Originally Posted By: Vikas
The original comment was "The best part of having 200K car is that I don't have to make payments on my 200K miles car". My retort was you should not be making payments on a 50K car either. Obviously we might look like we disagree on it on surface but underneath it is the same principle. You should only be making payments if the vehicle is still under full warranty. That may be little extreme but if you are buying a 200K car (as the topic of the OP) you really really should NOT be financing it.
For example, for $20K one could purchase new Corolla/Camry equivalent car or few years old S-Class Mercedes (pick your poison here). If he chooses Mercedes, he better not be financing it!
I can say that you and I definitely disagree.
A blanket statement of "you should never be making payments on a car with 50k miles" or "if you are buying a car with 200k you should not be financing it" is shortsighted and makes a lot of assumptions.
What about someone who is mechanically inclined and has the opportunity to fully inspect the car before he buys? What about if the car with 200k miles is only 5 years old and has complete service records, and is mechanically sound?
Take 5 cars with 200k miles on them and set them side by side, and you are most likely looking at 5 radically different cars. The trick is being smart enough to be able to pick out the ones that are worth bothering with.
This one, for example, is only 6 years old, has 219,897 miles on it, and runs like a top.
I bought it used in 2014, at 4 years of age, with just under 178k on it for $5800 - Financed with $1600 down and 30 payments. Granted, I paid it off in about 6 months, but it was still financed.
Since then, I've replaced the belt tensioner ($45 part, took me about 90 minutes to do), replaced the spark plugs @ 215,000 miles because it was STILL running on the factory original plugs.. put new tires on it, changed the oil and filter a handful of times, and done a transmission fluid drain and fill.. well plus the usual maintenance stuff like fluid level checks, lube where it needs it, regular wash & wax.. That's it.. and the car is just a hair under 220,000 miles. I have no doubt in my mind that the car will make it to 350,000 miles with regular maintenance.
Yes, I know.. this isn't all 200k cars.. in fact I've owned many cars in the past with under 200k on them that were money pits.. but as I got smarter, and learned what to look for, that sort of thing changed. I've owned 17 cars in my life, and only one of them has been new - the 2014 Nissan Altima that's in my garage right now. I got a 5-year loan on that one, and I expect I'll be over 50k on that while I'm still making payments, but that doesn't bother me because it gets regular maintenance and it has warranty to 7 years/100k miles.
... having said that, I will also concede this: This same 2010 Fusion, had it been bought by someone who didn't know the first thing about maintenance, or someone who neglects/abuses their cars, would probably have been shot at 200k miles.
