Many Americans live somewhere where driving is a necessity. As nice as it would be for everyone to live in 15-minute cities, the unfortunate reality is that most U.S. infrastructure forces many people to need cars. And that often means financing a car . Recent studies have found that Americans carry a lot of auto loan debt, around $1.68 trillion. Sure, some of that is because cars are getting more and more expensive, but is there more to this number than that? How Big of a Deal Is Auto Loan Debt? To start, let’s put that $1.68 trillion into perspective. In a new report, Fortune notes that nearly “one in four Americans are paying off auto debt.” The report then says that this number is “on par with all outstanding federal student loan debt ($1.69 trillion of federal debt and $1.84 trillion total) and ahead of credit card balances ($1.28 trillion outstanding as of last year).” In fact, according to the numbers, “cars are rivaling everything else in terms of debt bondage for everyday Americans.” Why Do…