I hate car buying

Reminds me of one time when a guy ran my credit about a few years ago.

"Have you ever applied for a loan before? You look young."

"I'm 30. I have student loans. I bought a home when I was 23 and made every payment on time. Believe it or not, I actually put 20 percent down. I think my credit's fine."

Dipshit. I left soon after. Guy was one of those old school salesmen. Cheap jewelry, too much cologne, bad haircut and too much pomade. He was a cartoon character. I thought most salesmen had moved to khakis and polo shirts with the dealership logo sewn to the left breast.

 

The last time I went car shopping, a local dealer found out what I do for a living, and started calling me "Lois Lane." I must not have expressed my distaste clearly enough, because he sent me a thank-you note, and not only did he address it "Dear Lois Lane" but he closed by asking me out.

I brought that to our business editor (back when we had one) and begged her to find some sort of story angle where we could slam the @%@# out of that guy -- if not his entire dealership.

I'm probably going to be car shopping in a couple of months. I appreciate all the tips and commiseration.

 

If people did the math on vehicle depreciation, I doubt many people who spend a lot of money they drove more than 20,000 miles a year.

If what you buy depreciates 50,000 from when you bought it to when you sell it and another person' car depreciates 12,500, it's sobering to know their car is depreciating at about 1,000 a month. Yours? About 250 bucks a month.

 

It is not all about the depreciation.

New SUV - $ 40,000, 5 years of payments with 1% financing equals total cost of $41025.

Used SUV - $ 35,000, 5 years of payments with 6% financing equals total cost $40599.

This is predicated on getting a 6% car loan, actual bank rates, at least in Canada, seem to be ~ 7 or 8%. In this scenario you are paying under $500 to have the new car. The manufacturers interest rate makes up for the depreciation hit.

Your maintenance costs are probably lower on the new car as well.

 

We had a good experience back in 1992 when my dad bought a Saturn. We got a good car at a good, fair price. The salesperson went on to open his own used car lot. About 10 years later I was looking for a used car and I looked him up, solely because our experience with him had been so great.
I ended up buying a used Saturn from a Ford dealership. They let me take the car to my mechanic (about an hour away from the dealership) and gave me a great deal. Wish I still had that little SC2.