Some auto finance takes.... If you want to get a new car regularly, lease. If you want to own your car new, put enough down to prevent a negative equity situation. If you want to put as little as possible down, buy used. Unless you're putting down a *lot* (~1/2) gap insurance is your friend.
31% of all drivers owe more for their cars than they are worth, and a whopping 46% of EV owners are underwater on their loans jalopnik.com/a-third-of-a...
The problem is even worse for electric vehicle and luxury car owners, and over half of people think their car is worth more than it really is
These are mostly pretty cold takes, but I'm not at all persuaded that negative equity on a car is a real problem that people should worry about, unlike houses
Certified pre-owned cars are great - generally 3 years old and covered under a new warranty by the car company. And generally hold up quite well for years after paid off on schedule.
Though, surely this is true of every recently-purchased car (depreciation is ~linear, amortisation is not)
Leverage and debt are *not* inherently bad, but you need to understand the risk of a high LTV (lots of debt relative to value of vehicle) auto loan, especially since the damn things have a habit of getting totaled. Depreciation is a real cost too!
Bought one of the last stick shift Accords, it holds a gallon of milk in the cup holder (pictured) Gonna need something special to come out for me to get rid of this thing.
isn't this headline kinda just related to the fact that new cars depreciate 15-20% or whatever the first minute you own them but you still owe most of the non-depreciated price on the loan?
So am I a moron for paying 100% and keeping the car forever? I can see the point in leasing if you replace the car every 3-4 years, especially if you can fiddle favourable tax treatment. But I just don't drive enough (2012 car, 45,00km) to make that attractive. I'm under Canadian tax rules, btw.
Pro tip: drive an 06 Toyota until the heat death of the universe, as a sort of challenge.