Vehicle payment

[KARNUT]

What is your comfort zone in regards to your vehicle payment? How often do you trade in? If you’re upside down do you roll that in? And how does that compare to your spouse? … I never put any money down. I buy only when there’s a discount. For 40 years my business paid for my vehicles because I drove many miles for the business. I bought only year end or discounted trucks so I had different brands. That allowed me to have collector cars as my personal vehicles. My wife drove performance or sport cars usually for 5-7 years. The last is a 2011 Genesis. She still has her last sports car an Acura Intagra Type R. My retirement truck a 2014 Texas Edition GMC cost me 27K. It was discounted from the mid 40K. A big sale on 12/31/13. The dealer called me at my office needing one more sale. My ex son in law worked there at the time. All the stars aligned. It was our personal highest payment for a vehicle to date at 400$. Several years later and several more vehicles later my last new vehicle came in at 500$ per month. I’m in a different situation now being retired. I don’t see buying another new vehicle. I turned a different leaf. It happens when you get older. I’m going to run them longer. My wife still drives her 2011 it looks good. I just put 20K miles on my Avalanche in four years. That model will go 300K easy. The trip vehicle the Odyssey is just barely at 150K. I’m going with longevity. As far as payments. Unless it’s a screaming deal at 0 percent it’s cash here on out. There’s only a few brands I’ll buy going forward. We’ll just leave it at that.

[1454]

Personally, 0 down. It's a depreciating asset, I'm not putting cash towards it. That being said, I also don't really trade often. My last three cars were 3 years (still have '21 silverado), 5 years ('16 outback), and '15 outback (totaled- idiot hit me in the right rear and flipped it, bought a '16 right after) 

 

The misses has a '16 forester and it's long been paid off. *IF* I can stop having issues with my '21, I would like to keep it a good while longer. However, at 2 lifter failures in 46k miles, my patience is wearing thin. 

 

As far as "when" I buy, I buy if I get irritated with what I am driving or something really appeals to me. I don't really care about -+2/3k. In the grand scheme it's relatively meaningless. 

 

Payment-wise, currently 915@[email protected]%. I could do more or less. Depending on, again, how appealing the car is to me. 

 

I'll probably always do payments regardless of means unless interest ends up >5%APR. 

Edited August 9, 2024 by 1454

[calgator73]

2 hours ago, KARNUT said:

What is your comfort zone in regards to your vehicle payment? How often do you trade in? If you’re upside down do you roll that in? And how does that compare to your spouse? … I never put any money down. I buy only when there’s a discount. For 40 years my business paid for my vehicles because I drove many miles for the business. I bought only year end or discounted trucks so I had different brands. That allowed me to have collector cars as my personal vehicles. My wife drove performance or sport cars usually for 5-7 years. The last is a 2011 Genesis. She still has her last sports car an Acura Intagra Type R. My retirement truck a 2014 Texas Edition GMC cost me 27K. It was discounted from the mid 40K. A big sale on 12/31/13. The dealer called me at my office needing one more sale. My ex son in law worked there at the time. All the stars aligned. It was our personal highest payment for a vehicle to date at 400$. Several years later and several more vehicles later my last new vehicle came in at 500$ per month. I’m in a different situation now being retired. I don’t see buying another new vehicle. I turned a different leaf. It happens when you get older. I’m going to run them longer. My wife still drives her 2011 it looks good. I just put 20K miles on my Avalanche in four years. That model will go 300K easy. The trip vehicle the Odyssey is just barely at 150K. I’m going with longevity. As far as payments. Unless it’s a screaming deal at 0 percent it’s cash here on out. There’s only a few brands I’ll buy going forward. We’ll just leave it at that.

I'm comfortable with whatever payment as long as the interest is reasonable.  My '20 AT4 is $930 @3.24x75 and my 21 Hellcat is $1080 @0x72.  As I'm now about 15 years from retirement I'm adopting your method of cash unless the interest is 0.  I only have 38k on the truck and 7800 on the car and I work from home.  I don't foresee getting rid of them anytime soon.

Edited August 9, 2024 by calgator73

[KARNUT]

27 minutes ago, calgator73 said:

I'm comfortable with whatever payment as long as the interest is reasonable.  My '20 AT4 is $930 @3.24x75 and my 21 Hellcat is $1080 @0x72.  As I'm now about 15 years from retirement I'm adopting your method of cash unless the interest is 0.  I only have 38k on the truck and 7800 on the car and I work from home.  I don't foresee getting rid of them anytime soon.

The hellcat is an investment. And you get to enjoy it. My wife’s Acura falls in that category. We have collector car insurance on it. It’s not really my thing. I always had muscle cars. I can appreciate that there’s people who do. My nostalgia ride is the avalanche. I somehow lost the desire for the high horsepower rides. 

[CamGTP]

Around $300 a month. I always put extra cash down but I also never buy brand new. The most expensive truck I've bought was $25,000 back in 2018, it was a 2 year old truck at the time. Longest loan I've done is 4 years. I find is funny that they allow for 84 month loans now, people that do that can't even afford the car they are buying and will be paying so much in interest over that time frame lol.

 

Some people gotta be making a ton of money if you think $1,000 a month on a car note is fine lol, not something I could do with a mortgage and all the other crap.

[calgator73]

16 hours ago, KARNUT said:

The hellcat is an investment. And you get to enjoy it. My wife’s Acura falls in that category. We have collector car insurance on it. It’s not really my thing. I always had muscle cars. I can appreciate that there’s people who do. My nostalgia ride is the avalanche. I somehow lost the desire for the high horsepower rides. 

Avalanche is a nice ride...shame they had to bring it back as an EV.

[Z45]

I have not had a car payment in some 20 yrs. I pay cash, trade every 4 yrs.   I was required to drive a company vehicle (DOT GPS Surveyor)so I no longer needed 2 vehicles.  So I sold the 2nd one (2002 Trans AM WS6)  and paid off the truck and put the difference into saving account and started making payments to it for next truck.  I get a new truck every 4 yrs of ownership, not model years.  So far buying top of the line Sierra Denali's my trades have taken about 1/2+ off the purchase price of a new truck.  I could keep driving the current one but with all the gadgets (DFM, StartStop etc) repairs costs are confiscatory w/o a warranty and I will never pay them more $ for an extended warranty, rather buy new.  Each to his own..

Edited August 10, 2024 by elcamino

[Grumpy Bear]

I hate payments and interest. I've only owned 2 new unregistered four-wheel road vehicles in my life. I've bought several cosmetically flawed or 'orphans' (unpopular) vehicles going to or coming from auction with under 1,500 miles on them at deep discount. One with under 100 miles on it. Enough to still be ahead once the cost of a professional repair is covered. Even traded one of those to a dealer for more than I had in it. 

 

The wife will finance a balance after a hefty downpayment if the interest is low to zero. No longer than 36 months and usually paid off before term limit. We don't like debt. Couple of hundred is about the limit. 

[KARNUT]

2 minutes ago, elcamino said:

I have not had a car payment in 25 yrs. I pay cash, trade every 4 yrs.   25+ yrs ago I was required to drive a company vehicle (DOT GPS Surveyor)so I no longer needed 2 vehicles.  So I sold the 2nd one (Cadillac CTS) and paid off the truck and put the difference into saving account and started making payments to it for next truck.  I get a new truck every 4 yrs, 4 yrs of ownership, not model years.  So far buying top of the line Sierra Denali's my trades have taken about 1/2+ off the purchase price of a new truck.  I could keep driving the current one but with all the gadgets (DFM, StartStop etc) repairs costs are confiscatory w/o a warranty and I will never pay them more $ for an extended warranty, rather buy new.  Each to his own..

Years ago we started buying CPO or new with 0 percent interest for my wife’s rides. She’d keep them awhile. The reason for financing was our money was earning interest more than the cost for the financing. 

[calgator73]

23 hours ago, KARNUT said:

Years ago we started buying CPO or new with 0 percent interest for my wife’s rides. She’d keep them awhile. The reason for financing was our money was earning interest more than the cost for the financing. 

That's my method for a lot of things!

[KARNUT]

1 hour ago, calgator73 said:

That's my method for a lot of things!

JC Penney a few years ago was getting out of the appliance business in my area. They had 0 percent interest for 2 years plus discounts. We usually buy at the mom and pop scratch and dent store. We ended up with stainless appliances from JC Penny cheaper than slightly damaged at our usual store. And made money not using cash. 

[Grumpy Bear]

I try to buy the deal instead of the object. I also try not to place myself in a position of dire need. House was the only really big-ticket item we put on payments. Even that, the second house, we waited for years on interest rates then paid off as quickly as possible. 

[KARNUT]

9 minutes ago, Grumpy Bear said:

I try to buy the deal instead of the object. I also try not to place myself in a position of dire need. House was the only really big-ticket item we put on payments. Even that, the second house, we waited for years on interest rates then paid off as quickly as possible. 

The only thing I was taught in regard's to home buying when I was growing up was its better to buy than rent. It wasn’t until I had a radio in my clearing tractor. And listening to a financial person one Saturday. I realized the same multiplier that works for you saving works against you buying a house. If you simply just making regular payments you pay 3 times or more for your mortgage. Paying 3 times the purchase price in interest didn’t make any sense when just adding more to the principal. You could cut that in half or more by doing that. Little did I know my wife was ahead of me. We paid off the house in 12 years instead of 30. We had 3 paid off houses in 30 years. Costing the same money as if we just paid normal payments to house one.

[OnTheReel]

Pay it off before I trade or sell is my only strict policy and it’s served me well. Because of that, on new cars I wind up financing only a very small amount. Then I make double or even triple payments to clear out the rest and get the title in hand, never longer than 3 years (around the time I get bored with something). The vehicles I buy used I just pay cash. 

[1454]

On 8/9/2024 at 7:56 PM, CamGTP said:

Around $300 a month. I always put extra cash down but I also never buy brand new. The most expensive truck I've bought was $25,000 back in 2018, it was a 2 year old truck at the time. Longest loan I've done is 4 years. I find is funny that they allow for 84 month loans now, people that do that can't even afford the car they are buying and will be paying so much in interest over that time frame lol.

 

Some people gotta be making a ton of money if you think $1,000 a month on a car note is fine lol, not something I could do with a mortgage and all the other crap.

I'm not sure I understand this comment. I could have paid for my truck in cash when I bought it, but I chose to finance because of the rates. 2.xx at the time. Sure, there is finance costs, but i made significantly more on that 60k than I paid so far in finance charges. Claiming that people "can't afford" something because they choose to finance is incorrect. Can some, sure. The current payments don't even come close to exceeding a single digit percentage of my income.

Edited August 12, 2024 by 1454