AI meets BFC: Car Buying Thread: No Rentals and No Salvage Titles

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > AI meets BFC: Car Buying Thread: No Rentals and No Salvage Titles

LittleFuryThings: Jan 11, 2012

Proposed Budget: ? (see below) i'm looking at cars in the 20-30 range, but don't know if that's smart, may need to limit myself to 25K or even less than that
New or Used: Not sure 100%, the idea of having a new car with no history that I can take care of sounds really nice to me, but also not sure if I can afford it. If springing for a new car over used is the smart decision to do right now, then I would like to do that
Body Style: a car, 2 or 4 door. I for some reason don't really like the look of the hatchbacks that this thread seems to like
How will you be using the car?: Small drives in the city mostly, I've been using my car ~2 times a week recently and trying to walk, but now that it's gotten hot and humid, gently caress that. I visit my parents in the burbs or visit Costco every couple weeks (30 minute one-way). 100% WFH currently but will potentially start going into the office once a week (30 minutes one way). Will probably take weekend trips or road trips to places up to 300 miles away in too since I have never had a car I felt comfortable doing that in. I'm a single guy and rarely have more than one passenger and do not care about cargo space, so small (or no) back seat or small trunk does not bother me
What aspects are most important to you? Something economic and money smart, but maybe also looks cool. I've driven poo poo cars my whole life and it would be nice to have something I enjoy. I live in the humid south and having ventilated seats sounds pretty nice to prevent the swamp-rear end and back sweat. Remote start sounds super nice too for getting it cooled up before I hop in. I'm currently in a 2001 Escape, so any recent car is going to be such a step up for me in features.

What is the BFC/GWM method to determine your budget for buying a car? I've seen the 20/4/10 rule, but that seems very restrictive. Have also seen the 35% - 50% of your annual salary as the max you should get financed. Are people typically putting down much less than 20% in this thread?

Also I'd be a first time car purchaser. I've had a credit card since I graduated college 5 years ago and have used it for all my purchases I could and never payed interest. Have knocked down my student loans at a decent pace and have a remaining 10K at ~6% whenever the federal deferment ends (supposed to be September). My credit score has gotten into the "excellent" range according to Mint but I've heard that doesn't mean much for car purchases. For these 0.9% financing incentives, what would I realistically be looking at?

I like the look of the Kia K5, and it seems to check my boxes.
Accords and Camrys are solid and I could do.
I see Mazda3 recommendations, I took a road trip in one and it seemed pretty average? Though I didn't drive it. Is it just more fun to drive than comparable cars?
I don't want a Miata.
I don't think I drive enough for a hybrid to be worth it.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2021 19:34

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 06:27

LittleFuryThings: Jan 11, 2012

Bouillon Rube posted:

Mazda is going away from their old �sporty� image and trying to rebrand as a near-luxury marque. While the current 3 is a great car (I have a 3 turbo), I think the Civic has livelier handling these days. The 2022 Civic will be totally redesigned and the interior will probably be a bit nicer than the outgoing 10th gen, but even the outgoing Civic is quite good in nearly all aspects.

You mentioned the Accord, K5 and Camry, which honestly seems like a but more car than you need (these are midsize sedans, so a step bigger than the Civic/Mazda3). The main advantages of a midsize vs compact car are rear seat legroom and trunk space; up front there is little difference between the two classes.

But really all of the cars that you mentioned are quite good, I would just test drive all of them at this point and see which ones you like the most.

No ventilated seats on the compacts, but otherwise yea, very little difference up front. If that's really the only reason I'd want a midsize, then I can live without and get a small I think. Civic looking good.

zedprime posted:

20/4/10 is a good rule if you don't want to get into capital depreciation analysis. A lot of people's monthly payments probably violate the 10 part of it without being a big deal. 20% down is not negotiable: there is too high a risk of going underwater with any less.

Total cost at 50% of your (pretax) yearly salary is another benchmark I like as an absolute ceiling. This violates the 10 part by a large margin but is budgetable if you are a carfan.

The correct way to look at it is related to capital depreciation. Whichever way you buy and finance, if you're getting a new car you are burning 90% of that money in the next 10 years of that cars life. This makes it really easy if you want to drive a car into the ground even without getting into monthly or yearly depreciation because you can basically budget your next decade as burning that money completely. If you want to chase new cars every 3-5 years you need to get more serious about the curve to consider ideal trade in times etc. to figure out your total burning of money to the car god.

But basically look at your next 5-10 yearly budget. What money can you live with never seeing again over that time range? Because that's what the sticker price is on a car, used or new.

It's much easier to buy new right now if you can afford it. Certified pre owned disappear the day they hit the lot and used car sellers are selling faster than you can get a prepurchase inspection.

Anyway for your car recommendations,you entered the thread during a strange dad-car tilt so don't pay too much attention considering what you're looking for isn't that. if you have no serious preferences (all your asks are pretty baseline or universal options for new cars now) congratulations on your new Prius. Don't think too hard about the hybrid, it's just the easiest to recommend Car brand Car.

Very helpful post.
How about Insight versus Prius? Seems like a tossup, and I'd def go Insight just based on having a nicer looking body.

skipdogg posted:

Unpopular take time:

Money is cheap to borrow right now. I don't put anything down these days. I can borrow someone else's money at like 3% or less. Zero down on my last vehicle lease, Zero down on my mortgage (No PMI). I should probably be in the BWM thread, but I just don't see the point when money is so cheap to borrow. I can borrow someone else's money for almost nothing and let my money do other things. 20/10/4 made a lot of sense when interest rates were 8% and vehicles lasted 75K miles. Now with almost any new car you buy being capable of getting to 150K to 200K miles by following the factory maintenance schedule, longer loans aren't a terrible idea. I draw the line at 6 years though, there are some places doing, 7,8,9 or even 10 year loans on vehicles and even I think that's just bonkers.

Do you have an established banking relationship with preferably a credit union? They're much more flexible when it comes to vehicle financing. With a thin credit file you might not get the best rates from the dealer financing people, but you should always have your own financing in place anyway.

Buying new makes sense in this market. I'm not paying basically MSRP for a car that someone else got the best 20 to 40 thousand miles out of. It's not worth it. I'll buy used when the discount makes sense, but the world is nuts right now.

I have no idea what car to recommend to you. You can't go wrong with an Accord or Camry. I'm not a Mazda fan personally, but they're a thread favorite. Not sure what the balance of economic/moneysmart versus cool looking/fun to drive you're looking for. I mean a Toyota Corolla is basically one of the most economical driving appliances you can buy, but I don't think they're cool looking or fun to drive.

Personally I'm interested in your parking situation (are you street parking in the city?), what you can comfortably spend a month on a vehicle all in, etc. Insurance rates should play a huge part of your purchasing decision. Everything can work out great with the car, but then you find out they want 300 a month for insurance. Budget depends on how much you want to spend on a car. When I was younger I loved cars and spent a really dumb amount of my income on cars. These days it's a more reasonable percentage.

More money to put into retirement (assuming what you were doing too) at a low-interest rate sounds good, but like zedprime recommended, putting 20% down makes sense for me as I do worry about being underwater. 5 year loan is what the dealer incentives I'm seeing are, so that's looking likely to me.

I use a regional bank, not a credit union, that I have never gotten a loan from. But I am going to go ahead and look into financing options with them and other local credit unions.

I park in a reserved spot in a very narrow parking lot, fenced in behind my apartment. Backup camera will be very helpful there. I don't park in a garage, and EV hookup isn't going to be doable where I live currently, if that's why you're asking.
Got some insurance quotes, and they are definitely not as high as I was expecting, so that is good. I'll be comfortable with the cars I'm looking at on monthly costs.

I'm definitely much more towards being moneysmart than sporty the more I think about it and look at costs.
I think the Civics are enough of the "sporty" I'm looking for. Will probably be test driving those, but with the MPG of the Insight, I may end up going with it.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2021 00:44

LittleFuryThings: Jan 11, 2012

This 2008 bmw 328i has 5K miles and is listed at $3,500. Listing says

quote:

Has a small oil leak, the red plastic part on the tail light is broken & the bumper is dented

I know BMWs have a high maintenance cost, but is this still a good deal?

# ¿ Jun 19, 2021 05:30

LittleFuryThings: Jan 11, 2012

bird with big dick posted:

is this a typo?

Because my immediate response is that it's either a typo or this thing literally sat in a junkyard for a decade.

not a typo, it is actually 5k.
But I will not be going to look at it. Thanks goons

# ¿ Jun 19, 2021 22:36

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > AI meets BFC: Car Buying Thread: No Rentals and No Salvage Titles