So the average payment if $500, I wonder what the average down payment is?

My daily driver is a 98 Neon coupe with manual transmission. It is exactly the car I wanted, I bought it used with 99K on it back in March to replace a 95 Neon Coupe with manual that was totalled by a douche bag in a van.

I bought the car for $700 cash, it had an AM/FM cassette from teh factory, so I had to yank that and put in a Pioneer stereo with Ipod adaptor that was $180.

Two weeks after I bought it the water pump failed on it, I decided to go ahead and take care of the timing components at the same time, total price was $150. Last week the starter quit working, I tore it down and cleanedit up and replaced the solenoid with a JY part, total cost including new battery cables $18.

My total in this car is $1048. Registration is $35 a year including tax, liability insurance is $300 a year. The saving from taxes and insurance have more than paid for the cost of all the repairs on the car easily. When my 95 was new full coverage was nearly $200 a month, if I had been a better driver and older it would have been $100 a month. Tax on a new car would probably be $300. In the six months I have owned the car I have saved $75 a month, and another $130 or so on cheaper registration/taxes. That is nealy $800.

If the car blew up in the morning I would still be way ahead buy going this route. If I had bought a new car with a $500 payment I would have probably put down a several thousand DP, and probably close to $200 a month for full coverage insurance. If that financed car were to be destroyed in the morning after insurance had paid out I would probably still have to make payments before it was paid off. If my Neon goes TU I can get $150 at the crusher.


Of course somebody is going to say they need it to be dependable, it is, the only time it left me on the side of the road was when the water pump went out, when the starter went I pushed it and popped the clutch (another benefit of owning a manual). You will also point out that I didn't add any labor to the cost of the repairs, I did it all myself, and anybody could have made these repairs with very basic hand tools and a ten dollar haynes manual in a single afternoon. I will also point out that buying a new car doesn't gaurantee you wont break down, just that the repairs won't cost you anything, because I assure you new cars do break down, and besides if you have a five or six year note, you will be making payments long after the newness has worn out.

I find it funny when I see the same people making fun of my Neon crying about thier car payments.

I will also chime in on the issue of cash not getting you the best deal. I have bought several brand new cars in my life, and I assure you cash will indeed get you the best deal. The salesmen will tell you that they prefer making loan sales, because they get more commision in them, and that may be true, but it doesn't mean that they won't make a cash buyer a better deal. It comes down to common sense. When I bought my 99 LHS I bought it cash. It's sticker was 33.5K I paid less than 24K, and drove the car out of the showroom (the service manager drove it out of the showroom for insurance or safety reasons actually). I went to several dealers first, I told wach of them what I was willing to pay, they all laughed and told me to get real. At each one I left my card with my home number on the back. One by one each one called telling me that they couldn't meet my price but could come down to X, I politely told them that I had already told them what I wanted to pay and that if they couldn't do it I wasn't going to buy from them. Finally I went to the last dealer in the area and repeated the process. I told him that I had been to every dealer in the area and offered them the same price, and none had been able to do it, and that if he couldn't not to waste my time, I was going to start looking at Lincolns. He told me he couldn't do it, took my card shook my hand and let me walk away.

A couple of days later he called and gave me the "I still can't do it but how about price X" I told him that I had already asked him to not waste my time, then asked him if he could sell me a new Towncar for 33K, he told me he couldn't but he must have believed the local Lincoln dealers would. He called me back that same day and told me that if I could get there that day with cash or certified funds he could sell me the LHS. An hour later I picked up the car with a full tank of gas and two coupons for full ervice detailing at the local detail shop.

The moral of the story is that even when they know they can make more money on a different deal they will probably go way lower than they think they will when they realize that you are going to buy a car from somebody, and they do realize that a small commision for them is much better than a small commision for the salesman at the other dealership.