<p>Even if funding doesn’t come from LOANS, it comes from resources/assets that the parents/family could have allocated elsewhere, such as savings, investments, retirement, long term care insurance, etc. Every family needs to make choices and weigh the pros & cons of those choices as best it can. There are always trade-offs; some are less openly visible than others. </p>
<p>Yes, haven’t had a car loan since the only one I had in 1986 that I paid off when I could no longer deduct interest. The next car we bought, we charged with 0 interest for 6 months & paid it off in full when the 6 months was up. All other cars, we deferred buying until we could pay in full. The last car we bought was from a guy who had leased it new for 4 years & only had 9000 miles on it–we got it for only $13,500 (which is what he would have had to pay the leasing company to buy it).</p>