Automotive News Discussion

[Sijray21]

long loan terms at low interest are fine IMO.  higher interest over 5+ years means you're spending a lot of extra money to own the car.

But the 84-96 month loans seem too far?  But maybe if you do the math and its fine, and you have a decent down payment and yore never upside down on it?

it's all a shell game; i'm trying not to judge because spreading out very low interest payments could turn out to be better when you crunch the numbers. i'm just traumatized with debt since we spent so much effort the past couple years getting rid of my wife's student loans (successfully) that i cringe at adding any additional monthly payments to our existing budget. ultimately it just comes down to financial responsibility. i'm sure there are people out there with a $1k/mo loan/lease that can easily afford it and those with a $250/mo loan/lease that are scraping by. we all have our preferences and should know our financial situations. i don't think taking out a 72/mo loan is stupid, but i've made not great financial decisions in my 20s (like taking out a personal loan to buy a motorcycle) and showing up to the Nissan dealer to 'check out a truck', while i ended up driving it home that day on an impulse buy... (good price though, thank you $5/gal prices at the time). i had fun with those decisions though.

I say just know your preferences and what you're getting yourself into. i think anything passed 36/mo for a depreciating asset is asking for trouble in the event something happens to your income, but i didn't come to that opinion until a few years ago. Before that i thought 72/mo was the limit i'd be willing to take on. I think it just sucks when you have a 50-60k mile, 4-5 year old car that you're still making payments on and probably going to start making some repairs on. i don't think there's anything worse in the car ownership experience than having a payment on a car while dishing out money for repairs... and FFS, if you're going to trade in a car/truck, talk about that at the END of the pricing discussion of the car you're trying to purchase. i had a friend buy his new car talking about the trade in and he didn't even realize that what he thought was the price of the new car was actually after they factored in the trade-in...

[.RJ]

I think it just sucks when you have a 50-60k mile, 4-5 year old car that you're still making payments on and probably going to start making some repairs on.

Just add in 'German' and you're in my wheelhouse!

[Evan]

Where is that simpson's clip of the rusted out car in Nelsons backyard with him saying "just 58 payments left and that baby is ours"?

Whats the depreciation curve for luxury cars that stupid people buy to make themselves look rich? (Disregard for a second that those people usually lease)

Glancing at the amortization table, it doesnt look to me like you would really be upside down at any point in the loan of a 7 year, $40k loan @ 3%.
Of course you pay more interest, but at a low enough rate, it may actually benefit you to put your cash in other investments.

End of: Principal Interest Balance
Year 1 $5,213.66 $1,128.70 $34,786.34
Year 2 $5,372.23 $970.13 $29,414.11
Year 3 $5,535.63 $806.73 $23,878.48
Year 4 $5,704.01 $638.35 $18,174.47
Year 5 $5,877.50 $464.86 $12,296.97
Year 6 $6,056.26 $286.10 $6,240.71
Year 7 $6,240.71 $101.87 $0.00
Grand Total $40,000.00 $4,396.74

[.RJ]

but at a low enough rate, it may actually benefit you to put your cash in other investments

assuming these people have cash to put in other investments, or if they did, they arent buying fucking handbags and lattes or old motorcycles (oops).

[Sijray21]

but at a low enough rate, it may actually benefit you to put your cash in other investments.

i think this is where most people get caught because this assumes you'll actually put that extra money into investments instead of more fun 'now' things.

---

but at a low enough rate, it may actually benefit you to put your cash in other investments

assuming these people have cash to put in other investments, or if they did, they arent buying fucking handbags and lattes or old motorcycles (oops).

that's what i would do... so i know myself and i just go for the better debt situation...

[.RJ]

i lol'd at yore meme

[Senor_Taylor]

My 72 month is at 3% or something and I put down 20% on the car. My monthly payment is like $350.

Makes sense for me to have more free cash to put into 401k and build savings than worry about the additional interest I pay in the long run. I'd rather keep my committed payment low in case shit hits the fan.

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[.RJ]

sounds reasonable to me

[Apoc]

I always do 60 months because the 0.5% extra interest in ~$300 over the life of the loan... and we usually pay them off in three years, so that's high.

It doesn't hurt that we got 60 months at 1.9% from BMW Financial too.

[WRXtranceformed]

Agreed that there's nothing wrong with long term loans as long as they have low interest rates. Our Mazda has the same terms and interest rate that Chris had, and I think I put down about 25%. Vehicles are a depreciating asset and it's asinine for me to tie up that much of my cash in something that devalues every day when interest rates are so low. Especially after the accident history, that knocked about $7k "equity" off of my car overnight. Now that the truck is gone and it looks like we're going to ride out this CX5 for a while, I've been making extra principle payments toward it but I'm not in a hurry to pay it off.

Whoever said the truck market is hot is absolutely right. I put basically nothing down on my truck, also a low interest 60 month loan and when I sold it a year and a half later, I kid you not the dealership wrote me a check for almost $8,000. Used trucks, even the midsize ones, are like gold bricks on the used car market especially down here in Dixieland

[Apoc]

Gas prices definitely have an influence on that market and the gettin has been good.

The other reason I do long terms is because my comp structure the last seven years has been biased towards lump sum (% annual income table below)... and salary is paid once a month. This way I have more cashflow on a monthly basis and can pay down principle when we're flush. I will say adjusting to this structure/frequency took quite a bit of brain retraining.

Jan 4%
Feb 4%
Mar 4%
Apr 4%
May 30%
Jun 4%
Jul 4%
Aug 4%
Sep 4%
Oct 4%
Nov 30%
Dec 4%

[Evan]

Gas prices definitely have an influence on that market and the gettin has been good.

The other reason I do long terms is because my comp structure the last seven years has been biased towards lump sum (% annual income table below)... and salary is paid once a month. This way I have more cashflow on a monthly basis and can pay down principle when we're flush. I will say adjusting to this structure/frequency took quite a bit of brain retraining.

Jan 4%
Feb 4%
Mar 4%
Apr 4%
May 30%
Jun 4%
Jul 4%
Aug 4%
Sep 4%
Oct 4%
Nov 30%
Dec 4%

 Wow....
are those 30% months gauranteed?   Or can the company say "lol we missed our marks this quarter and your 30% is now 5% lol lol"

[DavidM]

Gas prices definitely have an influence on that market and the gettin has been good.

The other reason I do long terms is because my comp structure the last seven years has been biased towards lump sum (% annual income table below)... and salary is paid once a month. This way I have more cashflow on a monthly basis and can pay down principle when we're flush. I will say adjusting to this structure/frequency took quite a bit of brain retraining.

Jan 4%
Feb 4%
Mar 4%
Apr 4%
May 30%
Jun 4%
Jul 4%
Aug 4%
Sep 4%
Oct 4%
Nov 30%
Dec 4%

 Wow....
are those 30% months gauranteed?   Or can the company say "lol we missed our marks this quarter and your 30% is now 5% lol lol"

And how does that work if you leave?  Is there a pro-rated payout of some sort, or are there just mass exits every June and December?

[Apoc]

Half my pay is in AMZN stock and the Restricted Stock Units are granted two years into the future. The share count is guaranteed and they cost you $0 (not like options), but the stock price on the day you're eligible to sell obviously is not. One tweet from Trump this year erased $12,000 of my annual income, so it takes some guts to live in the model. That said, my % comp from stock/equity has been 48.3% - 51.5% the last four years, so those big swings generally come out in the wash. Amazon has benefited from this model because of the massive growth in AMZN. It won't always be like that.

I'm moving to Google next month and my % comp will be closer to 30%. That and they vest RSU on a monthly basis vs. the bi-annual at Amazon. I'm looking forward to it.

When i leave Amazon, all my unvested shares will be lost. I just had a pretty big vest last Thursday (delayed from Nov due to paternity two years ago) and I gave notice that same day. That phenomenon doesn't hold up when looking at larger populations, though, because there are way more people who don't sell shares and hold an ungodly amount of money in a single stock... so the vest days don't really matter to them. I am the sole earner and we have a kid/mortgage, so I'm an always Sell All and reinvest guy. It's cost me money over the years, but I like diversification and we're doing okay.

[G.Irish]

Where is that simpson's clip of the rusted out car in Nelsons backyard with him saying "just 58 payments left and that baby is ours"?

Whats the depreciation curve for luxury cars that stupid people buy to make themselves look rich?   (Disregard for a second that those people usually lease)

Glancing at the amortization table,  it doesnt look to me like you would really be upside down at any point in the loan of a 7 year, $40k loan @ 3%.  
Of course you pay more interest,  but at a low enough rate, it may actually benefit you to put your cash in other investments.

End of: Principal Interest Balance
Year 1 $5,213.66 $1,128.70 $34,786.34
Year 2 $5,372.23 $970.13 $29,414.11
Year 3 $5,535.63 $806.73 $23,878.48
Year 4 $5,704.01 $638.35 $18,174.47
Year 5 $5,877.50 $464.86 $12,296.97
Year 6 $6,056.26 $286.10 $6,240.71
Year 7 $6,240.71 $101.87 $0.00
Grand Total $40,000.00 $4,396.74

For any of the German luxury cars in that price range you can easily lose $10k or more in depreciation in year one.  Average 3 year depreciation for a 3 series is about 50%.  So you'd probably be underwater until year 4 or so.  Now if you bought a M2 you'd spend a bit more money but would be in the black every year I think.

[D_Eclipse9916]

but at a low enough rate, it may actually benefit you to put your cash in other investments

assuming these people have cash to put in other investments, or if they did, they arent buying fucking handbags and lattes or old motorcycles (oops).

*cough cough*

Sorry but I know 95% of the people that tell me the garbage line “it’s free money”; and proceed to buy more car than they could ever afford in cash.

That said; buy what you want. Just don’t tell me it was the “smart decision”.

[Goodspeed]

I like this very much

https://jalopnik.com/the-mazda-miata-get...1831210238

[Scott]

I like this very much

https://jalopnik.com/the-mazda-miata-get...1831210238

They make this comparable to the NA/NB hardtop, I am a buying for a new ND

[Senor_Taylor]

Chances it's even remotely close to what an NA hardtop cost adjusted for inflation? Very low.

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[.RJ]

BRING ME THE MIATA COUPE GOD DAMMIT