First new car

[xandrew245x]

Originally Posted by wat5150 $350 a month for 5 years = 21,000. Its a cool little car. I never feel quite right driving those little cars. Im 6-3 though. Im sure its pretty fun to drive though. Probably handles really good. Honestly for new cars I like to lease. Unless you drive a ton of miles its a good deal. You have it for 3 years then get a new one. Id never do this with a work truck obviously but a personal vehicle it works great. I mean a lot of people keep a new car for like 3-4 years and trade it in, so theres not a huge difference. Anyway congrats on the new car. Thanks man. I have always had a thing for little cars, my first car was a Mitsubishi eclipse(absolute junk in my book), I bought a Mitsubishi 3000gt, I still have it but i'm looking to sell it now, I really don't need it anymore. I do have a chevy s-10 I love it, but I hate its horrible gas mileage. I thought about leasing, but were planning on keeping this car as long as possible, so buying it was the smarter choice. Who knows, my financial outlook my completely change 3 years from now. I'm about 5-11 to 6' havent been measured in a while, and I fit quite well in that little car, now my 3000gt on the other hand...quite a task to get in and out of. I think the total came out to be a little over 21k because we bought gap insurance, and an extra warranty for the car, so all that added up after tax and tags, I think it came to be around 21k. The price before tax and tag i think was 18k because we went with the model above the base model.

__________________

Carlisle Lawn Care

---

Last edited by xandrew245x; 08-09-2012 at 06:46 AM.

[bruces]

Lawn care business tips

hopefully fiat "Fix It Again Tony " doesnt just pack up and leave you holding the bag on a complete pile of dung like they did in 1979-80 .My first car was a 1979 fiat spyder convertible ,with only 5000 original miles ,a blown headgasket ,and no dealer support to repair it .Fortunately,I worked at one of the former dealers who had some parts in stock so I was able to repair mine ,while many many others brought their pretty new cars in for scrap .That car was nothing but trouble,and caught fire and burnt with less than 20,000 miles on the clock .I paid $950.00 for the car which was a year old and hadnt made it to its second oil change when I bought it .

[The Cleaning Doctor]

How can you beat $350 a month for a brand new car

How about 5k for a used car that will last the same amount of time? If you really believe that you are paying 0%, I have some beach property to sell you in Colorado. They do not loan money and make nothing on it. It is a freaking gimick that people keep falling for. Now that it is added to the principal, you are responsible for it all. Including their profit. If you should default on a normal loan, then you are only responsible for the principal and the interest is not guaranteed to the lender.

Basically what you have done is taken non guaranteed interest (if you paid it off early) and converted it to principal and that is guaranteed by you.

You guys want to make money and have money you have to do the same things that those that have it do.

Are you aware that Sam Walton drove a 1969 Chevy pickup till the day he died? For those that are not aware, Sam Walton was the founder of WalMart.

Even you guys that replace trucks all the time, you are wasting money. You say it is a tax write off? Well good for you, so you will spend say 10k on a truck just to keep from sending Uncle Sam 3k. It does not make sense. 3k is what you would have paid in a 30% tax bracket. So you are left with 7k in hand. When the repair exceeds the value, then it is time to replace but stay away from new.

At the end of the day, you will end up with a 20k dollar beer can.

I bet you still think the Pontiac Fiero is a cool sports car.

Don't knock on Pontiac. They went under for a reason... LOL

[xandrew245x]

Originally Posted by bruces

hopefully fiat "Fix It Again Tony " doesnt just pack up and leave you holding the bag on a complete pile of dung like they did in 1979-80 .My first car was a 1979 fiat spyder convertible ,with only 5000 original miles ,a blown headgasket ,and no dealer support to repair it .Fortunately,I worked at one of the former dealers who had some parts in stock so I was able to repair mine ,while many many others brought their pretty new cars in for scrap .That car was nothing but trouble,and caught fire and burnt with less than 20,000 miles on the clock .I paid $950.00 for the car which was a year old and hadnt made it to its second oil change when I bought it .

First thing that ran through my head is "I hope they don't pack up and leave like they did before" I don't think that is going to happen again. The guy said they have sold over 150 fiats from just that locations since they opened in march of this year. The extra warranty we purchased is supposed to cover anything mechanical, but I know how they like to pull strings and not cover things when the time comes down to it. We will see though.

Thanks for your concern cleaning doctor. If I wanted a used car, I would buy a used car, and no I don't see how a 5,000 used car would last the same amount of time as a new car, cars don't last forever, and a 5,000 car is probably going to have about 150k miles on it, your not going to get much life out of that car without costly repairs.

I know I could have bought used, and I have done it in the past. I'm in the position to buy a new car, so I did.

[The Cleaning Doctor]

I don't see how a 5,000 used car would last the same amount of time as a new car

That is a fantasy. With the proper maintenance cars will last. My truck is 30 years old and going strong. As far as costly repairs, you are going to have repairs on that car and I can put a whole lot of repairs into a car for 21k. I can drop 2 new engines and a transmission into a 5k car for that price.

It also depends on the car that you get. I have seen Subaru vehicles with over 300k miles and still going. You stated that you wanted a new car, well that is buying on emotion not logic. You need to buy what you need and not what you want.

Secondly, if you are not in a position where you can pay cash, you are not in a position to buy a new car. As a general rule of thumb, the value of your vehicles should be 1/4 or less of your annual income. Other wise you have too much money tied up into things that go down in value.

If you want to get ahead in life, you have to make the choices now because it is going to effect you for a long time to come. This society has been teaching that debt is ok but it is not. Just look at the state of the economy and the country right now. All of our troubles can be traced back to debt.

If you had instead put that payment away for 4 years you could have bought that car for less with cash. Years ago I bought my sister a truck this way. I walked into the dealer and bought a used truck for her. Sticker was $4,800 and I got it for $2,700. No, I did not know anyone at the dealership. I just gave them an offer of $2,600 all inclusive and was prepared to walk out. As a matter of fact I got up 3 times to leave before they came back with the $2,700 offer. She drove that truck for 14 years and it was already over 10 years old when I bought it so don't tell me that you can not get the life out of a used car.

I learned the hard way and over the last 25 years, I am still not up to the amount that I paid for that new car with the others that I have owned.

[SECTLANDSCAPING]

Originally Posted by The Cleaning Doctor

That is a fantasy. With the proper maintenance cars will last. My truck is 30 years old and going strong. As far as costly repairs, you are going to have repairs on that car and I can put a whole lot of repairs into a car for 21k. I can drop 2 new engines and a transmission into a 5k car for that price.

It also depends on the car that you get. I have seen Subaru vehicles with over 300k miles and still going. You stated that you wanted a new car, well that is buying on emotion not logic. You need to buy what you need and not what you want.

Secondly, if you are not in a position where you can pay cash, you are not in a position to buy a new car. As a general rule of thumb, the value of your vehicles should be 1/4 or less of your annual income. Other wise you have too much money tied up into things that go down in value.

If you want to get ahead in life, you have to make the choices now because it is going to effect you for a long time to come. This society has been teaching that debt is ok but it is not. Just look at the state of the economy and the country right now. All of our troubles can be traced back to debt.

If you had instead put that payment away for 4 years you could have bought that car for less with cash. Years ago I bought my sister a truck this way. I walked into the dealer and bought a used truck for her. Sticker was $4,800 and I got it for $2,700. No, I did not know anyone at the dealership. I just gave them an offer of $2,600 all inclusive and was prepared to walk out. As a matter of fact I got up 3 times to leave before they came back with the $2,700 offer. She drove that truck for 14 years and it was already over 10 years old when I bought it so don't tell me that you can not get the life out of a used car.

I learned the hard way and over the last 25 years, I am still not up to the amount that I paid for that new car with the others that I have owned.

I have bought used everything. I tell people on here to get used commercial equipment but they opt for new residential.

I'm a firm believer if you dont have the cash to pay for it, you cant afford it. Theres to many variables with life.

You mention Subaru. I almost bought a 2003 forester with 134,000 miles for $1800 yesterday. I was hesitant because of how ugly it is and it sold before I made a decision. I ended up getting a 2002 4runner for $2200. I needed a awd family vehicle.

The last car I bought was 2000 civic coupe for $3000 with 125,000. I have 183,000 on that car and only replaced a exhaust pipe.

Work trucks are different because well work. I have 274,000 on my 2001 sliverado. I put a transmission in it this year. At the time I had to decide if it was worth it. After looking at truck prices. I fixed it for $1600.

[xandrew245x]

I have to agree with you on subarus. They are incredible cars, i have seen some of them with well over 300k miles on them. I have never had very good luck with used cars. My first car was a 2002 eclipse, 100 and some thousand miles on it. Payed 6k for it, they went to check it out before giving it to me only to find it needed an engine rebuild, I had to wait over a month to just get my car. Okay cool, got pretty much a new engine, drove the car for a year and a half and the transmission went out.

The used car I have now is having engine problems and it has less than 90k miles on it still. I just have bad luck.

With the extra insurance I have on my new car I never have to pay for anything outside of general maintenance. It covers any parts that break, even including an engine replacement, according to the dealership that is.

If it was up to me, I would have went and bought a used subaru, but my better half really wanted a fiat, so I broke down this time and left her buy one.

I may or may not buy a new car in the future, like I said this is my first new car, so if this experience goes well, then possibly i will buy a new one.

[The Cleaning Doctor]

Have you replaced the timing belt?

I do this all the time, I find a non running vehicle for a few hundred $$$ and 9 times out of 10 it is the timing belt on these little 4 bangers. If you replace them when the MFG says to you do not have issues with them.

[xandrew245x]

Its a v6 dohc, I found the datecode on the timing belt a while back, it was manufactured in 2007, so the owner before me did know to replace the timing belt.

The problem is it doesn't want to start right. It turns over, and takes a while to actually start, it never did it before. I replaced the plugs and coils, last night I took the coils off the front bank of plugs and put them back on and it started right up, so i'm not sure if one maybe came loose, time will tell.

I hate to get rid of it, its a fun car too, but I don't need it anymore so I think i'm going to set it out for sale.

[LawnBoy0311]

I've never understood the point of buy new, buy used, or lease. Everyone has something that works for them. I bought a new car once, it broke down 2 weeks to the day that I bought it. Then it spent 28 days in the shop. I've bought used too. I just bought a used 2011 F-150 with 400 miles on it. Still had the "new car smell". I also bought my wife a new jeep compass. It took FOREVER to talk her out of a mercedes!!! I have friends who have leased cars, but I never have. My feeling is, I want something reliable. Not a headache. I don't have the time or patience waiting on a car/truck to be fixed. In 3 or 4 years, my truck and my wife's care will be back at the dealership, and we will be getting new cars. And for anyone who pays cash for an old used car, good on you. I'd rather finance and know my car will run fine for a few years.

On the flip side, I couldn't justify monthly payments on a mower. I'd rather pay cash when the time comes. To contradict what I just said, I bought a new residential ZTR with a credit card. I got a lot of points from the credit card and got a $50 gift card from the points. I've had the mower for a month, and my credit card will be paid off next month. The reason I did this is because of the profit margin. The mower isn't going to take abuse, it's only me who drives it. It doesn't get too many hours, because I work a full time job. I'll finish this season strong, then go into next year with large profit margins. At that point I'll buy a commercial mower cash, depending on how my trusty Toro is doing.

To sum it all up, everyone has a personal preference on what they like/do. But in the end, we all run a business and we all try to be succesful at it. Some of us will make it, and some of us will fail. But we are all giving it 110%.

Congrats on your new Fiat, and enjoy it!