Well, like they say in the "old Army" ..... "depends on the situation".

I paid cash ($200) for my first car, which was used (drove it for 10 years); paid cash for my second car, which was new ($1,300) (drove it for 12 years); financed a bunch of cars in between; paid cash for my last car (my FR-S).

No, WAIT ..... It can't be my LAST car ...... I haven't had a BUICK yet ..... !!!

http://www.runemasterstudios.com/gra...mages/woot.gif


humfrz

You're far too young for this to be your last car soldier!!! :lol:

I'd rather have 30k in my account and pay 1k in interest over 5 years than lose 30k in the first day of ownership. Interest is cheap. No point paying cash unless you have so much money that you dont know where to spend it. Doubt anyone here is in that situation.

If you have 30k cash, use it as a downpayment on a house (assuming you're renting and saving for a house). Use it for education, etc. There are so many things better than throwing 30k for a car.

I intended to pay in full upfront, but TFS offered me $10k at 0% interest over 36 mo. So I took the loan.

While I didn't say guaranteed, most well known low to medium risk ETFs/MFs have averaged 5-10% annually over the last ten years. Hell, a couple of my MFs did 25%+ last year, and I invest very conservatively.

bit coin

You pay now or pay later either way you pay right? Sure if someone doesent own a home, has lots of other higher priority bills I agree those should be taken care of first. However if you're at point those are all covered, all cash sure why not one less thing to owe on.

I got a better deal leasing, with a cheaper buyout at the end of 4 years as well. Saved 1200 compared to financing. Just make sure you look at EVERY option

Financed @ 6yr/1.74%

Well I got half of it financed, but then again I live in Norway, and gotta pay 100k USD for my GT86 TRD... Getting it in may-june thou, can't f****** wait :D

Consumer debt is a way to get something nicer and/or sooner than you could otherwise afford. For that privilege, you pay more. By paying more you end up with less money. It's foolish to believe that consumer debt will do anything else.

Cashola

Lol, sorry but I can't stand when people say stuff like this. If you even put $10k down, and have a loan, you're in debt, a loan is debt. Not everything you can sell is consdiered an asset, also. Yes many assets also come with expenses, such as a car or house. But you cannot conclusively say it is just an asset, because it isn't just that.

Your car is an expense, not a strict asset. What money are you making off of your 86? Are you renting it every weekend so that the money you make from renting it pays off your monthly payments? (for example.) If you paid cash in full for the purchase, no loan, you are still paying expenses for your car. Also, will you make the same money back you put down if you sell it? Probably not.

You can argue though, that the U.S. dollar is technically over 90% devalued, so you are getting more (brand new car) with devalued money. A bit of an abstract way to look at it but nonetheless true.

yes, I understand your point but I think you missed mine. while you are technically "in debt" I think that people TOTALLY overlook what the meaning behind "being in debt on a 25k car" means

0 down on a 25k car, 3 months later it's worth 22k let's say. You've probably brought the buy out to 24k.

So you're really only 2k in debt. what I'm saying is people are too afraid to "be in debt" when they don't think about the fact that they are not actually in debt for the price of the full car.

Who ever says a car is an asset is a bafoon.. A depreciating item is never an asset.. a house.. now that's an asset

I fail to see the point of the OP's thread.....

6-8 months x $3,000/month is $18,000 roughly, or more! I am low balling on the $3k/month too. That is a decent amount of money to just have as back up sitting there. However, I wouldn't just let that many "dollars" sit there. I would put it into something that had more long term value since the dollar is pretty much garbage. Silver is a good investment. Obviously, don't put all your eggs in one basket, but its good to be diverse in where your putting your money.

I see, so you are also taking into account the value of being able to use it as freely as you wish in any way you want, etc. So one gets more out of it in many different ways rather than just focusing on the dollar amount.

Could've paid cash, but I opted to put down $5k and finance the rest at 1.9%.

Why...?
1. I'm of the mindset that if the finance APR is low enough, I'll take the loan to keep/build better credit.
2. I'd rather have the cash in my bank, making me more money...or at least as a "cushion" for any life emergency. Dropping that kind of money at once, on a vehicle just isn't in my DNA.

That's because there isn't one.

A depreciating item is never an asset? Have you ever looked at a balance sheet??

Stocks are not guaranteed to return anything...unless you know something we don't, and I believe that's called insider trading, and is illegal.

Nothing is guaranteed in life except for death and taxes, lol.

There is a still a risk associated with those funds, so even if you normally do well, you have to keep in mind that that risk does not go away. And yeah, most people's retirement funds go into funds with varying types of risk, but it's just something to keep in mind. You may not have said you could get a guaranteed 5-10% back on your money, but your wording kind of implied it.

That said, grats on the well-performing funds. :respekt:

Yeah, and f**k both of those. :laughabove:

This is such a silly argument, the only right answer is to do whatever will help you sleep at night. People have different risk tolerance.

The most common argument against cash buyers is they can invest the money instead and make more than the interest. The keyword I don't see mentioned often is you can 'potentially' beat the interest. That is to say, you can lose money on your investment and also have to pay interest on your loan. I'm not arguing the likelihood of either outcome, you can of course employ various strategies like selling cover calls, but generally to make 5% you must be willing to lose 5%.

Paying cash is just a way of mitigating risk, you lose and gain 0%.
Financing could net you +2% (5% gain, 3% interest)
It could also net you -8% (5% loss, 3% interest)

It's also worth mentioning that neither option is going to make you rich or poor anyway, 2% of 30k is only $600 annually.

This is all true, but one of the biggest reasons to finance, provided your credit score is high enough and your APR is low enough, is that debts are worth less over time because of inflation.

To me, beating the market is a fool's errand because it's prone to huge swings and not something you can really predict. All it takes is a bad day and you're screwed, whereas inflation is relatively stable in comparison. If you get a 2-3% APR, you're effectively getting an interest-free loan in real-world purchasing power. If you're beating it, then the car is effectively costing you less than your purchase price.

Does being born to the right family count as "earn?"

Well, AznBRZer, I'm not certain that question is relevant to a FR-S/BRZ discussion......:slap:

If one was born "to the right family" ...... why would they be buying a FR-S/BRZ .. ?? ..... :lol:


humfrz

actually if I was "born to the right family" I'd buy 2 86's, one frs, one brz, and lavish the EFF out of them plus FI. fun dream indeed.

I'm confused on what you're saying about entitlement (or even when where this came from)

Are you saying those that get a car loan aren't entitled to their car because they haven't yet earned it?

This can't be... if so.. :lol:

Financed for me. I look at the interest amount I would pay over the loan term and ask myself is it worth that additional interest amount. Normally pay over the min payment amount.

I guess back to the original question...

14k down, rest financed

It was a 50/50 need/want scenario. I cashed out some funds to pay half my house off(and re-finance with lower interest rate) which left me with enough to pay for half of a car. My payments now are cumulatively less than just my old house payment. Plus my older vehicles were constantly letting me down and had poor gas mileage...needed that new/reliable backup. ..and something fun for a change.

Cash, paid in full.
Active income => Whatever I want.
Passive income => Living expenses.

I was set to do cash but then I realized how dumb that was that my mortgage was 5% and the car was 2% so I financed the brz and applied the money for the car to my mortgage.

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I'm financing and I hate being in debt. I can probably afford a $2000 car payment going based on 1/4 of income (+ insurance, etc.) but I hate being in debt.

Nah, nvm I get to drive an FRS every day :D

Hoping to pay it off in 1-2 years then the crazy downward mod spiral begins... For now its just bang for the buck for me.