Tell me how much I can afford to pay for a new car

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How's your credit? I'd check to see which models are offering 0% financing. If you are someone who drives it till it dies (with a 12 YO Mazda you qualify), I wouldn't worry about depreciation.

Also, how much are you driving? MPG should also factor into your deceision. And know your insurance will increase as well. Call your insurance company and price check the models you are considering.

We had to replace a 12 YO Subaru outback unexpectedly (5K repair). We considered the Civic, Corolla and Sentra. Then I looked at the Subaru delaership and they were offering 0% financing on the FOrrester. We purchased through the USAA car buying program. The salesman said the buying program at Costco had similar pricing.

Not OP but would it be smarter to do 0% financing (is this available for used cars??) on a certified used car a few years old with low mileage?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:don't buy a new anything. waste of money.

I see this all the time but is it REALLY a waste of money or is that just the commonly held belief? I've never actually seen someone sit down and do the math. Until I've seen the math and double checked the numbers and assumptions, I'm not willing to admit it's a bad deal to buy new. Sure you get a $20,000 car for $12,000 when it's 3 years old and has 36,000 miles on it but what did you "save", $2,300 a year? That doesn't seem like a very good deal.

[Anonymous]

I'm the one that posted above about saving 2,300 a year. I thought on the subject more and that's only the "savings" for the first 3 years of the car's life. Now if you want to figure out the savings over the life of the car, lets assume the car lasts 10 years. On the used car purchased for $12,000 you'd drive the car years 4-10 for a total of 7 years at a price of $1,714/year. If you buy the car for $20,000 and drive it year's 1-10 you obviously drive the car for 10 years at a price of $2,000/year. So you would be saving roughly $300/year by buying used. I'm not sure I'd classify that as a "waste of money". Now if you're able to get the car for the rip-off price that the dealership gets for the trade in then sure but normal consumers aren't going to get a good deal at a dealership. Ever.

[Anonymous]

Okay, here's a comparison. OP can spend $19-24K for a new Mazda3 depending on the bells and whistles.

She can get a 1-2 year old Mazda3 with under 20K miles on it for $15-16K at Carmax. So she can save between $4-6K one 1 year of car life. That's between 20-30% of the value of the car. And realistically, it's about 1 year's worth of car ownership since driving 15-20K miles is pretty average for this area. If you tend to drive a car 10 years, that one year is pretty negligible, but $4-6K is much more significant.

[Anonymous]

Please don't pay cash! Also, the more reliable the car, the less you save buying used. So a 2 year old Volvo will be at a huge discount to MSRP but a 2 year old honda will not. You can verify in kelly blue book or similar sites. One big difference between new and used us financing rates. New is usually under 1% a and used is closer to 3%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, here's a comparison. OP can spend $19-24K for a new Mazda3 depending on the bells and whistles.

She can get a 1-2 year old Mazda3 with under 20K miles on it for $15-16K at Carmax. So she can save between $4-6K one 1 year of car life. That's between 20-30% of the value of the car. And realistically, it's about 1 year's worth of car ownership since driving 15-20K miles is pretty average for this area. If you tend to drive a car 10 years, that one year is pretty negligible, but $4-6K is much more significant.

For the sake of argument, I checked the 1 year old Toyota Camry. A 2013 at Carmax is $18,500 and a new one is listed as $20,500. So you're only saving $2,000 on a 1 year old used Toyota. Maybe you can save more on a less reliable vehicle?

[Anonymous]

I found this. Edmonds did the calculations on a lot of different cars. Since some new cars have 0 interest loans and used of the same model do not, the interest payments actually make the new car cheaper. This shows the camry as one of those.

http://www.edmunds.com/car-news/new-vs-used-car-buying.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I was thinking new Mazda3. Got a couple of quotes for $18-19K. Any thoughts?

I just bought a new CX-5. Make sure you get the Mazda loyalty discount for already having owned a Mazda. It's an extra $500 off. I think the 3's are great, but I needed more space like my old Mazda Tribute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I was thinking new Mazda3. Got a couple of quotes for $18-19K. Any thoughts?

I just bought a new CX-5. Make sure you get the Mazda loyalty discount for already having owned a Mazda. It's an extra $500 off. I think the 3's are great, but I needed more space like my old Mazda Tribute.

PP again. OP, I got 0% financing on my 2015 CX-5. If you can get 0% for a new 2014/2015 over 3-5% on a 2011-2013 used car, do it (I did!).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:buy a 2-3 year old used mazda, honda, toyota, something like that. i'd imagine you can get one without a bunch of bells and whistles for 10k-ish.

Get a Hyundai. They are surprisingly nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:buy a 2-3 year old used mazda, honda, toyota, something like that. i'd imagine you can get one without a bunch of bells and whistles for 10k-ish.

Get a Hyundai. They are surprisingly nice.

+1

Just heard on radio a car review for Hyundai Accent 2014. Fully loaded it's about $18K. W/o all the bells and whistles it's around $15k.
I'd check that out.