Car payment

[MarkBarbieri]

Our's is $168. We usually pay cash but got 0% financing and with our trade in that is what our payment came out to be.

Reminds me of when I bought a car in February of 2000. It was about $16,000. I was going to pay cash but they offered us 3.9% financing. I looked at my wife and said, let's finance half because the odds are that we'll earn more than 3.9% on our investments over the next three years. Boy was I wrong about that. The stock market crashed almost immediately after that. Sometimes things don't work according to script and you just have to laugh and roll with it.

 

[RachaelA]

Mine is nothing. DH's is $448 (which kills me!) because he rolled in negative equity from a lease. We pay over $1k a month on it though so it'll be paid off by the end of the year. We will never have more than a $300 car payment after DH's is paid off, but I hope to be able to pay for our cars in cash.

 

[Tinkermommy]

No car payments. I'm old and prefer to pay cash. When I was young, financing made sense.

Generally, I'd rather have a high payment for a short number of years than low payment for a long number of years. Don't get focused on the payment. That's an old trick that salesmen use to get you to take your eye off of the total cost. Suckers lose sight of the total cost and end up in leases or with insanely long loan terms. They never step back to look at the total cost.

That's not to say that it is never a good idea to lease or finance a car for a long period. I've just found that most people who do so don't think through the total cost (including finance charges, interest, resale, etc) and end up spending more money on cars than they would if they thought things through.

I was just going to say that. My husband is in finance. When we go to the dealership I just sit there and .

They try to ask what do you want your monthly payment to be? Wrong question!! You need to establish the price of the car first (the best and lowest you can get of course) then you talk about financing.

Of course, they will get your payment in the range you want it, but you may be paying on that sucker for years and in the end you will pay a lot more for your car.

 

[MM27]

My car is paid off now, but when I was still making payments they were $525 a month.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I was just going to say that. My husband is in finance. When we go to the dealership I just sit there and .

They try to ask what do you want your monthly payment to be? Wrong question!! You need to establish the price of the car first (the best and lowest you can get of course) then you talk about financing.

Of course, they will get your payment in the range you want it, but you may be paying on that sucker for years and in the end you will pay a lot more for your car.

I'm reminded of two incidents back when I was younger. When I was getting ready to make my first real car purchase someone advised me to focus only on the monthly payment because you'll always have a monthly payment. That was possibly the stupidest piece of advice I was ever given. Fortunately, I knew it was stupid at the time and ignored it.

I also remember a coworker excitedly telling me how he traded in his two year old Trans Am for a brand new one and only had to pay an extra $20 more per month. He was oblivious to the fact that he was also going to be paying for two more years. He was like the guy giving the advise above - you always have a car payment, so make it as low as possible.

 

[golfgal]

Reminds me of when I bought a car in February of 2000. It was about $16,000. I was going to pay cash but they offered us 3.9% financing. I looked at my wife and said, let's finance half because the odds are that we'll earn more than 3.9% on our investments over the next three years. Boy was I wrong about that. The stock market crashed almost immediately after that. Sometimes things don't work according to script and you just have to laugh and roll with it.

True, but even at the .05% or whatever our savings account is earning, at 0% financing we still come out ahead. We still have some investments making over 8%, even with the crash so I don't feel so bad about it. I have it automatically withdrawn from our bank account so it doesn't "feel" like I am making a car payment.

 

[MichelleVW]

I also remember a coworker excitedly telling me how he traded in his two year old Trans Am for a brand new one and only had to pay an extra $20 more per month. He was oblivious to the fact that he was also going to be paying for two more years. He was like the guy giving the advise above - you always have a car payment, so make it as low as possible.

Yeah, but for some of us that like new cars and count on having a car payment pretty much forever, that is a sweet deal! You can argue the logic behind it all you want, but it's all about personal priorities and what you want out of life.

 

[mrsklamc]

When you sign a mortgage, you have to sign a document that states the total amount you will pay over time. I wonder how the auto industry would change if this were the case for them.

 

[nikkistevej]

We paid our last payment of $548 last month!! More money for my Disney trips coming up soon.

 

[creativeamanda]

When you sign a mortgage, you have to sign a document that states the total amount you will pay over time. I wonder how the auto industry would change if this were the case for them.

I thought they had to do this when the rules were changed for the credit card industry?

 

[golfgal]

When you sign a mortgage, you have to sign a document that states the total amount you will pay over time. I wonder how the auto industry would change if this were the case for them.

That information was on our car loan papers-I am pretty sure it is a requirement whenever you borrow money.

 

[Handbag Lady]

$159. I paid mostly cash. Three year loan, but will probably pay it off faster.

and my car is lavender.

 

[HOGFAN]

$420/month for DH's truck. He thinks he is gonna trade it in soon...NOT!
$220/month DS17s car

 

[bigbabyblues]

We have two right now--around $300 for the van and $200 for DH's truck. This is the first time DH has had a car payment that was a loan longer than 6 months.

One thing to think about (although I wouldn't ask her and doubt you would either) is how long she has the loan for. If it's a 2 or 3 year loan, the payment will be higher than if she financed for 5 years, and I think they can go even longer than that now.

 

[kinntj]

Our car payment is $427 for our Honda Odyssey. This is our only car payment. My DH paid his off 2 years ago and plans on running his Malibu into the ground. He only drives 7 minutes to work, so he's not using his too much. We're also saving for our next car when DH's does decide to go capoot. I love my van , so I plan on driving that into the ground too.

 

[mumom95]

When we buy a car I usually plan on putting enough down to get the payment to no more than $300 a month for 3 years. And I think we've always been able to get 0% financing. We've always had 2 cars, but have never had more than one car payment at a time. It is nice when we have no car payments.

 

[scrapquitler]

I think that if $400 is a lot or not really depends on the term of the loan more than anything. Sure, a $250 car payment might seem more 'reasonable', but maybe that $250 car payment is for 5 or 6 years, and your friends $400 car payment is is 3? See what a big difference it makes?

The last time we bought a car, we bought a brand new Subaru Outback, financed thru the dealership at 1.9 or 2.9%, BUT to get that rate, we could only finance it for TWO years. We put almost no money as a down payment, and our monthly payment was like $800. But in TWO years, it was paid off completely. Sure, $300 would have been more 'reasonable' of a car payment, but we didn't want to pay for 4 or 5 years or more. And before anyone thinks that we paid too much for the car, we always buy new and then drive the car for at least 8 years or 125K miles.

 

[luvindisneyworld]

I pay 370.00 a month. I financed mine for 72 months at 0% interest.

 

[luvindisneyworld]

It does state on how much at the end of your term that you will have paid for the car, it has always been in my paperwork.

When you sign a mortgage, you have to sign a document that states the total amount you will pay over time. I wonder how the auto industry would change if this were the case for them.

 

[DVC-Don]

Three of our vehicles we own but one has a payment of $245 per month.