Quote:
Originally Posted by Akmcmahon
You have to remember that what I paid for the first year is what you pay for any car you own the first year. You can't just say the first year payments are a loss since you drove the car and got a years worth out of it. If I paid a year and never drove it, then I wasted a year of payments. But I got my years worth on the 2012. So now I'm starting over with the 2013. Does that makes sense?
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No. You haven't wasted a year, they're stricken from the savings because it's all interest-payments. If you owe 5,000 over 5 years, and pay 1,000 in a year, you still owe over 4,000 for the remainder of the 4 years. I did a simplistic interest free math for you. Realistically, if you paid $540/mo on a 5yr/$30,000 car, and owned the car for 1 year at 3% interest, you still owed about $25,000 on the car.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Akmcmahon
In the end it worked out for me to get into the car I actually wanted for not much more. I would have had to buy new tires which was the down payment. So for the same amount, I got a new car and a reasonably higher payment I can live with.
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You're not even close to the same amount. To have the same amount, you would literally have had to buy a ~$19,000 to $21,000 (guess/est.) new car. If you had to make a d/p that would have cost the savings from buying new tires, add back in the $2000 I marked as savings. This is
ONLY money talking, not preference nor personal value of the car at this point.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Akmcmahon
So maybe I tricked myself into thinking it made sense or it actually does somehow, doesn't matter. Haha, I'm happy.
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I think you did,
BUT, in your shoes, I think I would have done the same. Honestly. My fiancee would have stabbed me repeatedly for it, but at the end of the day, I'm an enthusiast. I love all cars and I love driving. I would never even come close to this type of decision on my mortgage or any other purchase, but I can see myself doing it with a car I loved!
(NOTE: my fiancee and I would both work up the payment tables and we would both notice the loss, but I would justify it as you did with the personal value I've gotten out of the car, the depreciation drop, and the value of a reset odometer and warranty. That's when the stabbing would begin)
Enjoy it!