How's Everyone Doing in LTL Right Now?

$8k left on a 4 year old car is nuts, especially at 2%. Wanting to get a new car before paying off the old one is insane.

Financing is actually really easy to get right now. Dealerships around me are advertising 3% on a 48 month loan.

 

Ridiculously easy. I went looking for a Grand Highlander at the end of July for my wife, and my credit wasn't awesome, but my income was.

Found the one she wanted, and when the dealership ran my credit it came back as Tier 3. But because I'd leased 2 previous Toyotas with no late payments, they bumped me to Tier 1 credit and knocked nearly $5000 off MSRP during negotiations. Got our Grand Highlander Hybrid MAX Limited, MSRP $62.5k, dropped to $57.8k, for a 3 year lease with gap for $930/mo with $2990 drive off. After the lease is up I'll have enough money down to finance a $500/mo payment.

Dealerships are basically giving cars away to anyone just to maintain sales volume. My credit says I shouldn't have gotten it at all, but my checkbook (after triple checking it) says we'll be just fine.

They didn't even do income verification. No paystubs, no tax returns, just told them my monthly gross income and we moved on.

 

Curiosity got the better of me and I just checked CarMax for ####'s and giggles. They pre approved me for 7.49% on a $45K loan. Of course now those Muppets are blowing up my phone. Not even going try to give the local dealerships my info on that note. I think I will keep driving my beater until the wheels fall off. It just doesn't make sense to get anything with interest rates this high and current vehicle inventory being sold at such high prices.

 

$930 a month?

 

$45 k car loan is mind boggling. Outside of a persons first or second car, any car loan should be unnecessary - but 45k? Hell naw.

 

Yeah, not exactly cheap, but certainly cheaper than it could have been. At Tier 3 my payments were estimated at $1170 to lease, $1380 to finance. And at a dealership I visited earlier that day, they were gonna lease me a Camry XSE for like $778/mo. I figured if I was gonna get a new car, let it be the one my wife actually wants. Paying an extra $150/mo for a 3-row SUV was almost a no brainer. Mind you, it's the ONLY car payment we have, as my Veloster N is paid in full and the pink slip is in my office.

Payments approaching $1000/mo for new cars are unfortunately the new normal. My neighbor across the street has a 2 row Mercedes SUV, paying $1300. My wife's cousin had a G Wagon that was costing $1800/mo. They traded to get a Honda Pilot, but they're still paying $1200 after the negative equity from the G Wagon.

The only way you get a sub $300/mo payment now is if you have a huge down payment, you lease a vehicle with virtually no depreciation, or you buy a Nissan. They're so desperate for sales, I bet I could drive off with a new Sentra $0 down for $270/mo.

 

If you're paying less than $3000/mo for your mortgage in California, either your house is paid off or you bought in the 90's. My mortgage is $4000, plus my home equity loan adds another $830/mo. Needless to say we'll be parting ways with the house next year and I'm totally fine with that. We bought too big for too much in an area we don't consider ideal, so we'll reset and buy elsewhere when the time is right

 

Goodluck with that now days considering every car and truck is north of $50-$60k minimum

 

Not so much. A topped out Honda pilot is $56k msrp, entry level is $41k. An Oddesy top line is $48k.

Regardless, if a person needs to borrow $45k on a 48 month note - they cant afford that car. They need to go to a lower trim, cheaper model, or used.