The answer to out-doing the Jones is to just buy a couple of new modern inexpensive cars and with a little bit of imagination make a BIG unique car or SUV.
Posted on 12/30/2007 9:21:09 AM PST by jeannineinsd
I have a 2000 Chevy Cavalier that's in the same condition, and when I finally run the wheels off it, I am going to push it into the street and call the city to come salvage it. :-)
I love my car.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
So much for “trade ins.” The car dealership consolidated the loans. The dealership keeps the trade in for resale and you have two car payments rolled into one payment but get to take home only one car. Where do I sign??!!!
The answer to out-doing the Jones is to just buy a couple of new modern inexpensive cars and with a little bit of imagination make a BIG unique car or SUV.
You bypass the regular salesman... you ASK for the fleet sales manager... he is on a salary, not on a commission. The vehicles are on the back lot (the ones in the front are for the usual car salesman) or the vehicle you want can be ordered. The cost is typically $500 over the invoice price. It more easily accomplished if you pay cash and do not have a trade in... but this is not set in cement. The savings are enormous!
I am the same way. My 1991 Ford Ranger finally started to have transmission problems. I gave it to a kid who needed local wheels and bought a new car for under $20K. Wife's last car had a similar history, 15+ years until it was uneconomical to repair.
Fleet sales vehicles are a great way to get a work vehicle. They’re relatively unknown to most individual buyers, but well known and loved by corporate, government, and smart individual buyers. It’s not a secret, its just that almost everyone just seems to overlook it.
A fleet sales vehicle is a vehicle sold by the fleet sales arm of a company and dealership. If you take a look at taxis, police cars, and say, telephone company trucks, you’ll notice that they tend to be more spartan and have different configurations than their regular siblings. For example, AT&T F-350s have conventional sealed beam headlights instead of composite lighting units, vinyl matting instead of carpet, hard-wear vinyl or cloth seating, a simple dash instead of one with a laser light show - but they have the big diesel engine, power steering and brakes, the heavy-duty suspension and driveline... and a price tag as little as 1/2 to 1/3rd what you’d pay for the base regular F-350 out in front of the dealership.
It’s not so great if you want a family sedan as the interiors are very spartan. What you get in a fleet vehicle is a very basic vehicle (with the only available options being exterior color, A/C, CD player, and maybe power windows and locks) that simply doesn’t have much of any of the modern conveniences that like to break, plus it has a long-lasting driveline to reduce fleet maintenance costs.
As the name implies, these vehicles are intended to be sold to fleets, but *anyone* can walk into a dealer’s fleet sales manager’s office and buy one. It’s a great way to get a working vehicle for almost nothing. You can get a fleet-configured Dodge Ram 1500 V6 for less than the cheapest Dodge car.
You seem to have a lot of company here with the running to ground concept; I am killing time at the computer waiting for the temperature to get above 45F so I can change the oil in two cars with the garage door open.
Cavaliers Rock! I bought my first “New” car at 17 yrs old, a 2yr old 1991 Cav. When someone turned left in front of me-CRASH! I put the ins. money on a brand new 2000 Cav. Then, my wife’s car died, so we bought a New 2001 Cav. I just traded that in last winter because it lost the ABS system. Alas, no more Cavaliers, and the Cobalt is too expensive. So I bought a Pontiac Vibe.
I drive a 97 Ranger truck( paid for) and a 2004 PT Cruiser $ 13000 on a 4 yr. note 0% interest. Wasn’t that hard to find the deal.
About a year and a half ago, I bought a 1974 GMC truck for $150, and I have put about $500 worth of parts in it. It has been my daily driver. It gets about 12-13 mpg, and yeah, it burns about 2 quarts of oil a week, but I’m deeply in love with not making a monthly payment.
Exactly. The dealers see numbskulls like this a mile away and know how to set the hook. I'm not blaming the dealer--they're making money just like anyone else. It's the no money down, instant gratification crowd that pisses in their own soup.
My wife has a cousin with the financial acumen of the dingbats in the article. He used to buy a new monster truck every year and roll the debt into the new truck. Before he knew it, he was in about $100K with no way out. Seven year loans and $700+/month payments didn't grab his attention as much as the "bitchin' stereo system" did.
Some are, some not so much.
I paid $20,000 cash for my ‘87 VW Vanagon Syncro Westfalia about 8 years ago. It’s actually worth more than that now. They’ve achieved cult status.
In 2002 I paid about $18,000 for a 2000 Honda Insight. Right now with 45,000 miles on it would bring about $10,000 to $11,000 depending on fuel prices.
Of course these vehicles have been kept in top condition and I haven’t put that many miles on them.
Mistake buying it new, as well. Sure, if you buy new you get the full warranty, but a few years used still leaves you with the balance of the factory warranty and a huge reduction in the price of the car.
One way that makes sense is if you get a much shorter term car loan. Sure, the payments are more per month, but you pay it off a lot faster.
A friend of mine who makes decent money refuses to get any auto loan that’s longer than 24 months. The way he figures it, yes, the payments are enormous - but then at the end of the 24 months the car is his and he’s not screwed if something *really* bad happens to him financially then. And if something bad happens in the interim, he has enough equity and payments in the car that the financing entity will usually let him skip a couple of payments.
I borrow as much as I can to buy two vehicles, so what is the big deal about a couple of $700 a month car payments...need to get this in before all the ‘patting themselves on the back’ begins....
After five bankruptcies he found out he could fleece more money out of others telling them to do what he never did; now he can afford to spend like a drunken sailor while Ben Franklin offered the same advice for free - “A penny saved is a penny earned.”
Old Ben died with a comfortable estate and as fat and happy as a bedbug.
I recently saw a contract signed by an individual who had purchased a F350 dually crew cab much like the one described in this article. However it was a 2004 model with a 5 yr contract. His total payout including interest over the 5 yrs was in excess of $65,000 and he’ll then have a nine yr old vehicle. Even as a business related vehicle that seems excessive to me. But to each his own.
You seem to have a lot of company here with the running to ground concept; I am killing time at the computer waiting for the temperature to get above 45F so I can change the oil in two cars with the garage door open.
Oh yeah, I think it's part of the growing up phase that I have been trying to ignore.
I used to be part of that "want it, gotta have it, NOW" group, then I took a hard look around and went, No.
I just bought my first house and have a payment slightly more than what the people in the article are paying for their car..30year fixed. (shaking head)
I am not car inclined, I take it every three months and pay 35.00 to let someone else do the maintenance stuff, so it should run forever.
Guess I had to grow up sometime. :-)
45 degrees... (shiver).
I need to get someone to teach me how to do the oil, I bet it's not hard.
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