What Kind of Car should we buy.

[Floridagail]

I agree, We are too tired of the car payment thing.

[ccmisery]

I made a commitment to myself that I would NEVER again finance a vehicle and have a $300-$400 monthly car payment for 5-6 years. By the time they are paid off you still have an old worn out car that needs major money put into it. I can replace a transmission in an older car for the cost of about 4 newer monthly car payments. Still keeps you ahead of the game. In fact you can junk that car and get another "cheap" older car thats a good runner.

Its all a matter of choice, but for me I am not going into deep debt for a "disposable" item.

Last car I bought was new, kept it for 15 years. In 5 years the mileage was under 60K, hardly what I call "worn out" but to each is there own, it did not start being a money pit till after 80K. Automatics can vary from $2K to $4K to replace and are often re-manufactured with 12 month warranty from a place like AAMCO.

If you can do the above work yourself, then you can save a lot on labor but most people cannot. Most newer cars are becoming more difficult for shade tree mechanics to work on due to the complexity.

I plan on flipping my new car after 5 years, I dumped way too much money in my past rides keeping them for so long, after they start to age and the miles creep up, seals go bad, cv joints, ball joints, oil leaks and etc, worse can be a timing belt break, which in some engines equals expensive damage.

Cars are not good investments, no matter how you dice it, if I could rely on public transit like it is in parts of Europe, I would ditch my car without question.