I've never financed anything... If I can't pay cash then clearly I can't afford it. If I want something nicer then I just need to wait and save a little more. I bought a new truck at the dealership and they about had a cow when I reached into my cargo shorts (both pockets full) and started counting 100's.
FranktheTank wrote: If I can't pay cash then clearly I can't afford it. If I want something nicer then I just need to wait and save a little more..
This is not true.
I've paid cash for cars and financed them. My bank account doesn't seem to care whether I'm putting X amount aside per month to save up for something or put x amount aside per month to make a payment on something. Seriously, there is no difference. With one exception: when you make payments on something, you get to use it right then and there. And you still have your wad of cash in reserve.
And these days, with zero to 1% interest financing, tying up a wad of cash in a depreciating asset is silly, when you can use someone elses money and keep your cash in reserve for any necessary expense (or even put it into an investment account).
Acting superior because you paid cash for something doesn't make you superior. You could have just as easily and safely used that cash you set aside every month to save up for something to make payments on it and had it much earlier. And your bank account would not have noticed the difference.
fast_eddie_72 wrote: It's just me being totally selfish and wanting to retire someday before I'm 70.
You seem to think that that's mutually exclusive to making payments on a nice new car. Maybe it is for you.
Listen, I grew up below the poverty line. Well below it. But as a car guy, I still owned a lot of fun cheap cars, so I know where many of you are coming from. BUT, I also decided that I needed to (even though I couldn't afford college back then) get jobs that paid enough that meant I had a retirement fund AND allowed me to play with more than $500 beaters for the rest of my life.
I also almost died in a car explosion back in '92 (a friends car that literally blew up while we were driving down the road). After that, and after a close friend of the family died at 50 from a heart attack out of the blue (he was otherwise healthy and ate right and exercised) I realized that simply saving everything up and living cheaply to live better at retirement wasn't the only way to live. So if I want something nice, I have it NOW, not later. Later may never come. I still save for later, but I make payments on new cars and have a good amount of life insurance just in case.
I still take vacations every year (last year was a cruise to the Carribbean, this year is a trip to Scotland to see the family castle). I live comfortably but modestly in a house I like. And I intend on retiring well before 70. That doesn't preclude me having new cars that I make payments on. As I said, my bank account doesn't care whether I'm saving a monthly sum for later or using that same monthly sum to make a payment on something I already have.
And when I die, I won't have any regrets about how I lived. I won't say "I needed to work more hours" or "I missed out when I was younger." I watched my wife's folks live for years in a nursing home with alzheimers before dying, after having saved and scrimped and denying themselves things when they were young enough to appreciate what they could have had. I'm watching my own parents end up similarly (my dad has Post Polio syndrome and can't walk and can't drive now). The "golden years" that both sets of parents should have been enjoying are not enjoyable, regardless of income and savings.
This just a long rambling way of saying, I've paid for cars in cash, I've financed traditionally, and I've leased. NONE of them have meant I couldn't retire before 70.
Chris, that's fine. We're all different. I'm not judging you or how you buy cars. Good on you and I hope you enjoy your vehicles.
In reply to Chris_V:
Pretty much my thoughts exactly.
I can only add that my 100+ mile a day commute makes me want to drive a reasonably nice car for a couple of reasons.
First, I spend over 2 hours of my life in my car every day. More if I have to drive somewhere for work. I want - arguably need - my car to be a comfortable place to spend time. I've used my E30 as a commuter. As nice as that car is for an E30, it's a sh1t-box when it comes to driving comfort.
Second, because I drive so much and need my car to get to work, reliability is important. So far, the TDI has been as reliable as gravity. It's never broken down or left me stranded. Even when things have broken, it's still been driveable.
In reply to Ian F:
It all comes down to what you and Chris are both saying. You have to weigh the financial cost against the pay-off you get from a car. That can be enjoyment or something else. For me, the 4Runner is a utility. It gets us around and I don't much have to worry about it. But I also have an '84 Celica with many times it's value invested in it. It's uncomfortable, has no AC, isn't terribly reliable, and only covers a few thousand miles a year, many of those in parking lots driving around cones. Financially it makes no sense. But the cost is worth it to me, because I really enjoy racing it.
Having said that, I would contest that our old 4Runner is comfortable, practical, and dead nuts reliable. I'd drive it to Brazil in a heart beat.
fast_eddie_72 wrote: Having said that, I would contest that our old 4Runner is comfortable, practical, and dead nuts reliable. I'd drive it to Brazil in a heart beat.
Oddly enough, my '86 Toyota 4x4 p/u left me stranded more times than anything I had owned up until I bought the Cummins... And your definition of "comfortable" is different than mine. When I started working in engineering back in the mid 90's, my Toyota was my only DD for my 30 mile (ea. way) commute. That truck beat the piss out of me. It was fun rev-matching w/o a clutch in stop & go traffic because the m/c had puked its fluid for the umpteenth time...
Now the 2013 Grand Cherokee I had for a rental a couple of weeks ago - that was comfortable. All leather, every conceivable do-dad option - vault like quietness. Getting back into my E30 the next day to drive home was the first time I've ever looked at SUV drivers with a touch of envy.
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