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In need of a car, my finances are shot
Kyzen
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
After reading DirtyDirtyVagrant's thread I feel almost bad asking for advice on my similar albeit considerably better situation. But still, I'm not sure what to do.
Mr car, a 1989 Volvo, has died. A mechanic friend of a friend looked at it, and said I'm looking at $2700 to get it running, another $2000 to fix a few other important things, plus the cost of getting it to a garage to get all this done in the first place.
Oh, and $20 for new wiper blades.
I was luckily able to borrow a friends care while he is out of town on a business trip, but that won't last. I essentially have 9 days to come up with transportation of my own, in order to get to and from work, and anywhere else I need to go (and no, work is not within walking distance)
Here's the problem. I was not expecting to have to buy a car any time soon. I was planning to get through the holidays, have my credit cards paid off by March, then buy a new car in the spring.
I have
$10k in student loans (private, not government)
$600 owed on an $800 limit credit card
$920 owed on a $1000 limit credit card
$750 owed on another $800 limit cred card
$200 in cash
On the up-side, I make $38k a year. So, affording a car isn't neccessarily impossible for me, this just happened to occur at a horrible time.
I'd really love to get a Honda Civic, but I'm not sure if I'd qualify for an auto loan at this point. I'd also prefer to not buy a really old, cheap, crappy used car at this point in my life. I have about $2150 in income per month after taxes, and about $1000 in expenses (rent, utilities, credit card bills, etc), so I figure I could still get by comfortably with a $400 or less car payment.
Is it absolutely stupid of me to be considering a $17k-$19k car considering my circumstances?
What expenses do I need be aware of, besides the initial cost of the car?
I live in Colorado, where insurance is mandatory. I have insurance for my current car - do I need to notify my insurance company before I buy a new car, or after? (This is the last item of mine that's still partially covered by my parents - I'm on their plan, though I pay for my share of it - it's just cheaper).
Is it likely that the dealership will find a bank to provide me a loan? Or is there a good chance that I'll sit there for awhile while they look, and they'll eventually come back and tell me to get lost?
Mr car, a 1989 Volvo, has died. A mechanic friend of a friend looked at it, and said I'm looking at $2700 to get it running, another $2000 to fix a few other important things, plus the cost of getting it to a garage to get all this done in the first place.
Oh, and $20 for new wiper blades.
I was luckily able to borrow a friends care while he is out of town on a business trip, but that won't last. I essentially have 9 days to come up with transportation of my own, in order to get to and from work, and anywhere else I need to go (and no, work is not within walking distance)
Here's the problem. I was not expecting to have to buy a car any time soon. I was planning to get through the holidays, have my credit cards paid off by March, then buy a new car in the spring.
I have
$10k in student loans (private, not government)
$600 owed on an $800 limit credit card
$920 owed on a $1000 limit credit card
$750 owed on another $800 limit cred card
$200 in cash
On the up-side, I make $38k a year. So, affording a car isn't neccessarily impossible for me, this just happened to occur at a horrible time.
I'd really love to get a Honda Civic, but I'm not sure if I'd qualify for an auto loan at this point. I'd also prefer to not buy a really old, cheap, crappy used car at this point in my life. I have about $2150 in income per month after taxes, and about $1000 in expenses (rent, utilities, credit card bills, etc), so I figure I could still get by comfortably with a $400 or less car payment.
Is it absolutely stupid of me to be considering a $17k-$19k car considering my circumstances?
What expenses do I need be aware of, besides the initial cost of the car?
I live in Colorado, where insurance is mandatory. I have insurance for my current car - do I need to notify my insurance company before I buy a new car, or after? (This is the last item of mine that's still partially covered by my parents - I'm on their plan, though I pay for my share of it - it's just cheaper).
Is it likely that the dealership will find a bank to provide me a loan? Or is there a good chance that I'll sit there for awhile while they look, and they'll eventually come back and tell me to get lost?
Kyzen on
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Do you have a girlfriend, friend, or family member you could commute with? Is it within biking distance? Could you take public transportation?
You should be able to afford it unless you're looking at one of the more expensive trim. don't buy options. no matter what they try to tell you. buy everything aftermarket or OEM wholesalers. make sure you do a credit check first, apply for a car loan at capitalone.com. use the check as a bargaining chip to get lower interest rate from the dealer financial dept.
don't forget to ask for the "Out the door price" before you start negotiating for the car. you'll find out it can be a lot higher then sticker price.
I say keep the sticker price under $17k and you should be sitting good when otd price is figured out.
this is all assuming you also have some money on the side for emergencies (insurance deductibles, medical, etc.) if you don't have any of that, pay off your CC first. hell the smart move is to pay off CC first no matter what, but man a new car is so much more fun.
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Honestly I'd probably look for a 2 or 3 year old domestic vehicle. You'll save yourself a ton of cash.
Start checking craigslist and autotrader. Just remember that there are a lot of scams on there and if it's too good to be true, it probably is.
For financing, I'd suggest starting at your bank/credit union. They'll usually give you the best deal on financing if you have less than perfect credit.
Insurance is a big cost after the fact. I'd suggest calling and getting a quote prior to buying any car just to see how much that will change your insurance cost. Expect it to go up a LOT going from your old car to anything fairly recent.
Other costs to think about are property taxes and sales taxes. I'm not sure how that works in colorado, but here we have to pay property taxes on our vehicles before we can get them registered.
I agree.
Also, new cars are almost never smart purchases. They lose a significant amount of their value the second you drive them off the lot, and insurance is going to be significantly more.
You can get certified used cars with full warranties that will suit your purposes just as well as a new car but at half the cost. And if you're looking at a bank loan, typically the oldest car a bank will consider financing is 5 years old. If I were in your shoes, I'd be looking for a 4-5 year old import sedan, like a Camry or Accord, with basic features, and a warranty (preferably certified), and manufacturer-incentive financing if you can get it.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Just doing a quick search for sub $10k cars in the Sacramento CA area (where I'm from, not where I am now) pops up 21 exact matches, and another 35 that are close to 10k but just over.
Your milage may vary - but worth a look.
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If you don't want to do that, buy a 10-15 year old Honda or Toyota and drive it into the ground. You can find them with ~100k miles on them for under $3000. They'll easily go to 200k miles with the absolute most basic maintenance. That'll get you through the next few years, which will give you a chance to pay off those credit cards/studen loans. Those are your real priority, trust me. A car is just a car, almost any one will do, but the sooner you pay off those loans the sooner you can retire.
Also, just curious, how far away is work?
Go on craigslist, you can find an old honda or toyota or even a mazda for under 2000 dollars, something thats reliable. Just search it twice a day or more, once when you get up, once when you get home, at work if you can... punch 2000 dollars into the max box, search dealers and private, and just browse. Anything that even somewhat interests you, go check it out.
I see tons of cars on there daily in my area for under 2000 dollars that are great buys.
Buying a new car at this point in time, with your debt (Which isnt huge, but you should get it paid off asap), would be a bad choice, in my opinion.
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