[camarowa]

Originally Posted by 1BADLS3

You're wrong. On so many fronts.

In fact, in the sea of 0% car loans, it would literally be stupid to put ANYTHING down, since it's free money. If you've got the cash, at the very least, it can sit in a bank account and earn 0.5%-1.0% interest in savings.

It makes sense up to whatever percentage you can make on the money in other accounts, i.e. retirement if you invest aggressively, or other short-term, high-yield investments.

Second, if a fully financed payment along with the sum of your other bills is still totaling less than 36% of your income (as a general, old-school rule), then you absolutely can afford it.

This rationale would only hold up assuming you have the full funds to buy the car set aside and could pay off the note whenever required. However, it think it would be fair to say that most folks don't have $30-40k sitting somewhere. Leverage can be your friend, but will more than likely become your worst enemy, especially on a depreciating asset.