What's the best way to own a car, in your opinion?

[Ken Ford]

I think that plays into it for people like my brother. He runs his business from home, so he does low mileage leases on Titans, Yukons, etc. And the payment stays fairly low. And I can guarantee you he's writing it off.

I need to think about this as I have to have a vehicle for my business.

 

[Lazarus]

Years ago we were leasing and would always fall behind on the miles due to the wife working in Atlanta and traveling around. Got tired of it and we endes up buying a less than 1 year old car with about 9k miles on it for almost $20k cheaper than the new ones. She now works about 20 miles from home and isn't racking up miles so we'll keep this until it starts giving us problems.

 

[ne ga pappy]

I usually try to find a nice used vehicle with ~20k on it, and then drive it til the scrap man don't even want to buy it. Most of the time, I end up with a brand new vehicle and really shop it and not pay much more for it than the used one with 20k. I bought a 13 F150 for $700 more than the cheapest used 13 F150 I could find because I qualified for a lot of dealer incentives

 

[UptaCamp]

We buy whatever we have enough cash for, maintain them well, and drive them til they die. We hate debt.

 

[superprime]

#5 for us.

My RAM was a CPO and I have put 150,000 miles on it in almost 4 years. It has a few quirks but still does what I need it to do.

Wife wanted something different than her Dodge Grand Caravan. Shopped around found a CPO Honda Pilot with everything. Went back and forth at the dealership (I hate car salespeople), got it to a ok rate with no payments for 60 days. Rode that for as long as I could while still making payments to my credit union like I had a car loan. Best rate the dealer could get me was 4.39%, I knew my credit union will go 2% less than the rate a dealer gets so I refinanced after the 60 days with them for 2.39%

We have a personal loan and the Grand Caravan was financed through them and we were paying 550/month for both. They looked at the loan and checked my credit score again, and reduced my interest rate there as well. Now I pay 555/month for the loan and car.

If you don't belong to credit union find one you can join, if only for the loan rates.

 

[Kman]

It’s a tool, not a status symbol. Find the best deal you can afford that is affordable. Avoid getting sucked into debt.

 

[Eggmanmja01]

What's the best way to own a car?

Title in Hand!

 

[Mirvin 264]

Number 4 man here, we have an AWD 2000 Explorer we bought lightly used in '01 and still have it (still going strong right now) and my '99 Mazda B4000 I bought used with just over 100,000 on it in 2011. Drive it daily still and it's at 317,xxx and still running great. Had the trans rebuilt at 250,xxx, no other major work on either except that. Neither are worth much now, so we're gonna use them until they get sold for scrap.........

 

[THREEJAYS]

I like buying lower mileage 2-3 year old most of the time. I usually keep 8-10 years. Sometimes more. I drive my work truck mostly if I’m by myself and my nicer one sits in garage all clean and waiting. I have bought new at times though

 

[NDIrish1]

I’ve bought & traded plenty of new ones being upside down & rolling over the debt back in the day. It wasn’t until I became financially sound and like others hate debt!! I don’t mind investing in things that make $$ but daily drivers aren’t typically it........ If I have to finance it then I’m buying something I can’t afford and need to wait and save $$$...... but that’s me and my journey.........