My car was 26000$ CAD after taxes. I put 6000$ down with a financing plan to pay it off after four years with 1.9% interest. My goal though is to pay it off in about 2.5ish years. Then I can reap the benefits of life without a car payment hopefully for the next 8 - 10 years.
How about you?
As a recent college grad, I stuck to the financing plan that I made up with Honda. Five years, monthly payment of about $300, paid off right on time.
As long as it took me to write the check.
Not as noble as it appears. 15-year-old car needed the “last straw” big-$ repair for an unsafe-to-drive condition. I’m unemployed right now–no way to get financing/leasing options. Had to rob my IRA. Downside: had to rob the IRA. Upside: no car payments & a reliable Honda.
Gosh, how I HATE this recession…
The last one - a 1995 Ford Thunderbird for about $7k - in 8 months. That was in 2002-2003.
My 2009 Honda Fit (bought in July with Cash-for-Clunkers) will be paid off by the end of this year no matter what, even if the layoff rumors at my company are true and I lose my job.
I’m pretty good at not having car payments as a regular part of my life, but still imagine my father spinning in his grave. He would not even drive the car off the lot unless it was paid in full.
Three years, at $351.95/mo. Now that it’s over I feel like I’m swimming in cash! 
Out of the 5 new cars I bought most recently, I financed 1 for a year as they were giving 0%. The others I put on credit cards, which I paid off as soon as the first bill came.
Paid cash last Sunday for my most recent car, but it cost all of $2500! 
I bought my car 1997 for just under 20K. I paid it off by 2000.
Always buy used and always cash up front. No terms, no plans, no debt.
We bought our car in 2004 for $32K and our truck in 2006 for $20K. We paid them both off by September 2007. To be fair, we had sold our house, made a lot of profit, and took some of the profit to pay off the vehicles, the rest as a downpayment on our next house.
Always paid cash for my cars.
Word. All four of mine were paid for as soon as the check cleared. My son bought his first car (Jeep) with $5k down and $2K loaned. The full coverage insurance that the bank requires will cost him more than he borrowed.
I have a friend who told me that he bought a new car as soon as he graduated from college 45 years ago. He made monthly payments for two years and then before the loan was paid off he bought a new car, rolling over the remainder of the initial loan. He tells me that he has bought a new car every two or three years since then and done the same thing. As a result he has never had a month in the past 45 years when he has not had to make a car payment.
This is me. I’ve got the money in the bank now for a new car but can’t make up my mind which one I want. So I’ve decided to get the bathroom remodelled instead.
Bought in June 2008 for $26,500, put $10k down and financed the rest over 36 months at 3.9%. I pay a flat $500/month & should pay it off in early 2011. All cars I’ve bought new have followed a similar plan, while the used cars I’ve bought in cash.
Bought my Mazda new in 2002, ~$17,000, $2500 down, paid it off 18 months later. My husband traded his 2-year-old XTerra for a new Escape Hybrid, we paid off the difference in a year or so. I’d rather get them paid for quickly, if I can.
Yep. I paid $2K in cash over a year ago for my new used car. Quick and painless.
the black 2002 jetta was bought 3 years ago as of last july, it was paid on time direct draw out of my bank account and the final payment was July. This past april I bought the gray green 2006 jetta cash from carmax. our 95 s-10 pickup was a freecycle find. We have no car payments, and 2 of the 3 are on minimal required insurance, my gray green jetta has the full insurance with most of the bells and whistles [it gets driven for mrAru’s commute and road trips. the pickup is for hauling stuff around and hauling garbage to the town tip on weekends and the black jetta is for emergency errands.
Not having the car and insurance burden makes my not working affordable. Money is tight, but I am not accustomed to living in the lap of luxury so we are doing fine.
We are in the habit of performing routine maintenance, keeping a car maintained makes it last longer than just doing the minimal required. We can usually get 300 000 miles out of a vehicle before changing it out. My scout had almost 500000 on it, it could have kept going except for that patch of black ice, stone fence and oak tree 
Cash.
I’ve only financed one car, and I did that right after I graduated from college. It was a three year loan (IIRC) but I ended up paying it off in full about six months later.
Every car I’ve bought since I’ve paid cash for. If I can’t afford to buy it outright then I don’t buy it.
I can’t remember all my past cars, but they’re mostly financed thru our credit union and I set up automatic bi-weekly payments slightly higher than the terms of the loan required, so they were always paid off early.
Current car bought new in Feb 2007, financed for 3 years at 3.5%. I could pay it off today, but since the interest is less than $5 per month now, I’ll let it run its course. It’ll be all mine in January, so I’ll have paid it off 2 months early.
Now that our daughter is out of college and off our payroll, I intend to deposit our “car payments” in savings so that when we need a replacement vehicle, we can do cash. At least that’s the plan today. If we have to replace our roof too soon, all bets are off.