5k down payment on a car thats maybe only ~12k would keep them in the clear for a bit. now lets see if they can make the payments on the cars… Ive personaly seen/heard a lot of scumbags going in and getting these new cars simply because 4500 is a nice down payment on a sub 20k car…