My husband and I pay $738 a month for our two vehicles plus insurance. I have a 2006 malibu with 8,000 miles on it, and his is a 2004 Toyota Tacoma (29,000 miles now.)
My mortgage, property taxes, and homeowner’s insurance total to almost the exact same amount.
Everything will be paid off in about four more years, though.
I pay $642 a month for a 2005 3/4 ton Dodge, and about $100 a month in insurance. My business requires a reliable truck, and also pays for it.
Some of that payment is actually insurance through my credit union that will cover payments if I lose my job, which was a smart thing to get when I was working year-to-year, and is probably smarter to keep now that I’m an independent contractor. My insurance is about to go up drastically, as I now have to carry a million-dollar policy on it.
It was used, but less than a year old when I bought it. I paid less than a new, stock truck would have been, but it had some modifications that I would have paid for anyway, and not even enough miles on it to break in the motor. I intend to pay extra on the loan as the business is in the black, to carry me in case I go red.
Nothing!
They are both paid off except for the new engine put in last year on my truck and the new transmission put in in my husband’s car a few weeks ago.
We really only pay for gas…which for me is over $120 a fill up ( 2x a month, maybe) and I don’t know about my husband’s gas bill.
Uh - Mac? Your car wasn’t making that funny noise last month, was it?
That is why I love my Honda. After my disastrous few years with Volkswagen, I researched and researched before committing to a different car. We weren’t planning on having to buy a car right now, so instead of really upgrading in car, we just bought a comparable Honda (only 1 year newer than my VW). Basically I read everything I could find about value and reliability, and everything kept coming back to Hondas, so that’s what I bought. They cost a little more than the average used car and they are hard to find, because people tend to hold on to them. That’s a good sign.
I see couples with 2 new cars and I don’t know how they can afford it. I mean, if I were a millionaire I would buy whatever car I wanted and all, and I am sure that some luxury cars really are better than regular cars, but then I would just pay cash for them anyway.
We pay a payment on my wife’s car, a 2003 Sebring, and it’s about 120. We only actually owe 5k on it - we took over payments - and don’t carry the insurance. My father paid for the insurance when my sister owned it, when we took over payments he removed my sister from the car insurance and added my wife as an authorized driver or somesuch. His insurance went down about $20 a payment because my wife has a better driving record than sis, so he kept the car on his insurance.
Our other car is paid off right now, it’s my 2001 Hyundai that I bought outright. I plan on replacing it with a 4-door next year, but don’t expect to pay more than 5-8k for a car, so our payment would be low(ish).
Of course, in context here, the idea of 1000 a month is silly to me, mostly because that would pay our rent for 2 months here, and we rent a large apartment with a full basement and a yard. I would imagine that with insurance, and a brand new 07, it might be possible to be charged 1k, but that seems high.
Brendon Small
2 new, PIF’d in 24 months, extended warranties, etc. etc. – $2400/month.
Yeah, I know, but we’re both old, cranky and tired of working on 'em just to be able to get to work in the morning. Given our history, we’ll buy new again in January of 2019.
Restorations not withstanding, of course. There’s a sweet little GTO across the way that just needs a bit of TLC. And the shiny little 5-window '56 ford truck over yonder. Or, perhaps, the 67 e-type next door that just needs yet another ring-job . . . There might even be a GT40 aound that just needs a little love. 
After all, it all depends on your personal priorities. What works for me might not work for you.
Zero. Most of the time I take the bus or the field beast (our company’s work truck when I’m on call). I have two older vehicles which are currently being restored (slowly, but surely since I’m not independently wealthy :D). Even after they are back on the road, I’ll probably continue taking the bus most of the time, especially if gas prices keep up the way they are.
$0. I paid it off 6 years ago. (96 Ford Contour) About $345 a month when I was making payments. It’s still in great running and body shape. Engine with 76,000 miles still runs smoothly, has great power. I pay about $400 or $500 a year on small things like brakes, tires, anything to keep it safe on the road and let it pass the emissions check. Yes, I’m gonna try to get it past 100,000 miles. I think I have a good shot. I already replaced the timing belt back at 60,000, so that’s good for around another 40,000. Belts and everything are fairly new also.
Autumn, I really was just kinda defending the concept, not any particular model. PM me if you want and I’ll share. I also heartily endorse the fact competition among the high end leaders helps drive marvelous new technology, technology that’ll eventually trickle down to all models. Regardless of whether we personally want a higher end model, there’s a good chance one day we’ll benefit from the demands of those that do.
$0 on two cars and a nominal amount on the third. Our house is almost paid off and we carry no credit card or other debt so we financed a small amount on the last trade in and are paying it off early just to keep good credit in an active status.
Zero now, but my most recent car loan was $450/month. I’ll be buying my next car with cash. Which brings me to another point: I think that the people implying that it’s stupid to finance a car don’t really appreciate that many people don’t have $20K lying around. I’d wager that 100% of the people who finance their cars would rather pay cash if they had it, so it’s not like they need to be reminded of it. You might as well say that renting is stupid or that people should buy low, then sell high.
However, there is something useful in statements like this: we have to get out of the mindset that it’s natural to finance a car. If everyone looked at cars as if they should be able to pay cash for them, we’d all be driving Civics and Corollas, which is probably what most people should be driving.
Yeah, those early Contours were nice, they had some features (like lighted door handles) that newer ones didn’t get. My 1998 has over 180,000 miles on it, you must not drive much! I’m still on the original clutch and I’ve only changed the brakes once (yeah I drive fast but I don’t thrash it.)
$358/month for my 05 Dodge Dakota (bought with 4200 miles on it). Insurance is roughly another $50 a month.
I bought used because I basically got what amounts to a new vehicle (4200 miles), for about 3500 dollars off the going rate for the same vehicle new, not including a couple of dealership extras like tinted windows that I don’t even know how much they cost.
It was really close when I compared the new/used interest rates vs. the ultimate cost of the cars, but the other advantage was that I could buy it right away, and my old car was on the verge of breaking down at any minute
$ 200.94 a month. 2004 Neon bought new. Put $3,000 down which left a little over $10,000 financed at 4 percent for 5 years.
I have a 2007 Mazda3 that I pay $219/month for, but I hate paying even that. I am about to pay off the rest of the loan by the end of this month (I owe about $2000 more).
Everyone says don’t go into debt for a depreciating asset and that’s generally good advice, but I love my car and now I have a great car that will hopefully last me for a long time. (assuming it doesn’t get wrecked or stolen! But at least I’m insured for that)
I pay $424 for a loan that bought 1 new Jeep (for the particularly fussy Mrs. Napier) and 1 used Scion with only a few thousand miles on it, and also rolled over $10,000 still remaining from paying for Mrs. Napier Jr’s wedding. But I went with a deductable home equity loan.
The cars I replaced were both 10 years old: a Jeep that had already lost one transmission and had been acting the same way again, and a Subaru into which I had just had installed water pump number 7, at $1000 a pop. Jeeps aren’t all that reliable, but transmissions are spectacularly expensive repairs. And Subarus are generally quite reliable but something serious is eating water pumps and several well-regarded mechanics have checked everything and can’t stop it. So I felt forced, even though both should have been able to keep going. Of course, both these cars were well past payments.
I’m 39 years old. I have never bought a new car, though I have the means to do so. And I’ve never had a car payment.
When it comes to cars, never buying new - and always paying cash - has saved me a boatload of $$.
I have always bough my cars outright, never financed them. I try to keep my monthly payments for everything low. Debt/financing would be a last resort for me. Is it possible that your neighbors is running in the black instead of the red and have no car payment? I don’t think many people realize how much they are really losing by carrying so much debt, and how much less they can buy, and how much more critical such buying decisions are.
Or here’s another way of looking at it, if you can save up some $'s in order to buy a car outright, yes you have to suck it up for a few years perhaps, you will see that the savings you aculimate, if put into a good, but safe, investment will be earning perhaps $150-$300 (depending on how much you want to spend on these cars) in interest per month, that’s extra money to offset your current bills, money that you would not have otherwise.
When you go to buy the car, you are in the driver’s seat in that respect, as you know the value of that money, and if it sits another month that’s just more money in your pocket.
Time is money. And I have better uses for my time than trying to adjust my life around in a car that does not do what I need it to do.
Ya see, it works both ways.
I’ve a $32,000 Pathfinder. So I guess I’m one of the people you don’t understand. I bought it because it best suited my needs. Off road ability, ground clearance, cargo capacity, towing capacity, ease of entry/exit, driver comfort… and so on and so on.
It has features and abilities I need that something like the Suzuki Aerio can’t come close to.
I also bought peace of mind. I have had great luck with Nissan and think they are one of the most dependable cars out there.
Not sure why that would be hard to understand.
$298 for an '06 Hyundai Elantra that I just bought Friday.
More than I really wanted to pay but it only has 11,000 miles on it and the dealer gave me $1,250 for the '01 Prizm whose engine had just blown up on me the day before in addition to the full 100,000 mile factory warranty even though it’s used.