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There's an aspect to this question that I really love. In general, it's a question about consumer behavior that can be expanded to inquire about the purchasing profile of any luxury good. Who buys $500 pocketbooks, $1000 wristwatches, etc?
I can offer one observation regarding the car. Two close neighbors, both couples drive cars valued well above what my ...
154
The salesman is lying to you. His goal is to prevent you from walking away. No lie and trick are too grave if they help him achieve that, as far as he is concerned. He does not care the least bit about your credit score. He cares a lot about wasting as much of your time as possible, so that it becomes more difficult for you to walk away.
The power to walk ...
153
How can people afford luxury cars? The same way they can afford anything: by finding it cheaply, saving for it, or adjusting their priorities.
Company cars - either paid for by the company, or as part of a bonus/compensation/salary sacrifice scheme. I have friends who drive luxury cars, but they pay £200/month - not much more than, for example, finance on a ...
139
A while back, I sold cars for a living. Over the course of 4 years ,I worked for 3 different dealerships. I sold new cars at two and used cars at the last one.
When selling new cars, I found that the majority of people buying the higher end cars honestly shouldn't have been—80% or more of them. They almost always came in owing more on their trades ...
127
If I were you, I would pay off the car loan today.
You already have an excellent credit score. Practically speaking, there is no difference between a 750 score and an 850 score; you are already eligible for the best loan rates. The fact that you are continuing to use 5 credit cards and that you still have a mortgage tells me that this car loan will have a ...
124
It looks to me like this is a 'call an attorney' situation, which is always a good idea in situations like this (family legal disputes). But, some information.
First off, if your family is going to take the car, you certainly won't need to make payments on it any more at that point, in my opinion. If the will goes through probate (which is the only way ...
88
Between now and October, your $3,000 will earn $30 in your savings account.
If you are late on a payment for your 0% loan, your interest rate will skyrocket. In my opinion, the risk is just not worth the tiny gain you are trying to achieve in the savings account.
If it was me, I would pay off the loan today.
A few more thoughts:
There is a reason that ...
80
Keep in mind your household income is in the top 20%, which does not translate to wealth. Given a healthy income, and no debt, other then a small house payment, you probably have a decent amount of free cash flow. This could easily be used to buy a car on time… which a lot of people do. Congratulations on being different.
Having said that, living as you ...
80
I've never heard of a bank taking possession of collateral at loan issuing, they just obtain a legal right to use the collateral to satisfy the debt in case of default.
Pawnshops/pawnbrokers on the other hand do take collateral up front, and there are auto pawnbrokers, I doubt it would be economical, but you could certainly pawn your car for 30 days and ...
77
If they have no idea what you are talking about, you could ask whether the dealership will send you a letter saying you do not currently owe them anything, nor have they charged off anything you owed. This separates trying to figure out exactly how the letter arose from confirming that its claim is not valid. But your description raises many questions.
Are ...
68
In effect to get someone off the loan they would have to refinance the loan as the sole person on the loan, which once again depends on their credit. In other words, if their creditworthiness remains bad they would need another co-signer, otherwise they can't refinance and the situation remains the same. Sometimes the institution holding the loan would allow ...
55
The comments are getting too much, but to verify that you are not insane, you are being bullied. It sounds like this is a sub-prime loan, of which you are wisely trying to get out of. It also sounds like they are doing everything in their power to prevent you from doing so. For them you are a very profitable customer.
This might take some legwork for you,...
52
If you are in the US, you're correct that most FICO scoring models will collapse multiple car loan inquiries into a single one (and I believe it's within 45 days for newer models and between 14-30 days for older models). But now that you know your scores and have a copy of your credit report (because the dealer should have given it to you, and if not you ...
49
In addition to those who are wealthy (not the same as high income), there are also a certain number of people whose professional livelihood is enhanced by projecting wealth/income they may or may not have. For example, some consultants, lawyers, financial advisors or other salespeople. The same is true of luxury homes for industries where entertaining ...
43
You know how you get "extended warranty" solicitations all the time? That's because the fact that you bought a new car is public knowledge.
It sounds like a third party is using that public database to work a scam on you.
The timing is well-chosen, 4 years to the month after you bought the car.
The amount is well-chosen, high enough to be worth ...
41
There are some who argue that you should lease an electric car. These factors are in addition to all the normal pros and cons of leasing vs. buying.
The technology is still new and is advancing rapidly. In 2-3 years, the newer model may have significantly improved features, range, and efficiency, as well as lower prices. If you are the type of person to ...
41
He's trying to scare you into thinking doing another search will negatively impact your loan rates / credit score.
If you believe that then you are more likely to buy from the place that has already retrieved your credit worthiness.
He's just trying to scare into buying from that dealer. In my opinion that's a good enough to NOT buy from that dealer. If he'...
40
Partly I suspect this is selection bias. You say you see so many luxury cars go by. But if you're looking for them, you're going to notice them. Have you calculated the actual percentage? Do they make up 50% of the cars that pass a specific point in a specific period of time? Or just 10% if you really counted?
You say you live in Baltimore county, Maryland. ...
35
You are in great shape. Very few people have 90k in savings at any age, let alone coming right out of college.
The question you checked out, really does not apply to you. You are making a conservative choice with the car, so there is no problem there. A 10K car will be a small portion of your net worth and will not depreciate as rapidly as a new car or ...
34
It's all about what you value personally.
I'm mid-30s and drive a $40K "luxury" sports car. I also happen to wear a $6K wristwatch every day. I purchased both of these items because I thought they were beautiful when I saw them.
On the flip side, because I spent 6 years living below the poverty line, I instinctively spend almost nothing on a daily basis. ...
33
If you were allowed to "simply" take your name off of a loan because you didn't want to be on the hook in case your friend failed their payments then that would mean that the bank would have to immediately repossess the asset tied to the loan since your friend's credit is not good enough.
They only approved the loan because you provided in writing:
I am ...
32
I think you have two options here:
1) Buy the bike from her. This way the bike is yours and not hers. You pay your insurance, you make the loan payment, and own it if the loan ever gets paid off. I like this because if you two split up it is clear who owns this asset.
If you decide not to do this, the problem comes up with the lender. What are their ...
31
The joke has several flaws.
The bank would likely not accept a $100,000 car as collateral on a $1,000 loan. If the bank ever needed to collect on the debt, that would get messy fast. A bank can't take more then what it's owed plus fees and interest. They would have to hunt you down for the other $89,000.
The bank would not need collateral for such a small ...
30
I struggle with 0% interest things in my personal life.
A responsible me that thinks logically says continue to pay it on time and take advantage of the benefit of the interest free loan you got. It will keep your funds liquid in the case of an emergency, build your credit and teach you self control.
Paying it off now has little to no benefit. It does ...
29
If you're not worried about making the car loan payments, why would you want to pay off a loan that is not charging you any interest? Pay off the interest bearing student loan.
29
I'll read between the lines: you're (justifiably) feeling smart about how you manage your money: debt-free, smart about your spending, saving for retirement, etc. But you're looking at all those fancy cars and feeling a little left out. And Americans especially have a love for automobiles -- it's not just transportation, a car is a status symbol.
Yes, some ...
28
In the US, "title" is the document that shows ownership of the car. It is a nicely printed document you get from the DMV, that includes the information about the car and about you.
You "sign off the title" when you sell the car - part of the title is a form on which the owner of the title can assign it to someone else. With your signature on the title, the ...
28
If everyone bought used cars, who would buy the new cars so that everyone else could buy them used? Rental car companies? Your rant expresses a misunderstanding of fundamental economics (as demand for used cars increases, so will prices) but economics is off-topic here, so let me explain why I bought a new car—that I am now in the 10th year of driving.
...
27
If you've been paying on the car for three years, it's possible that your credit is in a place where you don't need a co-signer any more.
See if your bank will re-fi with you as the sole debtor. If they won't do it, find another institution who will. The re-fi will take your grandpa off the loan, and whichever institution that does the re-fi will still ...
26
First of all, congratulations on paying off $40k in debt in one year.
Mathematically, you'd be better off making the standard car loan payments and putting your extra money toward the student loan.
However, there are a few other things that you might want to consider.
Over the last year, you've knocked out a whole bunch of different debts. Feels pretty ...
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