Going Into Debt For A Car.

[AndrewJZX100]

I'd say nah don't bother. It sounds like even if you do borrow you won't end up in the car you REALLY want, so my advice would be keep saving until your off the Ps/finished studying, then look at your situation.

I borrowed 10k when I was 19 to get a car. Would've been alright if I didn't extend that twice when in a tight spot Snowballed into about 18k in total, then some bad choices and bad luck slashed my assets from a car realistically saleable for about 20k to one I got just 6.5k for when I sold it a few months ago. Now I've got a car worth 3.5k, about the same in the bank and my total cost to pay off my loan is still up around 11k.

At the moment, cars are on hold for me whilst I try and save the extra 8 grand I need to get rid of the loan, which could take the bulk of this year to do. Even when I do finally go debt free, I'll be back to square one, with a shit car and no savings.

Looking at it, I would've been MUCH better off to try and save that 8k when I was 19 instead of get the loan. Sure I would've had to wait to enjoy the cars I've enjoyed since, but had I ended up in the same situation (losing close to 15k worth of assets) at least I would still be ahead.

Edited February 12, 2009 by AndrewJZX100

[NickR33]

loans on cars are a bad idea... your paying massive amounts of interest (you will because the bank sees you as a risk and your only borrowing a small amount) and the car is depreciating at the same time

remember to add the $1500+ you will be paying in insurance as well... plus another $500 for rego... and that's with nothing going wrong with the car and we haven't even dipped into servicing costs... even tyres for these cars will end up costing you at least $800 for something semi decent

save up this year, work your tail off over next summer and see how much you have then... you should almost be off your P's by then anyway?

[GTS4WD]

Dont start your life in debt.

A couple of my friends have done this. Big mistake.

While the rest of us are free to go out, have a laugh, go to the pub, movies etc. he has to do over time.

A couple of us are thinking overseas soon. Overtime.

Moving out? Over time.

His life consists of nothing but uni and work. I havent seen him smile in months now.

Your still young dude. Dont throw this burden on your shoulders of of just yet.

There are HEAP of half decent fun cars out there under 7K that are awesome to drive.

As said before. Budget alot more for rego, insurance, service, maintanence a year for the car.

[NZM.031]

i took out one loan.... 6 years ago.. have gone through 16 cars since... kept the same loan and its just dwindled down and ill have it paid off this year.. over the time ive paid off lots, took more out, had expensive cars, cheap cars, so on and so forth.. been overseas etc. lived life to the fullest for the past 6 years and have experienced sooo much.

my mate, who was on the same money.. bought a house, after his house repayments, was left with $100 a week... that was for fuel, food, car, etc.. and at the time he owned a later model targa top crx.. which he saved up for and bought outright... so he drove a shitter around while he saved up enough for the crx, drove the crx around while he saved for the house... no has no moneys to get more moneys to get a nicer car, and hates his current car because its falling apart and leaks and he cant afford to fix it up or sell it, he had paid extra on the loan to get it down and to be able to have some moneys to go to canada for a holiday... but since the interest rate rise, thats gone.

i figure, im gonna be in debt for the rest or most of my life anyways... id rather have fun with cars and travel now... then can sit back and look at what ive done while paying off my house.. but im not into investments and making money.. a house is for a family to live in, not to make money off.

another thing ive learnt... dont sell your favourite cars... just stick em aside in a storage shed or something.

cheers

Linton

[ras1983]

The question isn't whether he should get a loan. The question is whether the original poster who is a FULL TIME STUDENT with a small wage should get a loan.

[Jax]

I eat nice food which is a waste of money relative to the fact that i could largely eat toasted cheese and tomato sandwiches for 15% of the cost.

I L-u-r-v-e cheese and tomato sangos. WHY would anyone want to waste their money on anything else?

[NZM.031]

one more thing while im at it, my old boy is 60 this year.. since ive been around the family car has always been just that.. hes had a gt40 in the build for years but never been able to finish it.. he worked 7 days a week on awesome money to pay off the house, and he kept taking more out to renovate, they never went overseas, just our family holiday

the house is now paid off and he is retired.. hes got himself a flash road racing bike, a genuine 70' Boss Mustang, a really nice ride on mower, push mower, whipper snipper, etc. and time to spare.

but... hes 60.. and worked hard all his life.. he cant ride his bike because his joints and back cant handle it.. the mustang is too loud, too rough, too uncomfortable, and doesnt have a/c so it never gets driven, the ride on he cant use because its too rough, the push mower hurts his back, and he cant whipper snip to save himself.. he doesnt want to back pack around europe... but he cant afford to stay in hotels, he doesnt want to sit for 20hrs on a plane in economy class either.

hind sight is a wonderful thing... fore sight is better.. i rather drop dead and be happy with what ive done.. than live for things to come eventually.

cheers

Linton

[NZM.031]

ohhhhhhhhhhh part time student... my bad. should read the post aye... forget it.. my mrs is a student and with the crap she has to pay for and doesnt get government hand outs because we live together.. theres no way she can afford a loan at the moment. shes at uni 5 days a week and works weekends...

before you all say something about my typing/rambling, ive had 2 large cups of really strong coffee and its all i can do to stop my hands shaking....

cheers

Linton

[scotty014]

i think you should save up some more money. i bought my first car outright and borrowed a couple grand form my parents which i have paid back now.

while i had this car i knew i wasnt having it forever so i never modded it and kept saving my money. then i found the perfect r34 gtt. i did buy the car with a loan but once i sold my other one i dont owe much now which is great plus i still have alot of money in the bank for emergency and mods and for going out and holidays. so what im saying is just save for a bit longer and be patient, just wait for the right car to come up.

[Mattikin1]

loans have good and bad sides yes you will be in debt but if you can cope easily with the loan then later on in life when you want to get a house etc you will have a good credit rating and i didnt like the interia of the supras either until i actually sat in one and fell in love with them im hoping to get one one day. after my skyline days.

[Josh33]

when i was on my p's i had a 10+ year old commodore (flame suit on)

most of my mates got loans for reletivley new xr6t's s15's, ss commos etc

when i got enough money i bought my skyline outright, its not a gtr but its mine and im more proud of it becouase of the overtime

and scrimping i did to get it. In the meantime one mate is still in debt 35k another crashed his nice car and now has another loan (but for a 1980 pulsar, all he could afford) dont let me put you off or anything, if you can seriously afford it go for it, for me I couldnt justify basically paying someone $5-7k for me to get my car 2 years earlier

So if you can hold off goodonya, if not do yourself a budget and figure out how much DISPOSABLE income you actually have (it wont be much)

then get a loan to suit keeping in mind higher costs that come with turbo cars.

Best of luck let us know how you go anyway mate

[usmair]

dont do it dude... i was in the exact same situation as you about a year and a half ago... had about 8K in the bank + plus had a casual job in retail while at uni...

i wanted a nice car so badly... even had my loan for 13k approved (against my parents wishes) and the night before i had to put the deposit down on the FC, my dad sat me down and told me how life will be like under debt...

so i backed out... decided to get serious... drove my mum's shitty laser around for a year... put $200 a week aside for a couple of months and then paid my own car from my own pocket...

trust me man... it feels so good knowing that u dont have any liabilities against yr ride.... friend of mine got a loan for 30k for an s15... he bought it... stuffed up his leg on his job and couldnt work... atm his insurance is paying for it.. but once he goes under the knife for his operation then he will have to pay it himself... which will be f**kin hard with no job...

so my advice... save for a few months... by then yr savings will be making a little bit extra in a savings account... cars will depreciate and become that little bit cheaper and u will have the satisfaction of knowing that u dont have to for out $100 a week or whatever to keep yr car with u...

my 2 cents...

P.S situations will always occur where u will have to spend extra cash on your car... my car was recently smashed with a beer bottle... so thats gonna cost me a few hundred to repair... a 'just in case' fund should always be put aside for unusual situations

Edited February 13, 2009 by usmair

[KezR33]

Alright, thanks for the advice all. Here's my current plan;

Drive Mum's car till I'm off my P's. Put $200 a week away into a savings account. Once I'm off my P's and with a significant amount of money saved up (should be at least $15,000) I'll begin searching for cars, but I'll be really, really fussy. I won't settle for anything less than mint condition car at a bargain price, if I find something out of my price range, I'll take a small loan to get it, but if it takes me another year to find one, that's cool too, because I'm still putting $200 a week away.

This car will then be my pride and joy, which I will keep for a long, long time.

Thanks again.

[Roy]

LOL i still say do it IF its what you want to do. All those people say save and buy a house? Sheesh, talk about dead money. $2000/month repayment of which about 1200 is interest per month for the first few years of the loan. LOL tell me any house you buy where you have borrowed around 80% covers the $1200 a month interest you are buring on a property. Sounds like a real smart investment to me, borrow $400,000 and repay $1.1 million etc.

I dont follow the logic borrowing a small amount for a car is bad because of interest, but borrowing more for property and burning over $1000 a month hoping that the market will go boom?

I say being a busted ass poor uni student who is living on the poverty line is character building. Some of the best days of my life

[Roy]

LOL, and i will qualify myself as a person to offer advice by saying i am a 32yr old who owns an R32 GTSt that owes me probably well over 50k from 9 years of ownership that is really only worth about 12k.

But i own a real cool Steve McQueen jacket and am paying off someone elses mortgage in a pretty cool apartment...cash flow is King in this life and i need it to waste on cars, booz and self growth/therapy. You cant take it with you

[Mattikin1]

i would do it because when you get off your ps you might have changed your mind completely bout getting what car you want now and you might even find someone special and want to move in etc and if you have a girlfriend they might fall pregnet etc. and then you mite have to get a family car etc anything can happen. so as some one said before dont do it cause you cant go out while being young well you mite miss out on the oportunity to drive around the car you want when your young because things can change there are alot of reasons to and not to it all comes down to what you really want and how much you want it. people can be giving you all there opinions some say yes and some say no and in the end it just confuses the f*** out of you and makes you more confused of what to do. so think of now if you can afford it cause in the future anything can happen thats the way i see it and have experienced a bit with other things not cars.

[Sheriff Wan]

Hahaha - Roy you never seem to amaze

Mate I think your on the right track - save now and buy later.

Half the problem with the world nowadays (jees I sound old!) is that people dont save for what they want and just get a loan for it.

Save now - then get what you really want later on, there will always be cars.

This coming from a guy who works for a bank

[phunky_monkey]

But i own a real cool Steve McQueen jacket

Listen to this man... because I too have a sweet, sweet Steve McQueen jacket and that's all that matters in life

*high 5*

[.:: GimpS-R34 ::.]

i took out a 25k loan to buy a VT when i was an apprentice.. was on 384 per wk.. during paying that loan off i managed to spend another 10k+ on car accessories.. i had perfect credit rating.. (mobile phone contract, etc) and a decent savings.. upon finishing my apprenticeship.. then with my misses we purchased a house for $300+k which 2yrs later is worth 400+.. i got the misses lancer & the R34.. and a daily ute.. on top of that im looking at an investment house now within 6months.. (gov't incentives atm give some of your tax back to pay for it + rent means i will be paying under $50 bucks a wk while some douche pays the rest of my mortgage off) within 10yrs i will own 2 houses and will be debt free.. and i'm 24.. i certainly don't live a sheltered life... foresight is a beautiful thing.. i will be able to retire at 45 if i so desire.. and i'm only 24

and starting repayments of $2000/month.. you pay more than $1200 in interest.. but i can pay my house off in 5-7 yrs and owe no more rent.. forever.. and if your smart and pay off your loan quicker you don't end up paying double the price.. and an average house in my area is $350-$380 / wk for the house i got and am currently required to pay (although i pay more) is $450.. for $100 extra per wk i will own the house i have.. and where as rent keeps climbing my house repayments do not..

unfortunately however i don't own a Steve McQueen jacket so i have not truly experienced life..

[sneakey pete]

@OP: your 7K will make you about, og, $400 in the next 12 months if you put it in the right term deposits. If you took a 7K loan, you'd probably be paying back an extra 2-3K over the life of the loan. Its just not worth it, not for something that depreciates like a car.