Quote:
Originally Posted by ZionsWrath
I think the op is trying to get at why are you spending money on a car you do not own. Yes if you finance the bank owns your car until you pay off the loan.
I finance and since i cant run summer tires in winter i bought wheels and tires. Im also taking it to the track this year. Becausevi financd i wss also able to contribute money to long term investment. Sure it may be safer to buy cash but you know that popular phrase, yolo. Just be careful with your debts. If i lost my job today i have enouh to pay off my car.
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If you lost your job, that money that you have liquid will likely help you live normalish until you find a new job. If you paid off your car and had no nest egg, and then lost your job, you might be selling your car to cover your rent or mortgage until you find a new job.
That does open the can of worms about buying a new car when you are living that close what you can "afford", though. No shame in it, though. We've all taken small risks like that in the past. I got my job as an engineer right after finishing under grad. My parents said I had to give my car back since I didn't go to grad school like they wanted (1st world problems, eh?). So, I had a good job, needed some wheels. I ordered a MKV GTI as my first new car... took delivery in Feb. In Mar, my fiance and I found the perfect house. In June we were getting married. So, all of a sudden, I have about $15k saved up, a $470/mo 4 yr loan on a new car, an upcoming wedding, and a house we wanted to buy. We risked it an bought the house with practically nothing down (housing bubble!). Kept our wedding costs in check, and kept our nestegg. A year later, the GTI was paid off, the wedding was easily covered by what we saved, and we were doing fine on the house. By living below our means since then, and buying a right sized house, my spreadsheets show that I'll have the house paid off in under 2 years (almost 20 years quicker than the original mortgage we took out), we have 2 paid off cars, and we didn't have to buy a bigger house when we had our daughter. Basically, I spent a lot of time calculating and understanding expenses and our job security before jumping into that new car, new house, wedding all within 6 months with very little cash on hand. Had I decided to pay the GTI in cash, there is no way I could have bought the house and I would have had no emergency fund. It was definitely a risk to do all of that at once and I did pay more interest than I would have if I just did cash. But, it was a reasonable risk.
In retrospect, I should have just bought my '01 2.5RS from my parents when they said they wanted the car back. That GTI was a disaster and I miss the plucky little GC6.
When I finally do get my FR-S, it will be wheels/tires only and maybe something like a Cusco steering wheel. Being my daily, I will need a set of tires for winter and then a set for the rest of the year. No justification for the steering wheel, but no care.