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THat is true of about 150 million people in the US alone. Unfortuantely, not that many of them are safe drivers. Unfortunately, you and I have no say over whether they go out on public roads. However she does not text and drive to my knowledge, she does talk on the phone at times, but rarely. It is the people who think they are good drivers that usually text and talk while driving because they think they are such good drivers, they can do it - they canntot.
I am more worried about her propensity to charge up on other cars, especially cars that are slowing down. she does nto hit the brakes when the other cars brake lights come on, she waits until she starts rapidly closing on them and then jumps ont he brake. A bad practice that i cannot seem to get her out of. Of course with 20 year olds, it is a bti more dififcult to get them to do any particular thing. You can only make suggestons.
Some people have to learn the hard way.After she hits another car in the rear she will then learn about the importance of always having a safe distance between cars. She will be charged at fault, face higher insurance cost for 3 years, have to go to court and pay fines etc, court cost and maybe a law suit from those she injures not to mention her own injures or death.
I will bring up the idea of buying new. I know that its generally not thought of as financially smart but I think its a safe smart risk free play. Here's why:
Buying new she can get a reliable car with good mileage and no unforeseen expenses for about $200 per month. Understand her lease payment will not be $200 per month but long term ownership probably will be. If she bought something like a Civic, Elantra or Corolla her payment would probably be about $350. But after 60 months she will own the car which will be worth about $9000. Consider that a rebate of $150 per month so her net cost is about $200 per month.
But for that number she is getting peace of mind. She will always be under warranty and there should really be no hidden cost. And if she can get a set of tires to last that long then her maintenance cost will be almost zero. Also she will get something with the newest technology which means better safety features and better gas mileage. The Elantra gets 40 MPG and has ESC. Did you know that ESC has been considered to be the most important safety feature since the seat belt.
So can you get a used car for $200 per month. Maybe. Its a risk. You might buy a $5000 car and it might run 7 years and never need a dime and your monthly cost will only be about $60. But you might need a new transmission after 12 months and your monthly cost is like $500 per month. I would just be worried that the used car is going to cost me far more than $200 per month.
I think a net cost of $200 per month is a safe reliable play which will have no surprises. Now it requires a little more upfront cash as the front end will be about $350 per month. But she has a good chunk of cash already. Also you could lease and pay a slightly higher net cost but with lower monthly payments. Probably $225 per month is doable.
I like the new car idea as well. Many new cars like the focus are great cars while the older models were only mediocre. They tend to be safer too I think. The problem is for 9 months of the year she has income of $0 per month. (Actually she somritimes makes a hundred or so babysitting and working an occaisional weekend, but that pays for books and gas - tuition is scholarships, loans and Dad, plus some savings from the summer). She has one year of school left, but then on to graudate school. Although grad school should be tuition free, she will still have little income. She may get a job for a year or two before grad school, but cannot be certain of that. Thus, she would have to bank payments to cover 9 months of the year for five years. Even if she put $0 down, I do not think $6500 would cover that.
I am not sure I follow the math in the post above. A $1,200 - $2,200 transmission rebuild makes the monthly cost jump from $60 to $500? I must be missing something. I understand the concept of what is being claimed, but the math makes no sense to me. I must be missing something.
Anyway in our experience, older cars can cost a lot more than anticipated, but they are always cheaper than new cars. My son has two cars he paid $500 each for. He put $900 into one of them and $0 into the other so far. Between them he has driven around 12,000 miles. You do not get 12,000 miles for $1900 out of any new car. One car will eventually need a transmission replacment ($1400), but it will likely last another year, maybe two before it is necessary. If not, he is still way ahead of buying a $15,000 new car especially since he has only McDonalds job income (part time at less than minimum wage).
It may be a surprise to some people but taking risks is simply the cost of not being wealthy. You buy a used car because that is all you can afford. If it breaks in a major way, you are SOL. You have to re-order your life, take a year off school, move in with friends who live close, if the weather is nice, ride a bike, maybe you can borrow a car from Grandpa for a while.
We have a spare car for the family, but it is frequently being used. We have 7 cars for 6 drivers but all but one have over 100,000 miles and one is a toy and currently broken anyway. One of our drivers really never drives anywhere, so she does nto take up a car very often. The others all drive a lot. I think most of us put over 30,000 a year on our cars. Thus the spare car is frequently required to cover another car that is being repaired. It is just the way it is. Ideally we should all have new cars and we would not need a spare and never worry about break downs, but the cash flow for 6 new car payments is impossible, even on a lawyer's salary (not to mention the downpayments). Luckily the aforementioned son will be taking autoshop classes in high school next year and by graduation may be certified as a mechanic (nice fallback or summer job).
Right now this daughter is milking the last breaths out of the Dodge Caravan we bought for her to drive, but it is getting ridiculous. She really should not be driving it. Hardly anything on it works. (i.e. gas guage, radio is on and off, heater/defroster works when it wants to, back door does nto open, tranmission is dying (again), headlights are all cloudy, it goes on and on). The van will go from her to the scrap yard in all liklihood. We may put it in craigslist as a project for someone.
She is leaning toward the 2003-2004 Foci I think . The subarus all seem to have 150,000 miles on them. She wants to find a car under 100,000 miles. Maybe she just wants the lowest mileage vehicle in the family. I need to show her that vibe someone posted. It is cheap enough to be worth flying to LA and driving it back, but that woudl somewhat exceed her budget. Maybe she can return some cans.
The 3800 is legend. I would put it up against ANY engine on the planet for longevity and reliability.
Transmission good too?
I can fix almost anything else, except maybe electronics. I am not intersted in rebuilding any more engines, and I have no idea how a transmission even works (automatic anyway, manuals I understand the basics, but I am not going to open one up).
I like the new car idea as well. Many new cars like the focus are great cars while the older models were only mediocre. They tend to be safer too I think. The problem is for 9 months of the year she has income of $0 per month. (Actually she somritimes makes a hundred or so babysitting and working an occaisional weekend, but that pays for books and gas - tuition is scholarships, loans and Dad, plus some savings from the summer). She has one year of school left, but then on to graudate school. Although grad school should be tuition free, she will still have little income. She may get a job for a year or two before grad school, but cannot be certain of that. Thus, she would have to bank payments to cover 9 months of the year for five years. Even if she put $0 down, I do not think $6500 would cover that.
Well if she put zero down I would think a $325 payment is doable. If she can contribute $2000 each summer, she should be able to meet the payments for the next 3.5 years. By then hopefully she has a real job. Or maybe she can contribute more than $2000.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coldjensens
I am not sure I follow the math in the post above. A $1,200 - $2,200 transmission rebuild makes the monthly cost jump from $60 to $500? I must be missing something. I understand the concept of what is being claimed, but the math makes no sense to me. I must be missing something.
I am not an expert in cars and I had heard that transmissions would cost much more than that. Like $3000 to $4000. And $500 per month was really worst case scenario. So maybe you buy a $3000 car and run it for 6 months and transmission dies and you ditch the car. Or maybe you spend $7000, put in another $3000 on a transmission and then in 2 years the engine dies and you spent $10,000 on 24 months ownership. Again I am no expert on maintaining cars. Just when I make similar decisions on what car to buy these are thoughts that run through my head.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coldjensens
Anyway in our experience, older cars can cost a lot more than anticipated, but they are always cheaper than new cars. My son has two cars he paid $500 each for. He put $900 into one of them and $0 into the other so far. Between them he has driven around 12,000 miles. You do not get 12,000 miles for $1900 out of any new car. One car will eventually need a transmission replacment ($1400), but it will likely last another year, maybe two before it is necessary. If not, he is still way ahead of buying a $15,000 new car especially since he has only McDonalds job income (part time at less than minimum wage).
Again I am really no expert in used cars or maintaining cars. I would say that I am an expert in buying cars and know a lot about finance and such calculations. I am fairly positive that more or less you can always maintain a car less than 5 years old and do it for $200 per month and never spend any real money on maintenance. Perhaps used cars can be done cheaper. Though if your example is $1900 for 12,000 miles that would be $160 per month assuming 12,000 miles per year. If $1400 transmission gets you another year that is still $120 per month.
Plus think of the gas savings. Assume you buy an Elantra at 40 MPG highway. Assume 12K miles per year. And assume that a used car will get 30 MPG highway. Well the Elantra saves 100 gallons per year or about $360. $30 per month. So now you need to spend $170 per month on a used car to break even. Doable? Probably but I am not certain that it will be so much less than that. I would expect that if you buy a $6000 car it will depreciate 20% in one year or $1200 or $100 per month. So if you spend nothing on maintenance or repairs then I guess you saved $70 per month. If you spend $840 on repairs and maintainance then you break even.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coldjensens
It may be a surprise to some people but taking risks is simply the cost of not being wealthy. You buy a used car because that is all you can afford. If it breaks in a major way, you are SOL. You have to re-order your life, take a year off school, move in with friends who live close, if the weather is nice, ride a bike, maybe you can borrow a car from Grandpa for a while.
This I would agree with. Don't know how much your daughter makes or how her credit is. More or less I am stating that a new car can be owned for $200 per month which I think is a lot lower than most people assume. I am not sure that you can really operate a car for much less than that but perhaps I am wrong. If someone told me that they can only afford $50 per month on a car then my answer would probably be that they will likely just be throwing their money away because its not possible. Better off not wasting it and using public transport or a bike.
$6500-$7500 is the range for similar Vibes on the east coast as well, so it's at market. The 3800 engine used in the Buicks is generally very reliable, but late 90s/early 00s had intake manifold gasket problems and some head gasket issues. If the repair has been completed, the car should be fine, and if not, it's worth repairing as the engine is otherwise very reliable. I would look to the Lucerne's predecessor in the LeSabre/Park Avenue as you can find several with under 60k miles in your daughter's budget range. Later models had traction control, and the Park Avenues were better appointed than the LeSabre, since the LeSabre could have cloth seats to the PA's leather, etc.
ETA: I found a few Buicks (LeSabre/PA) under $6.5k and under 60k miles using 48230 as a point of origin, and searching out 200 miles. Some look very good, as in one-owner vehicles that are well appointed. The Regals can be similarly good, but only with the 3800. The Park Avenue Ultra and some of the Regals have a supercharged 3800 that is also pretty reliable, but requires premium fuel. I would go with the normally-aspirated 3800 engine for maximizing economy and reliability as it is sufficient to move the vehicle without problem. If you are willing to travel, you may find others, as I saw one in Buffalo, which was also a good candidate for a later model LeSabre with leather with under 50k miles, and I think it was $5.9k asking.
Is your daughter averse to a Town Car? If not, then you might find a good buy on one. Just for kicks, I ran the same search parameters on the Buick with a Town Car, and there are some options available nearby, even more if you include the corporate siblings of the Grand Marquis and Crown Victoria. In fact, there's one that looks good that I will send you a link via DM.
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All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
$6500-$7500 is the range for similar Vibes on the east coast as well, so it's at market. The 3800 engine used in the Buicks is generally very reliable, but late 90s/early 00s had intake manifold gasket problems and some head gasket issues. If the repair has been completed, the car should be fine, and if not, it's worth repairing as the engine is otherwise very reliable. I would look to the Lucerne's predecessor in the LeSabre/Park Avenue as you can find several with under 60k miles in your daughter's budget range. Later models had traction control, and the Park Avenues were better appointed than the LeSabre, since the LeSabre could have cloth seats to the PA's leather, etc.
ETA: I found a few Buicks (LeSabre/PA) under $6.5k and under 60k miles using 48230 as a point of origin, and searching out 200 miles. Some look very good, as in one-owner vehicles that are well appointed. The Regals can be similarly good, but only with the 3800. The Park Avenue Ultra and some of the Regals have a supercharged 3800 that is also pretty reliable, but requires premium fuel. I would go with the normally-aspirated 3800 engine for maximizing economy and reliability as it is sufficient to move the vehicle without problem. If you are willing to travel, you may find others, as I saw one in Buffalo, which was also a good candidate for a later model LeSabre with leather with under 50k miles, and I think it was $5.9k asking.
Is your daughter averse to a Town Car? If not, then you might find a good buy on one. Just for kicks, I ran the same search parameters on the Buick with a Town Car, and there are some options available nearby, even more if you include the corporate siblings of the Grand Marquis and Crown Victoria. In fact, there's one that looks good that I will send you a link via DM.
Thank you. that does look like a good deal.
HEr twin sister has a 1992 Town Car. Sis, loves that car and it has been very reliable. this daughter woudl prefer something smaller and better gas mileage, but it is not out of the question. It would tick off the twin if this daughter bought a much nicer newer town car.
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