I always find it interesting to know what type of cars people have, how they paid for them and if they owe any money. So I'll share mine.
We've owned an '89 Nissan Truck, ,89 Geo Metro, '97 Plymouth Breeze. We leased a '96 Nissan Sentra for two years for $132/mo. Currently we own a '97 Dodge Caravan and a'02 Ford Taurus.
Our current vehicles are paid for and were bought used. We've always bought used knowing that autos depreciate quickly in the first year or two. We took out four year loans and paid off within two years in both cases. Both vehicles have over 100,000 miles. We have a significant EF to cover repair costs when they arise, which has been less than once a year.
It is a relief not to have a car payment. But that may change soon. The van is still reliable. My husband drives it 30 minutes to and from work each day. It has $122,000 miles and the transmission MAY be going out. That's what it seems like to me...he disagrees.
So, with our raise in income we are considering getting a used Honda Odyssey. That will mean a car payment unless we can hold out long enough to pay cash...I just not sure if I'm that patient. I know I can wait long enough to have money for the down payment, taxes and tags.
I'll keep you posted.
Our Cars Are Paid For
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When we were young we paid cash for old, high quality cars. Like I paid $1k for a '82 Toyota in 1992 and $1k for a '93 Saturn in 2003. Drove those cars 10 years, between the 2. Never spent much to maintain them. Dh had an old Honda and Mitsubishi.
With time and cash though, we bought up a little. Though it's been a conundrum. We now have American cars and not thrilled with the quality. We have a '01 Ford (paid cash for in 2002) and a '05 Dodge Caravan (mostly paid cash for it in 2006).
I know it's bad when I long for my 20-year-old Toyota! LOL. Not the quality I am used to.
We both save up around $2k/year to pay cash for our next cars. We think we would like to skip American and buy some 1-year-old Toyotas the next round. Plus they have come down much in price over time. We may even consider buying new next go round. (If we buy new we'll keep 20 years, that would be the goal).
It will be a while. Our cars have 80k/50k miles and are just babies. In the past we bought around 150k and pushed to 200k .
But yeah, the cash in our bank has always dictated the purchase price of our cars. Likewise, we can afford more and better each time.
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We have a 2008 corvette, a 2004 corvette, a 2001 work van, an 1978 corvette and a 1933 ford victoria.
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before that, my first car was a 1989 Nissan Pintara. I paid $1500 for it in cash, (saved for 8 months after leaving school).
I hope to have the pulsar for another 3 or 4 years, (it has done 214000 k's) and then hope to buy a 2001-2004 Nissan 200sx, or financially providing, a 2001 Holden Monaro