No one is buying a car for funsies in this market. Cars break down, people get into accidents, people have kids and need larger vehicles, demand for transportation is inflexible, and people will take out loans to get it regardless of the rate.

> ...people have kids and need larger vehicles, demand for transportation is inflexible, and people will take out loans to get it regardless of the rate.

I think this is true but only to a certain extent. People can make sacrifices to reduce transportation demand. Making a single trip, getting a smaller vehicle, or carpooling are options. The issue is that we've lived in a luxury transportation world for a long time, and people may be unwilling to make those sacrifices.

Reducing how much you use a car is one thing. Reducing to the point that you can eliminate the need for a car altogether is quite another. You can combine two trips into one, you can't combine two into zero. You don't need to drive a hummer everywhere, but you need something large enough to fit everything you have to regularly take. You can probably carpool to some places at some times, you can't carpool everywhere at any time.

Maybe there is some idiot out there who doesn't need a car but just likes having an autopayment burn a hole in his wallet every month, but is that person going to be dissuaded by a 1% increase on interest rates? There may be a few people right on the cusp of not needing to purchase a car who could be moved over the edge, but these are a tiny minority, and their shift in behavior won't have a serious impact on prices.

Regardless, the fact is trying to reduce demand is just a bad solution to shortages. Increased demand justifies the investment in new equipment and infrastructure to meet that demand, which in the long term leads to lower costs all around, and increased employment which in turn fuels more healthy growth. While in an emergency you might want to ration something just so nobody starves, cars aren't an emergency supply.