Got any tips to end car buying itch?
3I've got a 13 year old pickup truck and I keep eyeing up the Chevy SS. The $45,000 price tag keeps me from scratching the itch; however, the Pontiac G8 GT is the same car. There's a 2009 with 40k miles at half the price. I want it badly. I can "afford" it, but I don't need it.
How do I stop that desire?
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Any time I start thinking about buying something that requires a monthly payment, I just think of how else I could spend that money. Just imagine what you could do with the extra $400 a month if you keep your current vehicle.
For example: You could take a couple of kick-ass vacations each year.
This is probably much better advice.
$400 is 20 lap dances
Or 100 lap dances... at the right... err... wrong club...
Similar to @capguncowboy I try to think of what I'm getting now vs potentially getting about 5% of that money every year for the rest of my life if I don't spend it.
Every $4 coffee I get is robbing me of getting 20 cents a year for the rest of my life.
Getting a $20,000 car, or making an additional ~$1k a year for the rest of your life?
(I often opt for buying it still.)
Great spin. Now I won't buy anything ever again. Thanks!
Thanks a lot Dave, you just lost us all of our potential suckers/customers.
This is fine and I do this regularly; however, delayed gratification is delayed.
My desire to buy things is usually stopped by looking at my bank account.
It depends on a few things. Is your current car giving you any trouble? Are you saving your money for anything in particular like a house, college fund, or vacation?
Sometimes it's okay to spend money because fuck it, you want to even if you don't "need" whatever it is. How else would we ever sell anything? As the saying goes 'you can't take it with you.'
This is probably terrible advice but as long as you're not drowning in debt or barely scraping by why not buy it?
I have a rule for this that keeps me driving my 2002 Volvo S40. My car runs well, is a great ride, and the maintenance costs less than a new car payment (even when you factor in savings from fuel economy.)
A few years back I wanted an XC90 so bad I could smell the leather - then we put a great new sound system in my car and I love it again.
My advice? Find something about your current ride that you don't love, and upgrade it. If, once you do that, you still want a new car, you just boosted the resale value of your truck.
Just make sure you don't "pimp yo' ride" too much or you'll have a hard time finding a buyer with such specific tastes.
Absolutely! When I say upgrade, I don't mean add a YooHoo dispenser.
Mmm...YooHoo
Best advice here. I started looking into replacing the stereo
@MeatieOgre I say just start a kickstarter campaign to buy the car. Hell if we can start a kickstarter campaign to get folks to pay for our new little business then surely you can get people to pay for your car. This is flawless reasoning.
I'm going to start one to buy back to school clothes for my kids. This is the greatest idea ever. Failure, here I come!
https://begslist.org/
I only buy what I can pay cash for; thinking of the interest rates paid on a loan vs what my money can make in the bank is a no brainer for me. I just personally would not be happy with outgo vs retained value considering interest paid. Just a suggestion I heard given to someone a few months ago - there are websites devoted to getting someone to buy folks out of their leases or just take over payments. A good deal maybe?
A. Buy something else you've been eyeing. Presumably something a lil less expensive.
B. Buy a high quality scale model replica and play with it till you're over it.
C. Buy a hobby model kit and put it together. Once completed, keep it where you can appreciate your accomplishment.
D. Eat lots of chocolate.
I do this with Hot Wheels/Matchbox...the only problem with going bigger is that you'll run out of room fast. Still, really fun hobby.
+1 on the eating lots of chocolate.
Funny you should ask. I have a 1991 (yes, that's not a typo) Chevy S-10. I can afford a new car, and I have been looking at ones in the 20-25k range lately. So, what is stopping me? Car salesmen. Just when I'm ready to buy a car, I walk into a dealership, where the salesmen invariably end up pissing me off. Since I happen to be the prototype little-old-gray-haired-lady in tennis-shoes, they see me as the person to buy their lot lemon (and at full sticker price, no less), buy extended warranties and service warranties, and ... anything else they can squeeze into a contract. That's when I walk out, look at my old truck, and decide it will be just fine for another year. This has been going on for the last 4 years. Saves me tons on auto insurance and property tax.
Shop online. You can work with the online sales manager and never have to deal with sales people until you pick it up & sign.
My brother bought a car from carvana.com -- he said it was the easiest, hassle free experience he's ever had. Check it out
Or maybe I'll just wait until Amazon starts selling cars. I want to see how they manage the 2-day Prime shipping.
Do you have enough in savings? If you have enough rainy day funds, I say to for it.
Or
Cut back a bit on what you have now. Do you pay for cable tv? Try cutting the cord, and dial back your internet package -- you can save a lot of money but still access the content you want over the net.
Money isn't the issue. It's what better things could I be doing with the money.
I'm split on this.
1) As a die-hard car fanatic, I want to trade/buy cars like every 10 minutes...I want to be able to at least drive something different every so often. I'm 36 years old and have had 27 cars, so yeah.
2) But the practical side wins out almost every time, and it's really difficult to justify having a monthly payment, whenever I have two cars (2003 Toyota RAV4L and 2007 Honda Civic Coupe) that are paid off...actually, they were given to me. Well, the Civic is my wife's car, but yeah, still paid off.
Not having a car payment is a blessing indeed...that being said, I would have one for a Jaguar F-Type Coupe. :-P
Sometimes, the way to cure the itch is to scratch it. If ...
... then I have to say go for it. V8, RWD ... you don't have many options these days, and there will be fewer still in the future. Being an orphan brand shouldn't be that big of a problem in the future as it's still a GM product and the Aussies love them Commodores.
Years back, I bought my wagon even though I didn't "need" it, but there's just something unholy about a RWD stick shift turbocharged station wagon; I'm somewhere on the return trip back from the moon with 281+k miles on the odometer.
You're not helping :)
I know I'm not, but it is a nice car. :) What kind of truck are you currently driving?
2001 Silverado 1500 2WD Ext Cab Long Bed.
Here's the car I'm definitely not buying but definitely really want to buy and would have already bought if I weren't married with children - http://www.flemingtonford.com/used-Flemington-2009-Pontiac-G8-GT-6G2EC57Y69L196793
The solution seems pretty clear, get rid of the wife and kids and acquire a new car.
Married with children?
I'd be dead in 6 months without her counterbalance
I would advise using TrueCar or Tred