The problem with car debt (and I had some myself before finishing paying off my Civic) is that unlike a mortgage, your value goes down a lot once you take it off the dealer. So besides your interest, the car drops in value, so you are really paying a lot at the end of the day for a new car loan. However, I am not a car guy. I don't want someone else's problem and I'd rather pay off a car over 5 years that allows me to get to work so I can make those payments and more.
That same civic, I bought for 15.5, but after all said and done, paid close to 19k with interest back in 2010. I am still driving it and getting close to 150k miles and just made a lot of money from my stock options that I can now pay for a car in cash if I wanted to. Yet I haven't and don't plan on it. So even with stating what I said above, I think this was a good money decision at the end of the day since it allowed me to get to work to pay it off (one year early) and then I have a low cost vehicle for the life of it while being able to just hold onto and save that cash I recently received.