How much money you comfortably spend on a veh?

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We have only bought 2 new vehicles in our lifetime and didn't pay them off. Currently I really don't want to go higher than $15,000 on a vehicle.

I seriously don't know how people can purchase new cars these days.
 
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$15k will buy a good, safe vehicle that can last 10 years. I think that is plenty to spend.
 
The car I spent the most on was a 6 year old HHR and while serviceable it was boring and about as reliable as a $750 car. I don't regret it but it hasn't inspired me to repeat the action.
 
In my younger days I'd spend around $15k for something 3-4 years old that was in top condition and a nice ride at that. They would generally last a few years before needing anything major or becoming something I wasn't interesting in keeping. I never really built equity in them because they were financed on a 4-5 year loan and I drove a LOT, 35k a year or more. Most expensive that I've bought:

$16k 2001 Frontier 4x4 (supercharged, loaded) in 2006
$14k 2001 Jetta GLX (loaded VR6) in 2004
$15k 2009 Dodge Caliber SRT4 (turbo, fancy model) in 2013

I've found the sweet spot, for me, is vehicles that cost around $5k and paying cash. I can still get 100k miles out of them if they're in good shape and well maintained. They are usually older and not as snazzy to look at, but I can still get nice vehicles that are loaded at this price. I have four kids now, I am no longer as on edge when they do something stupid to the car(s), like rub their hands through the dust on the door panels, just because they can.
 
Your question should be a two-part question. Part one for most people is how much are you willing to pay in monthly payments for those that finance cars. I'd be willing to bet that the overall price is important but the affordability question focuses on that monthly payment. Many people consider a lifelong monthly payment as the cost of owning a "good car".

Part two would be how much are you willing to pay for those that purchase a car outright without financing for those very few people that pay cash for a car.

Some people employee both methods, financing the good car and buying a second "beater" for cash.

The only car I ever financed was a new 03 4Runner and I was not comfortable with the idea of making payments and paid it off before the first payment was due. It was about $26K with tax and license. At least I gave financing a car a try. It just didn't work for me.

A few weeks ago I purchased an 06 Scion xB for a little over $3K and paid cash. It was a very clean "self-propelled shipping crate" with well-documented 131K miles. My budget for the purchase of a backup car was $5K. I did some additional expenses, tires, changed all the fluids, cabin air filter and painted the rims and I still have cash left over.
 
I have just never had the luxury of paying cash for a decent car. Being avg middle class and living paycheck to paycheck was the norm.
 
Right now I have a truck and a car. The truck is old, a 91 dakota, and is prior salvage with issues. I have a nicer car, buick lesabre but it is now beginning to have minor issues (servo in the ac, plastic elbows in coolant broke, needs new struts, rear shocks. I would like a truck, so when I go out on vacation, I can haul the motorcycle in the back past the boring parts. a 50K truck is not at all uncommon.

Rod
 
You have to look at a few things:

- your income
- your debts and other spending behaviors
- the change in car prices over time, and compared to incomes

At some point in time, the average new car price was $5k, $15k, $20k, now like $30k. To look at things simply, half the cars are above that price, half are below (not quite but close enough).

Similarly, the average income is what? $50k/yr?

And now there's low cost financing that goes 60, 72, even 84 months...

Let's just say someone saves enough for a $30k car over 5 years. That's $500/month. Then they pay for the car cash. Cars last around 10 years, let's say... so it's doable. Tough if you're earning $50k/yr ($4100/mo before taxes, which should be pretty low if that's all you earn), but doable for something as necessary as transportation.

The thing that is crazy to me is the cost of trucks that people buy. So many full size pickups, Tahoes, etc. relative to the cost of say, a BMW or MB, these vehicles have rocketed up in price.

Personally I'm pro-long term ownership, and pro-old car, for me, that cross section means buy reasonable cars with low,fuel consumption and keep them for as long a step possible. It has worked for me. The longer you keep a car, the less important it's purchase price is. But at the same time, the lower its price is, coupled with long term ownership, the more you can save to do other stuff. Buying used cars which have the need for more repairs over fewer ownership miles doesn't amortize correctly in my book or for the cars we buy. There's no poorer deal than a low mileage used Toyota or Honda, for example. I bought a brand new odyssey for a lower per mile cost than a used one with 30k mikes on it.
 
Remember the BITOG member buying a new car every 2 years and eventually had a $750 car payment ?

I forgot his name but he was up to his eyeballs in debt.
 
There are brand new '17 MY cars to be had for $15K or less and a number of really decent sedans for less than $20K.
Between $17K and $20K you'll find '17 MY Camrys, Accords, Fusions and Legacys, for example any one of which would make a good long-term daily driver.
It's all a matter of what you want as well as what you're willing to accept and deal with in a transportation appliance, which is all a car is at the end of the day.
In used iron, $15K will buy you some really high zoot Euro stuff if that's what floats your boat.
If I were looking at something sensible, though, I'd probably buy something new.
Remember that sticker price is no more than a salesman's wet dream for most models.
 
20K is about the high end of my comfort zone. Whether cash or finance.

The Buick in my signature is the most expensive vehicle I have ever owned. It's the Premium with every box checked except 4WD. Purchased it for $32K out the door certified used with extended warranties. But, in all transparency, we also traded in two vehicles as the down payment.

75% of my personal vehicles have be purchased outright. But we have financed a few nicers ones because we wanted something more than we wanted to, or could, pay for upfront.

A good friend of mine just purchased, outright, a brand new F250 Powerstroke – $75K. He and his wife are loaded, and he admitted to me that he cringed when he signed the check.

I cannot for the life of me understand how these $30,000-Millionaires sign up for these $50K vehicle & $400K home notes and still manage to sleep at night. I don't mind spending money, but debt scares the bejesus out of me.
 
Originally Posted By: ATex7239


A good friend of mine just purchased, outright, a brand new F250 Powerstroke – $75K. He and his wife are loaded, and he admitted to me that he cringed when he signed the check.

I cannot for the life of me understand how these $30,000-Millionaires sign up for these $50K vehicle & $400K home notes and still manage to sleep at night. I don't mind spending money, but debt scares the bejesus out of me.


Me either. That is close to a house purchase around here.

But then again I have never had lots of play money or too much money to know what to do with it.
 
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
Your question should be a two-part question. Part one for most people is how much are you willing to pay in monthly payments for those that finance cars. I'd be willing to bet that the overall price is important but the affordability question focuses on that monthly payment. Many people consider a lifelong monthly payment as the cost of owning a "good car".

Part two would be how much are you willing to pay for those that purchase a car outright without financing for those very few people that pay cash for a car.

Some people employee both methods, financing the good car and buying a second "beater" for cash.

The only car I ever financed was a new 03 4Runner and I was not comfortable with the idea of making payments and paid it off before the first payment was due. It was about $26K with tax and license. At least I gave financing a car a try. It just didn't work for me.

A few weeks ago I purchased an 06 Scion xB for a little over $3K and paid cash. It was a very clean "self-propelled shipping crate" with well-documented 131K miles. My budget for the purchase of a backup car was $5K. I did some additional expenses, tires, changed all the fluids, cabin air filter and painted the rims and I still have cash left over.




Wow you got a great deal on that Scion. I tend to buy the base trim of a small car with good ergonomics and reliability in the last year of its current generation. Haven't hit 15k dollars yet. I also keep a beater for the winter so the new car lasts a long time. Rinse and repeat. Took my last Civic with roll up windows past 300k until it started nickel and diming me. It was a great car, needing almost nothing, until everything went at the same time.
 
For me, the amount of savings I have in the bank is my barometer for how much I feel comfortable spending on a car. My problem is I hardly ever have any savings. The most I have ever spent on a car is $2700 - Always cash. Who would finance a 20 year old car anyways?


My first car was a 1992 Mazda Miata. Paid $2400 for that one. Sold it 6 years later.
Second was a Previa van for $1600. Lasted a Month before realizing it was a terrible hunk of junk. Sold a month later.
Bought a 2nd Previa for $2700. Still have it 4 years later.
Bought a Toyota Solara for $1700. Still have it 2 years later.

My problem is these cars have needed a lot of repairs. The Previa van which I still have had a bad head gasket. I had to pay $3000 for a replacement engine. The Solara needed $3000 worth of repairs in suspension, engine, and axle work.

I have not had much luck with the sub $3000 car. I hear stories of people buying a $2000 car, and driving happily for the next 5 years with nothing, but so far only my Miata has proven a successful bet.

It makes me think that next time I should aim for a higher budget, so the repair costs won’t be so high. 5 grand should be my next target.
 
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Originally Posted By: ZZman
We have only bought 2 new vehicles in our lifetime and didn't pay them off. Currently I really don't want to go higher than $15,000 on a vehicle.

I seriously don't know how people can purchase new cars these days.


Because with some of us it's more than just an appliance to get from a to b, it's a very important part of our lives. For me I've always loved Corvettes and the three that I have owned so far have all been used, and were great deals but I've always wanted to have a brand new one and as soon as the current generation came out I immediately fell in love with it. I was still planning on buying a used one to save money but since they have held the line in the used car market here, and since I'm getting GM employee pricing through a family member, I'm actually getting my new 2018 for less money than most of the used ones on the market up here!

Yes, the car is still going to cost me quite a bit of money (roughly $63,000 Canadian) but it's also a car I plan on keeping for a very very long time and I haven't had a car payment on any of my cars for almost 18 years now (and won't have a car payment on the new one, I will be paying cash) Our Honda and BMW are paid for and aren't in need of replacement any time soon, so this extravagance isn't going to hurt us financially so why not? You only live once and my wife is almost as excited about the new car as I am.

If my Honda or the BMW was in need of replacing though, we would replace them with something roughly 5-6 years old, as that's generally the sweet spot for buying vehicles that have the benefit of still being relatively new (you should be able to get at least 10 more years of life out of them) but not costing as much as new.

So I guess what I'm saying is that I both agree and disagree with not buying a new car
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Kurtatron


I hear stories of people buying a $2000 car, and driving happily for the next 5 years with nothing,


A good friend at work bought a 99 Honda Civic for $900, about 7 years ago, and at the time it had 100,000 km on it. He just finally got rid of it about 6 months ago, it had over 400,000 km on it and the repairs that he had done were mostly minor in nature and he did most of them himself also. I think he said his total maintenance bill for the car was under $3000 for all that time. Not bad! He now has a 2014 Mazda 3 that he paid $20,000 for, so he's not rolling the dice again this time, he decided to treat himself with something really nice (and he found a good one, the car looks like brand new)
 
Originally Posted By: Kurtatron

I have not had much luck with the sub $3000 car. I hear stories of people buying a $2000 car, and driving happily for the next 5 years with nothing.


They're called Crown Victorias.

All joking aside, my 96 and 09 mercury grand marquis' have been more reliable than my parents new/newer vehicles. Bought the '96 with 132K miles for $2800 back in 2006 and drove it for 9 years and another 130K miles. The most expensive repair was an oil pan replacement @ $650 - aside from normal maintenance items, I spent less than $1200 over it's lifespan on repairs and parts, a big chunk of which (aside from the oil pan) was front end components. I bought my '09 with 99K and it now has 148K - at this point I've replaced brakes, tires, serpentine belt (and will again later today - don't cheap out like I did), alternator ($35 at the scrapyard), and fluids. Am I poor? Yes. Am I making car payments on an 8 year old vehicle? Yes - but $250/month for insurance and car payment is affordable if I have to take time off work for health reasons and well under the recommended 10% income vehicle spending limit.
 
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