To buy or not to buy?

[Howard]

premium gas.

regular

 

[Fenixgoon]

This is what I told myself, but then you have student loans to pay for once school stops. I had planned to buy a nice car, get a nice place, all that good stuff when I graduated. But, I have $42k looming over my head, which I would rather pay off quicker than drive around in a nice car. Then, up next is a mortgage. I feel like I will never be able to afford a nice car when I have all this other debt in the future...

so how is that going to be any easier if you buy a 15k car now as opposed to a 5k one?

 

[KIAman]

You are an engineering student so I hope you understand math.

You are potentially spending...

$250/mo (car payment)
$150/mo (gas)
$75/mo (cheap insurance)
$25/mo (average maintenance)

= $500/mo

when you are only making $700/mo????

Can you squeeze your eixsting lifestyle out of $200/mo?

 

[96Firebird]

so how is that going to be any easier if you buy a 15k car now as opposed to a 5k one?

Its not, I'm just telling my experience. No sense in blowing smoke up his ass telling him to wait until he graduates, because that is when the real bills begin. Unless he won't have any student loans, in which case he may very well be able to afford a nice car.

If it were me, and it used to be, I would find a cheap (~$2000) car to drive me back and forth. I am into cars too, I took the automotive option in my degree (mech. eng). I would see everyone else in my class with their nice cars paid for by mom and dad, doing mods and stuff, while I was kicking it around in my '95 Olds Cutlass. Without rich parents, college students can't live the life of luxury...

 

[JulesMaximus]

Holy depreciation Batman!

 

[punjabiplaya]

anyone else stupid and naive enough to have made this mistake too?

 

[saratoga172]

I guess you could say stupid and naive. But I was tired of buying beater cars that I kept having to fix.

First car: '96 Buick Riviera. Was great for 4 months until the idle pulley went out. $700 repair. This is how I found out the supercharger was going out. ($1200 to fix it if I went that route. Poor college student so I did without). Following summer my A/C went out in June. $900 to fix the compressor. Money I didn't have. I drove it without A/C for 2 months in 100 degree Oklahoma heat. Early August. Radiator went out so I switched to driving my motorcycle everyday.

2nd car: Bought a '96 T-Bird V8 in early August for $1000. Mechanically sound when we drove it around. A week later the transmission was acting funny. Drove it until Dec and got rid of it.

3rd car: 2011 Mazda 3 s Hatch. Bought in December and don't regret it at all. Put 3k down and took a loan for 15k. I've got 15k problem free miles from the car. Miles I know I'd have had to spend at least 2k keeping that t-bird running or getting another beater...which is a crapshoot.

Granted I make a little over 2500 a month between work and various computer side jobs so I'm not strapped for cash. My car and insurance monthly is about 600. And I'm saved up just for that 6 months out. I don't have a rent payment and only 10k in student loans from my freshman year.

OP: In your situation I'd look into a used car. Only bringing in around 7-800 a month is not ideal to be spending greater than 50% of your income. Then factor in insurance and gas, food, entertainment money and whatever else. Find a used Focus or something in the 4 range with under 100k miles and see if your bank will do a 50/50 loan with you. This way they know they won't be upside down. Do a 24 month payback which would put you around 100/month for payments depending on interest. You'll build good credit, won't break the bank, will still have money for a rainy day, and if you find a good car will have something that should only incur minimal repair costs.

My 2 cents. Obviously I didn't go that route.

 

[B.def]

You are an engineering student so I hope you understand math.

You are potentially spending...

$250/mo (car payment)
$150/mo (gas)
$75/mo (cheap insurance)
$25/mo (average maintenance)

= $500/mo

when you are only making $700/mo????

Can you squeeze your eixsting lifestyle out of $200/mo?

I will not be paying my car insurance during college and any maintenance can be thrown into a college loan until it is able to be paid off. I have extra loan money considering I'm getting a free ride through college, but will still have around $4,000 in books to pay off. I have around $1500 per semester of open loan money. Obviously I would pay it off before I get charged the full 7% interest on my loans. Also, I would be working more in the summers with the extra free time. But I have already been deterred from buying the CTS. I'm looking at the lower grands now, but still can't find the biggest bang for the buck.

 

[B.def]

I'm kind of looking at stuff like this 04 Grand Prix.

Decent miles, slick looking, and plenty of room for cruising with friends. Now the resale value after two years and 40,000 miles is what I'm not so sure about.

I assume bringing this dealership down to $7,500 can't be too hard and a $2500 loan can't be over $150 payments over two years.

Any opinions?

 

[Howard]

Get a 90s Toyota or Honda...

 

[Hellotalkie]

I'm kind of looking at stuff like this 04 Grand Prix.

Decent miles, slick looking, and plenty of room for cruising with friends. Now the resale value after two years and 40,000 miles is what I'm not so sure about.

I assume bringing this dealership down to $7,500 can't be too hard and a $2500 loan can't be over $150 payments over two years.

Any opinions?

Get a car 5 grand or less and be done. My brother found a 2005 ford zx5 for 4500 with 73k miles. Just gotta look around, the cars are out there.

My gf found a geo prizm (corolla) with only 72k miles for 2 grand.

Skip the monthly payment, I did it and I will not go back to it for a while.

- Environmental major

p.s if you live on campus, guaranteed your car will encounter some type of idiot wanting to hurt your new car!

 

[Viperoni]

FWIW, people give me a hard time over my Echo, but not only do I race it, it's all paid for, and if something farts or I wreck it, I don't give a shit. I could just walk to a used car lot.
Or lose my job and not give a shit.

Having been in your situation (did my BSc part time), I agree with most of the other posters, beater FTW.

 

[Magusigne]

5k Out the door bought my a 2001 Honda Civic LX 5 speed with 110k miles (Everything else good condition). This was in 2008.

I'm at 175k with it. No problems yet.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I picked up a 2000 VW golf for 3k for my GF, in good condition. College kid, go buy college car.

 

[fenrir]

I'm kind of looking at stuff like this 04 Grand Prix.

Decent miles, slick looking, and plenty of room for cruising with friends. Now the resale value after two years and 40,000 miles is what I'm not so sure about.

I assume bringing this dealership down to $7,500 can't be too hard and a $2500 loan can't be over $150 payments over two years.

Any opinions?

Earlier you mentioned you wanted something that would last 10 years. Now you are worried about resale after 2 years? I can remember looking at cars back in my early 20's and wanting the nice car that would cost me $20k-$30k and wondering if I could swing it.

I can honestly say that I am glad I never did go that route and went with the older used vehicles. They still looked nice, but really all a vehicle is doing is getting you from point A to B reliably. You can do so much more interesting things with the money you save by going with the older vehicles.

In your case, I would look at the year 98-00 Grand Prix (with the 3.8L) and save your self a good chunk of money. They still look good and you can still find them with low miles. My '98 GTP has 255,000 miles on it and is still running strong.