[Need Advice] Making Final Decision on Vehicle this Week

I'm not trying to talk fatherly to u because u have one already. I'm talking to u as a fiscal responsible individual and I know that's hard to do as a college student. I bought a rig a year for 4 straight years to start my business. All the rigs I bought were between 25k and 30k with under 500k miles. Now with great credit that I have, I couldve gotten rigs costing 115k, but that's cutting my profits. Even when diesel was almost $5 a gallon, I was still making great money. Now the vehicles I bought make money eventhough they lose value also. Getting a new trendy looking car isn't going to change who you are. As a college student, paying a car note is just another headache.

I'm just saying, if you have $3500, go get a $3500 or $5000 car and be done with it. My dad wouldve done what your dad is going to do by cosigning, but it feels better when you can do it without dad. You can get a good,solid, car for $3500-5000 dollars. Just do autotrader.com in austin and put in $5000 for price. You can always get extended warranties just like the one u can get on the 14k car.

 

I have a bottom of the line Mazda6 I bought in '04, and it's been trouble-free.

No brake problems. No transmission problems (unlike my '02 Altima that spent three months at the dealership waiting for transmission parts). And the thing was cheap at the time compared to similar cars.

That said, I've had a few Hondas/Acuras in my past, and those things really did seem indestructible. I put 100,000 miles in 2.5 years on my Integra and was a good bit lax in maintenance and whatnot (I was young and stupid).

Food. I buy that stuff one day and a couple of days later, I'm flushing it down the toilet.

 

I still say you're the narrow minded fool. The reason being you think everything you do in life has to be an investment. Buying season tickets to the Rockets won't get you a return. Buying a new digital camera for your photography hobby is not. For some people, cars are their passion and they want something nice. Maybe it's not the case for this particular OP. But you generalized it for every car owner. Not everything someone does is because it will make them more money.

 

If you are ever planning on trading the vehicle or selling it go with Honda. Re-sale values on Honda are very high.

 

iam with u man. people still think its ok to spend money u aint got on cars and houses though cause they been brainwashed over the years to think this is good and makes sense

plus dude is a young kid so maybe he wants to use his car to get the chicks so maybe its worth it to him. but a mature level minded guy or girl would def stay within there budget and not buy something they have to finance right off the top. save that money for school cost or something is what i would say

and 15 grands for a lx accord is not a good price. u probably just looked desperate or too attached to the car when u went in so the guy knew u were gonna be back

 

Yonkers, we're talking "big ticket items." You don't finance digital cameras or season tickets or I hope not. That kind of thinking is why people are getting cars repoed and houses forclosed on. I've never had a car financed in my life. When I was in college, I had a dave ramsey special, a beater. When I was teaching, I had a 7k car. Halliburton, another cash car. I started driving rigs and had the same cash car. When I bought the benz, it wasn't new, but I paid cash for it. I pay cash for everything and my credit score is 0. That means I qualify for the best rates possible. If u pay in cash, you spend lesss and stay liquid. Hell, if he needs a nice car to get chicks are for validation, he's in trouble anyway. I was pulling women in my 91 caravan and I'm talking 8-10 too. Its always better when ur young to think cash vs credit.

 

I agree that if you can get the car straight up with cash, you can probably knock that price down to 12k-13k. I'm paying finance on my Scion that I absolutely regret. At least, I should've gone to a credit union and get a car loan instead of letting Toyota finance it. If your university has a credit union, they'll probably offer one of the lowest interest rates.

In my experience looking at used cars, a 2006 Accord with low mileage like that do not depreciate much, so 15k is a good deal by itself.

 

I'd go with the Nissan! It's newer, has lesser miles, a lower price, and is a good brand name in its own right.

 

It's a Sentra though. If it were an Altima, I'd agree that he should choose the Nissan, but Sentra is a step below Accord in terms of size, power, and comfort.

 

It's great you think cash is better than credit. But your thinking is too narrow. In general, I mainly I agree with you. Personally I pay my credit cards off at the end of each month, so it's pretty much like cash. My BMW M5? I paid in cash too. Not a great 'investment', but I get enjoyment out of it everyday.
But the thing is I wouldn't have had any qualms about financing it. If I thought I could get a better investment than the 8% I was going to have to pay to finance a used car... I would have.
I'm not saying that the original poster should go out and blow a lot of money on a car. My point was against your statement of "People need to realize, its just a car". For some people it's not just a car. They pay a lot of money for something they enjoy, and as long as they can afford to, they're not stupid for it.
Also, if you think you have better credit because you only pay cash and never finance anything... that's laughable. Good credit scores come from having a long history of using credit and paying on time. And from having a lot of companies trust you with a huge amount of money, but never actually using it. That's why I still keep some of my old credit cards with large lines of credit.
And yes, I agree that financing small ticket items are stupid. My point with those things was to say not everything you buy has to be a good investment.

 

I don't think you get any discount buying cash. From the perspective of the seller, the money will either come from you (in cash) or from the bank (from your loan). They get paid in full right up front either way.
In fact, they would prefer you to not pay cash and go through them for financing because they make some money on top of that. Going through that method they would even give you a discount because they know they can make it up on the back end.

 

I have had the good fortune to see the inner workings of a car dealership without having to actually work there, and I can second the notion that the dealership would rather you finance and finance through them.

And not only the dealership, but the salesman and the F&I guy, too, who often get extra compensation when the customer finances through the dealership.

A dealership isn't impressed by cash. It's all essentially cash to them.

 

Yonkers, the sheer formula of a credit score is ridiculous in its root. Why would u ever need a credit card? We can go on and on and I know people learn with age. My pops taught me that if u don't have it in the bank, u don't need it. If the only bills people had were mortgage , health and life insurance, food and utilities, they could have so much more money saved it would be awesome. A persons biggest wealth building tool is their income, but most people have so much income going out, they can never use it. If 40% of ur take is going out the door, ur a injury away from bankruptcy and being homeless. That's the sad truth.

 

Hey, no argument from me there, except the credit card piece but that's more from the perspective of convenience. I use it for the rewards I get and for the convenience of not having to carry around huge wads of cash. And debit cards don't do it for me for various other reasons. But I do use my credit card as if it were cash... ie, I don't spend more than I already have in the bank to pay off at the end of each month.
I'm 100% debt free so you have no argument from me on that front.

 

We had very different fathers.

 

For you youngsters on the board, listen to leebigez - he's speaking wisdom. Debt sucks, even if you have a new shiny car out in the driveway of your new shiney house - you won't sleep as well as the guy next door who is debt free.

 

If everyone thinks like Leebigez, we wouldn't be in this economic mess right now

 

That's a gross generalization that may or may not be supported by the facts.

Individuals have many different things that make them happy. And one can be completely debt-free and miserable and one can have a manageable amount of debt and be happy. And vice versa.

Heck, my wife's step-mother is not only virtually debt free (she has some mortgage debt on a very modest house, but that's it) but has a current net worth of about $1 million. And she's consistently miserable.

And somebody like my Dad who spends money like it's going out of style, racking up millions of dollars in debt (though his current net worth is around $7 million, so he's still ahead of the game) and it would take a blow torch to get the smile off his face 90% of the time (and without taking on debt to start businesses and whatnot, he wouldn't have a $7 million net worth now).

Life is never as simple as "Do this. Don't do that." Yes, nearly everybody would be better off financially being smarter about debt (and that doesn't necessarily mean to never take on debt), but that doesn't necessarily translate into happiness.

 

Bravo.

Two things you can learn from this.

1) There is good debt and there is bad debt
2) mrpaige knows a lot of rich folks