For those who have bought new, or next to new vehicles...
 

What life decisions did you factor into your purchase, I'm talking about for new or next to new cars over the 30k mark. (Your first major vehicle purchase)

I mean were you done school already?

Just got a full time job after finishing school?

Worked for a few years and saved up down payment, or the whole amount?

Paid off student loans/other loans?

Did you have any anxiety surrounding buying a new vehicle?

I'm just curious because it seems that a lot of people these days have money to put towards a new vehicle. I would like to get a new car but I am just wondering when I will be in the right financial/personal place to put towards a new car, just wondering how/what/when you guys decided you were ready.

You forgot just because i can..

Mainly looking for responses of people who felt they were ready to whatever financial state they were in at the time.

....because casino :troll:

ugh. after reading this i realized that after 20+ years of vehicle ownership, the car i own now is the first new car i've ever bought. everything before has either been (very) used or nowhere near $30k+...

Because powered by parents. :troll:

I bought a new car when I drove my last one to the ground. The MR2T's no slouch and is still the looker but I was tired of fixing it all the time. It's now sitting in the garage slowly being restored.

Funny how it happened, I had just replaced the alternator for the third time (those who own an MR2T know what a PITA it is because the crossmember needs to be dropped)... driving to work, I get a check engine light soon after. Code said it was only the O2 sensor but that put me over the edge. Following day, I went and bought a Sonata 2.0T.

Time was right, they had the 0 down, 0 interest for 84 months. I decided to finance it rather than pay cash. True I could've saved $5k paying cash but because I have my money in several dividend/income funds, I decided to leave it invested. Because of the monthly compounding effect, the money I would've taken out to buy in cash is generating enough income to make the monthly payments. However, I make the payment out of my wages... my golden rule is never withdraw from my investments. Just let it compound and grow but that's just me... Since I've owned the car, the money I would've spent has made me about $10k in dividends.

If you have enough cash to generate enough dividend to make the car payments, you're laughing... you'll still have your cash and you essentially have a free car... lol

Nabs if I was given the information on buying a tangible asset like property back when I was in early 20ys instead of a car I would have. I do suggest that if you have money laying around buy an investment property. With mortgage rates cheap its the best time.

Don't go crazy and buy a house but maybe a condo near a skytrain where you know you can rent it out. If you have any questions just give me a call anytime bro.

I bought my IS new off the lot after making a good chunk of change selling my first house and moving into something more affordable (yet brand new, just not in such a prestigious neighbourhood).

Gas prices rose, I was looking into an outside sales opportunity that I had to use my personal vehicle for and I traded it in for a brand new Fit. Took nearly a 30k loss in less than 3 years. Invoice was 55k, trade in value 26.5k IIRC.

Personally, I will never buy new again. Let someone else take the initial depreciation, take my time and wait for the vehicle I want, with the ideal history/kms I'm after to come up. Patience is key. Live and learn.

Do miss that air conditioned leather though :lol

Had cash saved up while I had my old car. Had a comfortable job, owned a condo with very low mortgage payments, and came across a very good deal. I was 25. 2 months later, I quit my job, found someone to rent my condo, and moved 1200kms away, and wondered why the fuck I spent a bunch of money on a new car to have it sit in a parking spot in Vancouver LOL. Now I sold it for less than half the price, and used the money to buy a car that was 10 years older and 10x more fun. Unless you have a family, or a job that depends on commutes, or a ton of money to blow, fuck new cars. 15k depreciation on my gti in 3 years makes me want to blow my fucking brains out when I think of how stupid it is. 4-5 year old cars and a tool kit are ideal for people who are interested in new cars and aren't rich.

So you lost 15k on the GTi in 3 years? You basically leased it for $417 a month, that's not THAAAAT bad...

I've ordered a 2014 ford focus ST. Still waiting for it to come in. I don't make great money and I do live on my own, so I don't have alot of disposable income. But the main factor was....


... For the amount of money I spend tinkering and wasting on old cars, I can easily afford the monthly payments for a car that will look better, be more reliable, be under warranty, will be more comfortable, be faster, and better for a future family I plan one day to have.
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^ Be very careful man, if a car in its entirety (car payment, gas, insurance, maintenance, mods etc) costs more than around ~20% of your take home income, it's a bit toooo much of a stretch.

$417 dollars more a month I can spend on modding my M3.:fullofwin:
Although, I have never financed a car, or leased it and would really rather not anytime soon.
I bet a good portion of people in vancouver are pushing the 40-50% mark

I take home after tax roughly $2500 a month. The focus will be $215 bi/weekly plus insurance and fuel ( which won't be much, my commute is 25km round trip)

I figured out with my old car like my miata I was spending WELL over that, and at the end of the day I was left with a car I didn't like taking on long trips or take girls on dates in :p
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Let other people take the initial depreciation hit, buy used.

I mean you can find cars that people are turning around and selling at 30000km where they soaked up anywhere from 25-50 percent of the initial depreciation. Even if they drove it like they stole it for the entire cars life, you will never have to spend enough on repairs to make it worth it to buy the new car vs. the used one.

The best is buying a 2 or 3 year old car a little after the new body style comes out, because used car prices dip another 10% right after a new generation comes out. A good example of this would be the GS from lexus, I still think the old generation is a beautiful VIP sedan, and its a great long distance car. When the new generation GS came out you could purchase the old generation GS450h w/ less than 50k km for less than $30000. Thats a STEAL.

The feeling of buying a brand new car is great. Waiting for it to arrive is like waiting for boxing day in X'mas.

Having worked in the car business for some time, I can tell you that NOTHING makes smart people ignore common sense more than somebody saying "0% financing".

I want to yell from the highest mountains that IF YOU ARE GIVEN A CHOICE OF A DISCOUNT ON THE PRICE OR 0% FINANCING, THE FINANCING IS NOT ACTUALLY 0% EVEN IF YOU CHOOSE THAT OPTION! Jesus Christ that is a hard concept to explain to some people.

For example (fictitious)

Lets say MSRP on a new X5 is $55,000. The dealership tells you "you can either take 0% financing for 5 years (on the MSRP price) or there is a $5,000 discount if you pay cash"

Ignoring taxes, your payment on your 0% loan would be $916.67.

However, if you just went to the bank and borrowed against the line of credit against your house at prime minus .5%, you'd be borrowing at 2.5% and your monthly payment would only be $885.52.

The "0% financing" actually has a built-in rate of 3.95% in the example and any loan you could borrow at less than that would actually be saving you money, even though it's not 0%.

Mark

^^ not just that, but when I was shopping around for a new at I realized the salesmen have absolutely no control over cost or financing rates. I remember when I was in fiat the salesman (although a nice chap) kept using the financing % as a sales tactic. Like "for this car our dealership usually does 5.9% but if you did the 60month term I might be able to get it to 1.99% for you"

And I'm like what?? You people have no control over percentages at all. It's up to the bank who is giving the loan to set what % of interest I will pay. Even if its a company like ford (who has in house ford financing) it's set by the company, not individual dealerships. Even if its advertised at 0% financing, you still hav to get approved for it.

Every dealership I went to were the same. Pissed me off.


Oh - and to the guys above, buying a used car only works when there are used models of the car you want. If its the first or second year, you might not find any on the market
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:facepalm:

miata > focus any day of the week imo :p if girls don't like it, you're dating the wrong ones! :D jk jk... but seriously... miata > focus...

0% financing is a scam.. just do some basic math on the cash incentive on the same car, and you'll see exactly how much you *are* paying in financing per month.

I'm in the never-buy-new camp. I would actually never even buy a 2 year old car. I think 3 years is the newest I would go because of depreciation hits, and even that's a stretch.

Of course, if you're ballin' out of control, theres absolutely nothing wrong with buying new. Unfortunately, I'm not in that situation.

In answer to your question, everyone will feel 'ready' at a different point in their financial life. Instead of phrasing the question as "When are you ready to buy a new car?", I would ask "When are you ready to lose massive amounts of money every year?"

I could make over $100K, and still not feel ready for that..

Maybe to car guys... but to any modern girl with a real job who lives in the city, a new modern Focus is not exciting, but it's normal - simply transportation. It's not a plus, it's not a negative, it's just a car. But a 20 year old Miata is an obvious junker. Like it or not, that's a negative to most girls. I make no judgment on whether that's right or not, but it's totally the reality of the world right now.

Mark

I could understand if the miata was falling apart or was really rusty (aka LOOKED like a junker), but 320's was actually really nice looking (apart from the blue... sorry dude but you know it's true :p). New cars are cool and all, but I'd rather have something interesting/unique than a boring car that everyone else has (except the impreza, I happen to really want one of those); which is probably why I drive a rotary... lol

Unfortunately this seems to be true for a lot of people.

And it is the exact logic utilized by the idiots who go and buy a 5+ year old 7 series beamer and then end up spending inordinate amounts of money every year to keep the car running. They believe people respond positively to the car they drive, which sure maybe people do, but that says almost nothing about the person driving the car...

In hindsight it was a stupid move, as the payments and the insurance sucked up a big part of my income, plus the gas the car needed. Don't buy new unless you can afford it - I shouldn't have done so.