Buying a new car the year out of college, dumb or not?
 

Graduating next week (GA Tech represent!) but already started working about a month ago. Currently making 30 bucks an hr and about $870 a week after taxes (~3500 a month)and hopefully a little more when I transition from contract to perm in june. Currently paying $1000 a month for my 22k school loans. $500 a month to the mom for house stuff. which leaves me $2000 for food gas fun and saving for car (living at home atm and I probably won't use more than a $1000 on food gas fun per month, usually less).

Have that itch to get a new car, which might be due to having drove an old passed down from cousin geo prizm for all my life (it's a reliable car with working everything, so nothing to complain about really outside of getting on the freeway:( ) when going to a rich ass highschool where kids get bmw's for birthdays.

Also the whole 'buying new is like burning away money' thing and the asian parent's ideology of 'financing for a car is evil, should be bought with cash' and 'never buy new!'

My dad told me I should at least save up at least half the value of the car before buying, but in the end it's ultimately up to me.

So yeah... any advice? My prizm is perfectly fine and so a new car is purely for 'fun' and not a necessity. I probably could also get a used miata... but I kinda want something 'new'... psychological thing :D (and new car smell <3).

ty

It's pretty much up to what you want. It would be sort of neat to sock away a payment to yourself for every payment you make on your student loan. When the student loan is paid off you can show your parents how wise you are by buying a new FR-S/BRZ with cash.

Believe me you will probably appreciate/enjoy it more then than if if you bought it now and dealt with the guilt.

Buying a new car with any kind of student loans is not the wisest choice...but hey you get one life, sometimes you just need to enjoy it....:happy0180:

There really isn't anything wrong with financing a car. Just check your finances and if you can afford the monthly payment without putting yourself on too tight a budget, go for it. You will need to finance something to build your credit when you want to go buy a house or something anyways.

I bought my car with my students loans not paid off, if that helps you any.

It's totally up to you in the end, but if you're living with your parents and you don't spend money like crazy, it's do-able. I know a friend who is pretty much in the same boat as you, but he's driving around in a G37. I'm not from GA, but premium insurance for my BRZ is just as cheap as my 94 Camry with minimum insurance. :)

My advice would be to not take financial advice from strangers on a message board (I'm totally not trying to be funny here)

That said - If it were me, I would pay off the $22k before I considered taking on more debt that I didn't have to.

Definitely wait a bit more. This is a big life expense. Don't forget insurance on top of the payments. Maybe try going a month or 2 without buying the car, but putting the money you would be spending off to the side. See how your standard of living is without having that extra cash.

Heck, maybe even after a month of 2, you'll decide that you don't want to buy a new car, or want a different car. Don't forget about saving up for a place to live. Your mom doesn't like you that much.

I was and am pretty much in the same situation as you are. I just graduated from University as well and my job pays me basically the same amount but a big difference is that I cleared my student debt. I thought about buying my FR-S for a while and decided to pull the trigger rather than getting a used car for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, I work quite a ways away and had an 04 Mazda 3 when I worked my co-op placement there which although it was reliable for the money, did break down a few times and although I was relatively close to my destinations when it did, it could have ended up not being the case since my commute at the time was approx 130km one way. I also had the same idea that buying new is money down the drain but I wanted to do it mainly for the peace of mind for a car I plan on keeping till it dies.

Once I decided to buy new, I had the usual options, (Mazda 3, Civic, etc.) Which would put me around 20-25k depending on trim and model etc where as an FR-S put me just under 30k. So although it was more expensive, I justified it in my mind because I was already paying the new car premium, why not buy the car I love.

In the end it really comes down to your personal decision, my dad agreed with me buying new for the peace of mind option as well and although he's not a big gear head, he knew I had a passion for cars so he understood my decision completely.

Also important to note that I sold my Mazda 3 at the start of this school year since I didn't need it while I was here so I needed some sort of car for work regardless unlike you.

I worked through school and made it through the tough days dreaming about the car I'd be proud to own so I pulled the trigger on the FR-S and haven't looked back, for me, it was a great decision and I have no regrets.

But that's just me, to each is own.

Hope that helps though

Do you want to live home for the rest of your life?

Pay off your school loans.

Buy a decent car thats reliable and cheap to maintain.

Save until you can afford the basic things a man should have. aka HOUSE, financial security.

Then, and only then, you can buy an impractical sports car.

/life.

dont buy this if u have bills and loans unless u can pay it and still save up some money. but mods will prolly take that away (to hard not to i soon discovered)

My question; The job you have now, is there more room for advancement? If there is, spurge just a bit :). If you can make more income with an advancement and you enjoy what you are doing, do it. No one is stopping except for you. You might want to keep the Prizm(In my opinion) for work purposes(I do not know your commute.) And a FRS for the night/weekend fun?

If you want to get out of the house, you might want to rearranged your lifestyle, then do not get the new car until the next year so you have a good sense on your financial wellbeing. Like some of the replies on this thread, put 6 months of "payments" in a saving account that you are excepting to pay and use that as an downpayment or take the payment plan you can afford with that 6 months savings and keep repeating it until the car is paid off.

This is one of those issues where the answer is to play the "opposite game". If you are the kind of person that finds money "slippery", and you find yourself spending more than you mean to, racking up credit card debt, buying things that you didn't really want afterwards - then take the conservative route and save the money. However, if you are very buttoned down, find yourself steering away from spending, and getting little joy from a second-hand material lifestyle that you don't enjoy that much - then do the opposite and splurge, as long as you write a business plan that shows you can afford it while still paying your bills and putting some money aside.

I bought this car less than a month after I graduated. I also had job offers before I picked up the car too, though. Sounds like you've got some take-away money to work with but make sure you're saving a good chunk too.

Get the 0.9 or 1.9% financing from pennfed and do it! Or sign up for the Subaru VIP program and buy a BRZ at invoice price. Only catch is you'll need to wait 6 months but I see this as a good opportunity to save up "rainy day" money.

scion also has some sort of college grad thing right?

For the most part I'm quite money stingy (been raised that way lol). Having work is great because I don't needa care about my wardrobe that much. And I mostly stay home on weekends or go to the gym.

On spurge on new phones, some games. I think I can easily put aside 1300 as 'car money' with my current life style.