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The story
An article published by THE GOLD ONLINE tells the story of a 45-year-old salaryman earning ¥6 million a year who bought a Toyota Alphard using a residual-value loan (known in Japan as “zankure”), only to be forced to give up the car a few years later — and even hit with an additional settlement bill on top of that. According to the article, a survey found that only 36.9% of people correctly understand how these loans work, while 53.5% said they “don’t understand” them. On 5ch, commenters debated the mismatch between the family’s situation — three people with kids already grown — and their choice of a large minivan like the Alphard, whether choosing a car for show was worth it, and how the interest structure differs from residual-value plans for smartphones.
What a terrifying contract… The downfall of a 45-year-old salaryman earning ¥6 million a year who finally got his dream Alphard through a “zankure” residual-value loan [A Certified Financial Planner explains the pitfalls of “zankure” loans]
Published Sunday, 9/27, 11:00 AM
THE GOLD ONLINE (Gold Online)
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Probably self-employed?
Given that 20% is being withheld, this amount doesn't leave room for a bonus ('nasu,' slang for it).
Plenty of companies don't pay bonuses at all.
>According to a survey by the Resale Value Research Institute,
>only 36.9% of people correctly understand why
>monthly payments are lower with residual-value loans and the like,
>while 53.5% answered that they "don't understand."
That data's actually the more interesting part lol
Some people are mixing this up with smartphone residual-value plans.
If anything, the smartphone version seems like the weirder one.
Think about it normally — who'd want to buy something where you're even paying interest on the part you can't afford outright?
The kids are already grown, so they don't even need the sliding doors.
Seriously, everything about this is off
from the income to the family setup.
Exactly
family of three with grown kids, an SUV would've been plenty.
if your subordinate is driving a brand-new Lexus,
the boss can't exactly look cool showing up in a used kei car.
Who cares about that kind of thing
honestly.
Makes no sense
what's the point of showing off when you both already know each other's income level anyway?
I run a small business and I drive a kei truck lol
Sounds like someone with zero real-world work experience.
Well, you're clearly not upper class then.
It really doesn't matter
subordinates don't think anything of a boss driving a kei truck
besides, you can roughly guess someone's income from company pay scales anyway.
You also get part-time worker aunties driving what looks like an expensive foreign car.
with a phone, if you're stubborn about it, you can just pay off the remaining balance
and make it fully yours — total comes to under ¥200,000, was it?
But honestly, you kind of have to feel bad for the people who bought
the plain iPhone 16 on a residual-value plan planning to trade up to
the plain iPhone 18 this year — since there was no plain (non-Pro) iPhone 18 released.
I saw this before, but apparently the smartphone version has 0% interest.
The car version charges a decent chunk of interest
and interest even applies to the residual portion (well, I guess that's only natural).
Just switch to the 18 Pro, problem solved lol
Smartphone residual-value plans are ridiculous too.
If you can't afford an expensive phone outright, just use an entry-level Android ("doro") instead.
You're not doing anything demanding with it anyway lol
Carrier-model iPhones have an extra ¥40,000–60,000 tacked on, which is basically the interest cost.
The Apple Store's interest-free 36-month installment plan is way better.
Dammit.
How did you even set up a 7-year loan for a car?
Aren't 3, 5, and 7 years the standard loan terms for cars?
With a bank or other financial institution's loan, you can set any term up to 10 years
I've actually never used dealer financing or a residual-value loan.
The kind of class where broke people buy it on a residual-value loan and go bankrupt.
Rank-wise it's upper-middle
basically the top of what an ordinary person can just barely afford in the luxury bracket.
A rural electronics store
I'm honestly surprised they can pay salaries at all when there's barely any customers.
That's about right
as a store manager, he's probably on a fixed annual salary with no bonus.
General benchmark: At most major and mid-size chains, store managers (management-level, roughly equivalent to a section chief) earn around ¥6–7 million a year.
Large or top-selling stores: Managers of flagship stores (large urban locations) or extremely high-performing stores, especially those also holding a department-head-level role, can earn close to ¥8–10 million.
Performance-based variation: Pay often varies with store sales and performance (incentives and bonuses), so managers at underperforming stores can end up stuck in the ¥5 million range.
it's a better car than its reputation suggests, you know? The Serena.
A smart dad picks something like a Serena or a Voxy.
The Serena's great
I rented one recently and it was good
there's four of us — me, my wife, and two kids — and being able to spread out across the three rows of seats was nice.
The Serena's body price is cheap, but maybe because the interior's made of cheap materials, it tends to break down easily.
normally you'd be cautious about a ¥6 million purchase, but these guys sign on the dotted line without a second thought.
It's because of people who can't even do basic math that jobs which just skim a cut off the top get to thrive.
But in the end, it stopped being sustainable after a few years, he was forced to give up the car, and on top of that got hit with an additional settlement demand
at the end of the day, it just shows that surprisingly few people actually understand what a residual-value loan really means.
Same as revolving credit payments
society keeps turning because there's always a certain number of people like that
America is basically built on it lol
still, a house I get, but at least buy a car with cash. I mean, if you're a rookie fresh out of school, fine, but once you're over 30…
Background and Key Points of Debate
A residual-value loan (“zankure”) is a financing scheme in which monthly installments only cover the purchase price minus the car’s projected trade-in value at the end of the contract. This makes the monthly burden look lighter, but if the buyer fails to meet the conditions for the guaranteed residual value when trading the car in, they end up facing an additional settlement charge. According to the survey cited in the article, fewer than 40% of people correctly understand this mechanism, and more than half answered that they “don’t understand” it — suggesting a lack of adequate explanation or understanding at the time of contract. On the thread, the debate centered less on doubts about the contract terms themselves and more on whether the car’s class was simply too much for the buyer’s income and family situation, with many commenters questioning the soundness of his spending decision. Some also compared it to smartphone residual-value plans, but most phone contracts charge no interest, whereas car residual-value loans charge interest even on the residual portion — a key difference that neither the article nor the thread fully spelled out, making a simple comparison between the two misleading.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Breaking News Plus) thread “[Automobiles] What a Terrifying Contract… The Downfall of a 45-Year-Old Salaryman Earning ¥6 Million a Year Who Finally Got His Dream Alphard Through a “Zankure” Loan.”
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