[tranzformer]

Originally Posted by Buggy51

My current idea for how to approaching paying the car is well... go to the bank/credit union and have an estimate on what you can get for the lowest interest rate for a certain loan (get a credit report from www.annualcreditreport.com/ through one of the three financial services and you can probably have a good estimate on your finances). From that information (roughly when they have an idea when your car is in stock), proceed to the dealer and see if they can beat the interest rates on the bank/credit union. If you can do a lump sum of cash, see if they're willing to negotiate. Don't feel pressured I suppose, and you can always walk out and come back another day?

Not sure that will work. Most of the time the dealership makes some money if you finance through them. They don't if you pay cash. If you finance or pay in cash, they still get the money at the end of the day when you drive the car away. So not sure why they would put a higher premium on you paying with cash?

Originally Posted by Zgrinch

As I stated earlier in the other thread, I totally understand this logic. However I personally place a high value on security, since I have sole financial responsibility for my wife and family, and so my goal has been to eliminate all forms of payments, including car, house, and college tuition for my kids, and to that end i have been fortunate to reach those goals so that all that I am left to deal with is gas, food, utilities, college books/room and board for my kids, etc.

Again, I'm not disagreeing with your logic, because it is very sound.

Personally, knowing that my family will not have any real debt in case something happens to me, or I lose my job, or the economy takes another tail spin, etc is just high on my priority list.

I fully realize that this security is indeed costing me some extra money, but it helps me sleep at night.

I can totally understand where you are coming from. I wasn't really disagreeing with you, just trying to show a different perspective. In the end they both work and you have to be comfortable with whatever decision one makes.