Comments on: Four Years Without A Car Payment

By: vega

vega — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:42:03 +0000

Thanks for article, many people write but not many write interestingly, on it I very much like to read you, thanks once again

By: Egirl

Egirl — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 06:52:13 +0000

Excellent post! I too paid cash for a vehicle for the first time in my life about 4.5 years ago. Congrats on your accomplishment!

By: Lee

Lee — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:27:47 +0000

Congrats! Technically my last car payment was in 2005 for a car I bought in 2003, but I was cheating myself really. In fact, it shows how financially stupid I really was back then.

I paid off my 3% car loan with a 10% unsecured personal loan because I wanted some cash for other purchases! How mad is that?

At the beginning of this year (6 years later!) I said “enough is enough” for my own reasons (see the “My Financial Meltdown” series of posts on my blog if you’re interested), and replaced that loan with an 8% unsecured loan that I am due to complete in a few months time!

For the first time in my adult life, I will be DEBT FREE. And it feels great. It’s just such a shame it has taken me so long to realise.

By: jason

jason — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:58:15 +0000

When shopping for a car, inquiring about a loan is a good idea as the dealer makes money off the financing, and will give a better discount. If you have a good credit score, you can negotiate the interest rate (which we did on our last car to match the best rate I saw locally). Even if you can pay cash, you can take out a loan and pay it off immediately (as long as it doesn’t come with a pre payment penalty (which I’ve personally not seen on a car loan),thus insuring an extra discount.

That is a fairly well known car buying trick…

By: Wayne Silverman

Wayne Silverman — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 03:53:54 +0000

It’s been 5 years for me, I bought a 97 Lexus ES300 from a dealer that didn’t want it because it didn’t have heated seats, I bought it 3 years old in 2000 with 75,000 miles on it. I had car payments for 4 years (actually 5 but I paid it off early) and I’ve had no payments for over 5 years! now have 187,000 miles on it….and still running strong, my mechanic told me the car should last for 250,000 so I’m hoping for a few more years! And yes I save the difference in a high interest checking account.