Who has their Camaro paid off?

[Tenacity]

I bought everything out of POCKET .

- The car itself

- The 24 inch wheels

- The MRTv2 axle back exhaust

I don't believe in car payments because a car is a depreciating asset. But if you just have to have a car payment, I recommend that you:

- Put at least 50% down and pay it off within 2 years

- Shop for the best rate, which more than likely will NOT come from the car dealer

- Also never buy a brand new car. Buy at least 1 - 2 years used. Usually the prior year's car will look pretty much the exact same as the current year's model, but will cost less because you allowed someone else to take the major early depreciation hit on the car. Just make sure the Car Fax is solid on the car itself.

- Also never (ever) lease a vehicle.

[Northshore]

I paid mine off. Sold my house and made a nice profit so I paid off my SS and credit cards then bought a ZX14 and another house.

[Northshore]

to each their own although my wife leased an infinity and got hosed. unless u get it for free u kinda get robbed on some level

[Tenacity]

Originally Posted by Northshore

to each their own although my wife leased an infinity and got hosed. unless u get it for free u kinda get robbed on some level

From a financial standpoint, leasing a car pretty much never makes any sense. The only time it could remotely make any sense was if the car was used for some commercial related purpose that REQUIRED you to switch in and out of vehicles relatively fast (such as within 1 - 2 years).

Yes, you can get screwed buying as well, but it all comes down to controlling the entire sales cycle. Before I buy any car, I already know which type I want and I scroll through inventories online to find the best deals within a particular driving distance. I also already have it configured on how I'm going to pay for the car. If you leave these steps up to your "sales agent" at the car dealer, you more than likely aren't going to be purchasing efficiently.

[Spurshot]

Let's say you have $50k in your pocket. You want a new Camaro. A new Camaro costs $50k. You also know a car depreciation is 15-20% annuall. A financial opportunity exists to invest the 50k and make 10% annually. Loans on the 50k are 3% annually. Hmm mm. What do you do?

[01pewterz28]

Paid mine off in 2013 enjoy the extra $350 a month.

[drew peacock]

Originally Posted by Spurshot

Let's say you have $50k in your pocket. You want a new Camaro. A new Camaro costs $50k. You also know a car depreciation is 15-20% annuall. A financial opportunity exists to invest the 50k and make 10% annually. Loans on the 50k are 3% annually. Hmm mm. What do you do?

sounds good but u can loose money aswell as win..we have 40 000 usd in stocks and shares.
in the last 2 years we have lost about 5k..not as simple as that to make money

[BeastMode]

Originally Posted by Spurshot

Let's say you have $50k in your pocket. You want a new Camaro. A new Camaro costs $50k. You also know a car depreciation is 15-20% annuall. A financial opportunity exists to invest the 50k and make 10% annually. Loans on the 50k are 3% annually. Hmm mm. What do you do?

If you have access to a vessel that can give you 10% a year, cool. But the stock market hasn't been doing that very well. If you take the stock market average of 7% recently, less the tax liability that results, you aren't much over the auto interest rate you proposed of 3%.

Let's look at this 2 different ways.

1) finance $50k car, 20% down, 3% apr, 5 year term (payment is $718.75)
2) pay cash, and invest what would be a payment into the market

Market averages about 7%. At the end of 5 years, in scenario 1 you have $56,541, situation 2 puts you at $51,607, difference of $4933, would be even smaller once you consider financing fees. Split that up over 5 years, $986 a year. This may or may not be significant to someone depending on their situation. And of course if the market performs well, or poorly, could have a huge impact.

Other thought is...the majority of the time when someone makes this arguement, they dont actually have $50k to invest, and even if they do, they dont. Optimal and what actually happens is 2 very different things. Not saying that is your situation, just my observation.

In the end whar I see most wealthy people (Tax CPA) doing is keeping the same cars forever, and then they buy a new one in cash, and drive that one for 10-15 years.

I think it really comes down to the personal situation. We financed both our cars but will have the Camaro paid off about 18 months after original purchase and my wife's car at about 24 months - for us it makes sense to eliminate the payments to free up cash flow for when she starts working part time. For someone else that might not make sense at all.

[BLU DUCE]

Paid mine off 6 years ago.

[Pluto]

Well it looks like I'll be able to pay it off on 8/5/16. I ran the numbers again and again yesterday. I cannot wait to be done with it. The loan will have cost me approximately $815 in interest over the course of 45 months. I am happy to say I paid it off 27 months ahead of schedule. I think I will definitely have more money down next time. I put about 45% down using a trade that was paid for. It's not that the loan was not affordable; I just do not like payments. My scheduled payments were $318.65. Yes that's 318.65 extra per month, but it will feel like more because I've been paying forward for some time now.

[qcman]

Maybe its just me but talking about financial responsibility etc in the same sentence as buying a Camaro which is likely the most impractical purchase short of a Corvette seems silly.

My car has been paid off for over a year now but I wouldn't have been able to get it without borrowing some of the money towards it. For those that have boatloads of cash good for you! I am not rich and certainly not poor so I bought what I could afford in the way I could afford it. It worked for me and I'm happy! To others do whatever makes you happy and you can afford. Don't worry about the wannabe financial consultants on here.

I knew when I bought this car that it was a totally useless and self serving purchase. I didn't need a car as I have a truck already. But damn I wanted it! So I thought about the impact of buying it. Did it mean my son wouldn't be able to continue in university, bills wouldn't be paid, debt load would be too high?

The answer was nothing else would suffer so eff it!

[drew peacock]

i refuse point blank to loan money for ANY luxery item..if i ever bought a car on loan it would be the cheapest NEW car i could find..loaning money for luxery items is madness..
live like a hermit for a year or 2 then pay cash..too many people today want EVERYTHING NOW.

[Motopsycho]

I bought my 2010 2SS/RS in the spring of 2013 with 1850 miles on the odometer. My plan is to pay my loan off early in the spring of 2017. I could actually pay it off now, but my interest rate is so low that I'd much rather have my cash available to me than having my car paid for. Once it's paid for, it's time to get a new truck. My 2009 Silverado is aging rapidly and I need something new.

[Tenacity]

Originally Posted by Spurshot

Let's say you have $50k in your pocket. You want a new Camaro. A new Camaro costs $50k. You also know a car depreciation is 15-20% annuall. A financial opportunity exists to invest the 50k and make 10% annually. Loans on the 50k are 3% annually. Hmm mm. What do you do?

- First decide do you really want a 6th Gen Camaro or could a 5th Gen Camaro work? I really do not believe in buying brand new cars. Buying 1 - 2 years old should be the starting point.

- Once you do that, let's say you opt to just buy a 2013 or 2014 Camaro instead. You can get a solid package on that for well less than $50k, more along the lines of about $28k with about 20k - 30k miles on the car already. Everything else in good shape.

- You can buy that out of pocket and take the remaining $22k and invest it in the opportunity that you have to make 10% annually.