Unless you need AWD, I woudn’t bother with the Subarus. Their reliability is average, gas milage low, practicality is excellent. I love my Outback, but I drive in snow and to backcountry trailheads most of the year. If I needed a highway vehicle, Subaru wouldn’t be near the top of my list.
Mrs. Giraffe has an older Camry. It is ridiculously reliable, but the gas mileage isn’t nearly as good as a Civic. I’d definitely recommend one to someone who was interested, though.
God no. That stupid fucking centered dashboard. AND the fact it’s a 1st year model car (*never * buy a car in it’s 1st year), and followed by the fact you’ll have to buy it from a Toyota dealer, who are the biggest rip-off artists in the business. Never buy anything from a Toyota dealer; if you must get a new Toyota, go through a broker. Nice cars, however. Honda dealers- some are bad, some are OK- ask around or get a broker.
Yes- next year, the FIt looks nice. Next year, not this. Well, OK, maybe this year as the FIT has been out in Europe, but :dubious: Same with the Nissan Versa.
Sorry, 934spe, although I like Saturns, the ION is a piece of crap, and the rest are out of his range. The dealers are the best in the business however. If anyone out there is scared of auto salesmen and their high pressure deals and rip-offs: go for a Saturn. No pressure, no rip-offs. The Sky is tempting, and the Vue Hybrid, too.
ThisSpaceForRent- no VW’s until VW fixes their reliability problem. VW’s used to be reliable, now they are the worst. Sorry.
So, here’s some choices
1 year old Honda Civic.
1 year old Toyota Corolla (not as good as the Honda)
New Hyundai Sonata, if there’s a good deal going- either 0% financing or big rebate.
New Mitsubishi Lancer- assuming the same.
New Chevy Cobalt “”
New Ford Focus " "
Hyundai & Mits have a great warranty, better than Honda. True, as Jodi sez- you don’t need a warrenty so much on a Honda.
If the Manuf is desperate and offering big rebates and cheap financings (and you qualify for the cheap financing) then go for that one. It won’t happen on a Toyota or a Honda. Those other 4 aren’t quite as good, but the deals are *hwaaaaay * better. Right now is a good time to buy a new 2006, if you are Ok with slightly limited choices (that is to say, you don’t really care what color it is).
Personally, since with Hyundai, Mits, Chevy & Ford you can likely get a great deal on a brand new car, I’d go that way. OTOH, if you know someone who is selling a slightly used, still under warrenty Honda or Toyota- go for it!
I meant Elantra. :smack:
The Yaris has been sold elsewhere for several years, it’s not a new car.
Ok. I have a couple questions about the financing.
-What is a good rate and what is a bad rate? I’m looking at the 3-5 years range.
-Should I just use whatever financing option the dealership has or do I get to pick a third party? If so, which 3rd party?
-I study full time and am not employed. My parents send me money every month for my living expenses. Is that a problem? Should I bring bank statements with me to show that or is it irrelevant?
I’m shocked at the recommendation of a Mitsubishi. they have to be the worst of the japanese manufacturers as far as reliability for thier vehicles.
CR disagrees, depending on the model. Several are rated “above average” which is what most Toyota’s and Honda’s get- “Above Average” is very good, actually. They also have one of the best warrenties in the business, which crap cars just can’t have.
**Gozu ** 0% to 2% is a excellent rate, below market. Call your bank and a Credit union for current rates for you. Note that used cars pay slightly higher rates. AND that car dealers can make a lot of $$ on financing, so they’ll try and get you there with a higher rate.
To find market rates,
Re: no source of income, it won’t stop you could with that high of a credit score, but expect that MOST lenders won’t write your auto note. It may or may not cause you to pay a higher rate.
Hijack alert:
I seriously suggest dropping $4K on something modest and then putting your “payments” in a car fund.
When the $4K car breaks down, use the car fund to repair it and pay for rental cars as needed.
There is no reason for you to be paying interest with the money you have handy. Long highway drives are the EASIEST kind of driving a car will ever see.
Seconded. Fuck Toyota dealerships. They’re hack jobs, con men, brutes, savages, and scam artists. I have had nothing but bad experiences with them in 5 years of owning a 4Runner and a Camry. Toyota makes great vehicles but the men who push them are, for some reason, evil.
Find out what kind of rate you can get from your own bank (just call them and ask what the current rate is) and check out the current rate from somewhere like eloan.com. Then when you go to buy the car just tell them the rate you can get and tell them you’ll finance through them if they can beat it. But do this after you’ve settled on the price of the car.
Bank statements aren’t going to help you. They’re just going to run a credit check with your ss# to make their decision. Nothing else really necessary except filling out the form.
Watch for financing specials (typically on american cars) where they run 0% or 2% financing. I wouldn’t expect to get it on a toyota or honda though.
As far as I know, no income is indeed a problem. I’d go talk to a bank and a dealership before going any further with this. Chances are good that you might still be able to get financing, but only if your parents co-sign the loan.
Giraffe, my husband is driving a '99 Toyota Tercel - talk about ridiculous gas mileage! We actually used that for our highway car for a couple of years, but it was just too small and underpowered for the highway, in spite of being incredible on gas. My next car might be a Camry, once I’m ready to move from “all-round dependable, solid transportation” to “luxurious.” Yeah, baby.
The new Honda Civic is getting rave reviews, and was rated the #1 car by every single auto magazine and web site I can think of.
In your price range, for your needs, the Honda Civic looks like a winner. However, if you’re a college student on a budget, be aware that any new car is much more expensive to own than a used car. IMO, the cheapest way to drive while maintaining good reliability and freedom from risk is to buy a used car that has a year or two left on its powertrain warranty. A two or three year old used car that’s been maintained well will look and drive like a new vehicle, cost 60% of what a new vehicle costs, and having a couple years of powertrain warranty left protects you from hidden defects the seller didn’t tell you about.
Even cheaper is to buy something 5 or 6 years old, but the risks of having unexpected major repairs can make that tricky if you don’t have savings sufficient to handle an unexpected $2000 repair. Mind you, you said you have $4,000-$5,000 to put down. In which case, you could buy a 5 year old vehicle, which will cost you maybe 30% of a new one, put $2,000 down, and stick $3,000 in the bank for emergencies. Chances are, you’ll never need it.
$5,000 should get you a nice reliable used car, if you look around carefully. Put $2,000 down, and you can pay it off in 2 years, costing you minimum interest.
What about the Kia Rio? Anyone got thoughts on that? I’ve just run a comparison of it with the Kia Spectra, Mazda 3, Aerio, and Ford Focus on Edmunds.com (all wagons, all 2006 models) and it looked on balance like the clear winner.
The $2-4k downpayment sounds good, but it’s always bad practice to view buying a car in terms of monthly payment amounts. That’s bass ackwards. It’s generally accepted by more savvy buyers to divide the total cost of the car buy three years. If you can’t afford the monthly payments on a three year note, you can’t afford the car.
Is everything working correctly?
And why is that? All other financial instruments are valued in terms of future cashflows, so why not the cost of owning a car?
Of course, financial common sense also says “if it depreciates, lease it”. I personally cannot fathom why anyone would buy a new car beyond vanity or new car smell or other intangibles, It certainly doesn’t make any fiscal sense. Maybe I’m just not hip to the ways of the world yet.
Some cars, like Hondas and Toyotas, lose very little value when sold as late-model used cars. I found this was the case when I purchased a two-year-old Accord, which I’ve since kept for more than ten years and plan to continue to keep. So next time, I plan to purchase a brand-new car.
$2-4K down and $200/month doesn’t seem like it’s going to get you much. Add to that your non-income and I think getting anything new is going to be very costly.
The amount you say you have to buy this car seems low, and will put you in debt for many years to come. I think you should look at a later model domestic model with a good reputation. This way you are not paying the premium that comes with jap used cars, and actually taking advantage of the quicker depreciation of the domestics.
That is unless you really mean that you can easially afford $400 / month to put to a car, but just want to limit it to $200, so you can add the other $200/month to your personal savings and investment accounts.
What is the rationale behind you plan to “continue to keep”? Your purchasing of the vehicle doesn’t affect it’s underlying/residual value, actually it reduces it since there is a greater element of risk in you operating the vehicle in an abusive manner. The only reason I can think of why anyone would want to purchase a vehicle is if they wanted to add aftermarket parts, like enourmous spoilers or exhaust tips, or weird paint jobs that will substantially reduce the market value of the vehicle.
I’m not trying to be confrontational here, I’m genuinely curious as to the reasons people do what they do with regards to buying cars. The above statement that one should “divide the cost of the car into three payments” is simply absurd, since it does not take into consideration differing rates of depreciation on the asset.
I just jumped over to the Canadian websites for BMW, Honda and Toyota for an example. Lease payments for a MSRP C$40,300 BMW 325 with $6000 and a 5.9% interest rate down comes out to $470/month. With the same terms, a $34,000 Honda Accord with 2.9% interest rate comes to $501/month, and a $32,800 Toyota Camry with 3.9% comes out to a whopping $633/month.
I jump over to Excel and do a quick present value calculation of the payments with a 1% monthly cost of capital for the buyer, and the total cost of onwership not including the initial $6000 downpayment for 2 years are:
Toyota Corrola: MSRP $32,800, Cost Of Ownership = $13,447
Honda Accord: MSRP $34,100, COO = $10,642
BMW 325: MSRP $40,300, COO = $9984.39
Of course, the reason for this is the rate of depreciation and residual values at the end of the 24 month:
Toyota Corrola: Res. Value = $15,801, total depreciation = $16,999
Honda Accord: $18,755, $15,345
BMW 325: res Value= $26,598, total depreciation = $14,202
Since the essence of the lease is that you are paying in installments the depreciation of the vehicle, it is quite obvious that because of the BMW’s lower rate of depreciation, the higher MSRP BMW is a much cheaper vehicle, in absolute monetary terms, to own for 2 years than either the Honda or Toyota. You can switch lease with finance, but your fundamentals are the same, you’re just taking on a greater risk by taking ownership of the asset and making a bigger investment.
So no, I don’t think dividing the value of the vehicle by 3 is a very good way to calculate total cost. 