How much to spend on a nice first car?

[JoeC]

Heh, it's an Acura, I don't think I have too much to worry about for awhile. All I really need is something to last me 50k or so more miles over the next ~5 years

[bobman0330]

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Clayton, something to consider:

People who say "you should spend 10-15k on a crappy car" are missing the point, you can actually do OK in that price range. I just bought a 2002 Acura TL with 105k miles for $9600--I was looking around and I'm pretty sure you can get one with much less mileage for under $15k.

In your situation I would probably just splurge for a nice car. But, just because you don't spend 25k doesn't mean you're driving a 99 Civic.

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you bought a car with over 100k miles for almost 10k? thats absolute [censored] insane.

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Also, those saying don't buy new are being overly simple. Check out depreciation rates and stuff and get a consumer reports subscription. Everyone spitting all these "baller" cars are also the same cars that will cost you a [censored] fortune to fix. You have any idea how much it even costs to get oil and filters changed on an Audi? Also, be careful for cars that *need* premium gas. Thats an extra $0.10-$0.20 every gallon you use, which can be super expensive if you get a car with a big engine that guzzles gas and you are looking at a serious added expense. Just remember when you buy something that usually the purchase of the car itself pales in comparison to the price of gas, and repairs over the life of the car. Also find the brand with the best standard warranty. No I am not pushing a Hyundai or Kia on him, but there is no reason to pay all this money on an expensive car, that will just cost you a [censored] ton down the road. I.E. audi's

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Almost no modern car NEEDS premium gas. The engine computer can adjust to regular fuel, although performance will suffer slightly. I have a premium-only car, but I use regular whenever I don't want to spend the extra 10c. There's a noticeable difference in top acceleration, but it runs just fine.

[mmbt0ne]

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You have any idea how much it even costs to get oil and filters changed on an Audi?

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Same as every other car at the local Valvoline Instant Oil Change.

[z28dreams]

To someone above who mentioned extra costs of repair/etc:

I've generally found that while nicer imports are more expensive up front, in maintenance, and in insurance.

However, the slower depreciation rate seems to almost completely even this out in many cases.

[Oki-Oki]

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This depends a lot on how much you enjoy cars and where you plan to live. I would just reinvest a lot of it in my bankroll since right now in your life (with current experience and knowledge) this is the best way to make your money work for. 100k is like 1 good month at 10/20

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I'm with Isura here. Hold off on the car buying till your making a decent clip. I'm really surprised your roll is only 5k

[Oki-Oki]

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You have any idea how much it even costs to get oil and filters changed on an Audi?

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Same as every other car at the local Valvoline Instant Oil Change.

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this is wrong

[z28dreams]

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Almost no modern car NEEDS premium gas. The engine computer can adjust to regular fuel, although performance will suffer slightly. I have a premium-only car, but I use regular whenever I don't want to spend the extra 10c. There's a noticeable difference in top acceleration, but it runs just fine.

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This is really bad advice. Modern engines are designed to "tolerate" regular gasoline, but they really aren't designed/optimized for it.

"Knock" is when fuel can combust just from the pressure of the piston compressing by itself (no spark needed). In newer engines, the knock sensor simply detects that this starts happening, so it basically retards the timing or does other functions to lower the power on the engine.

Well, no big deal, right? You just get worse acceleration. No, not really. You also end up with a lower fuel efficiency (lower mpg).

Going from 25mpg to 24mpg is no better than going from 2.60 to 2.70 per gallon in gas.

15,000 miles @ 25mpg @ 2.70 a gallon = $1620 a year
15,000 miles @ 24mpg @ 2.60 a gallon = $1625 a year

It works out to be about the same, but you lose all the performance.

It's also worth noting that premium gas hardly costs more than regular gas per year. If you assume 25mpg and 15k a year (premium = .20 more than regular), premium gas would only cost about $100 more a year than regular.

[Clayton]

Another quick question to all:

CarMax or random dealership?

I was excited to go get a car over at CarMax but my room-mate (who knows cars more than I do) says I should hold off until checking out more dealerships. I noted that the price was cheaper at CarMax but no haggling, he said haggling is possible.

However I think he is motivated to help with the haggling and get a % of the money. :P

Anyways, is CarMax fine? Or should I look at dealerships and try to get a better deal? I am not the haggling type.

[Shizzle12345]

This car is so fking sexy, I get a boner everytime i look at it.
http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/images/...s5_1_560px.jpg
http://www.caradvice.com.au/wp-conte...07/audis5r.jpg

[z28dreams]

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Another quick question to all:

CarMax or random dealership?

I was excited to go get a car over at CarMax but my room-mate (who knows cars more than I do) says I should hold off until checking out more dealerships. I noted that the price was cheaper at CarMax but no haggling, he said haggling is possible.

However I think he is motivated to help with the haggling and get a % of the money. :P

Anyways, is CarMax fine? Or should I look at dealerships and try to get a better deal? I am not the haggling type.

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NO CARMAX

Carmax = super big ripoff.

First, they charge you about 20% higher than a car you'd normally get from a dealer because it's "inspected for quality". However, they give you NO warranty to back that up. You can buy one, but it's usually in the $1500-$2000 range.

I worked there right out of college for a few months, and this was an example of what we'd normally see:

Car from carmax - $15,000 , no warranty
Car from carmax with warranty - $17,000

Same car from a regular dealer if you haggle: $12-13,000 - no warranty
Car from a regular dealer with a warranty - $14500-$15000

Basically, for the same amount of money, you'd be able to get the car from a dealer WITH a warranty. The warranty at least guarantees that you'll get stuff fixed for free if it breaks. The extra money spent at carmax gets you nothing at all.

Do NOT buy from carmax.

My order of preference is:
(1) Buy privately, get car inspected by a trusted mechanic
(2) Buy from a dealer, haggle down the price as low as you can (use edmunds TMV in "average" condition as a starting point)

I generally don't buy warranties. That's entirely up to you. It seems that most warranties are in the $2000 range. In my opinion, for $2000 you can fix a hell of a lot of stuff outside of a total engine or transmission failure.

Also, if you plan to finance, do it through your own bank. Do NOT let the dealership do the financing for you - this is like bending over directly in front of the dealer and asking them to rape you.