I agree with camelpilot. You don't have big responsibilities, this may be your best shot at it, so go for it now. I think your mind is pretty much made up already. Get that dream car, THEN start saving.



And I still say some of us are living too tightly to save up and pay cash for our cars and houses. Sometimes the need comes before the plan works out.

 

Waayyy wrong. That is my (and many others) point who paid attention in math class and listen to people who are a generation in front of me. If you save early you dont need to save later. If you simply save $170 a week, or about $750 a month.....(about the same as owning a brand new car) between the ages of 18 to 30, invest that and never save another dime your entire life, you can be a millionarie by age 50 and 3 million by age 60

OR

you can wait until age thiry to start saving some money.....and save your entire life as you describe, struggling to put the $750 in because at 30 you decide to have kids, buy braces...etc and what will you have at age 60? less than 400k....if you are lucky...

It is CRITICAL to save young! much of the advice given would be better directed to someone who has already blown thier chance to live comforably rathr than struggle continously

 

So we're back at the beginning, again, where i say i'm looking for SIMILARLY PRICED S to my current Cooper. No one's told me to SELL my Cooper (that i've seen) to get a much cheaper car. Obviously, we all think i can afford my current car. Maybe i'm the only one confused.

Putting it into perspective, the amount i'm saving on insurance to drop down to, say, an 03 S, will pay for the difference in gas money, and probably the raise in interest rate. Selling my Cooper for what i'm seeing others going for will give me money to put down on an S lowering the payments some, plus i'll have more in savings to throw down. Or i could just throw down more on my Cooper RIGHT NOW, and hope that i can sel this car for almost what i can now later on.

I STILL haven't tried driving an S in the year i'm looking into. I'm still not sure i'm going to jump on it. Still . Maybe i'll have more dudefriend's if i have an awesome supercharged car.

i kid, i kid.

 

[font=Verdana]Ok, she already has the payment. She is going to have to refinance the car. If she gets a car in the same price range as the one she is getting rid of than she will have approximately the same payment and get the car she wants. If she gets the car she wants she will pay less on insurance. She is not going to get away from payments. [/font]

 

Ok, well one person understood me.

 

Am I the only one who gets "I want to be an airborne ranger" playing in the head every time I see the title of this thread?

 

BWAHAHAHAHAH!
The first truly sensible post and it came from the Greatbear.

 

Yes, cause i dont even know what that is

 

Not that you are looking for more variables to think about, but...

1) For someone who drives as much as you do, no car is going to last much longer than 5 years. You might luck out and find an '04 with roughly the same mileage as your car, but I'd be careful looking at anything with much more.

2) As far as resale goes (something that obviously should be a serious consideration for you ), others have mentioned that the revised gearing and other changes make the '05 S a significantly more desirable car. I'm not sure if that difference has evidenced itself yet in the used market. In other words, once there begin to be more used '05s on the market a year or two from now, the '03s and '04s might suffer more of a price drop than you anticipate.
That's all for now. Good luck with the decision.

 

1. All this driving will end when i move out. I'm moving closer to town, definitely. Of course, i'll be paying bills then. Real grown up's bills but my miles are piling up FAST. My miata camped on 25k-ish miles in 9 months, so i knew i had to expect that with this car.

2. i'll take that into consideration... which means i can get one later on for a pretty good price drop, but i'll be taking a hit later on. Or selling now while it's still good, buying the S at the price it's at now, then taking the big hit later on anyhow. Eh?

 

I like this post.

 

Ok, Cory convinced me.

 

My god - go rent the Breakfast Club right now! We cannot talk about your car and savings and all this other nonsense if you haven't even seen the Breakfast Club!

Ignoring that glaring omission from your upbringing - here's my question for you:
1. You sell your Cooper.
2. You use part of the proceeds to pay off the Cooper.
3. You use part of the proceeds as a down payment on the new (actually used, but new to you) S.
4. You are left with the same monthly payment.
5. (this is where the question comes in) Won't you have more payments to make before the S is paid off compared to if you just kept making payments on the Cooper?

If I have all of that correct, the only issue is the amount of money the additional monthly payments are going to require. That's the amount of money you will not have available to use for other things (savings, food, Breakfast Club DVD, oxycontin, whatever) if you get an S.

 

ROFL

They are too young to get it.

Shortbus. Someone said life is too short. That is true.

Forget all this financial CRAP (did somoene say CRAP?)

just do what makes you happy. I have learned that everyone had to learn from their own successes and failures. Whatever you do, you will learn and thats far more important than a hunk of metal.

Besides, when you husband decides to move to the boondocks, the real boondocks, and loves Hondas, what will it matter?

 

I'm looking into staggering CD's to get the "good" interest rate, while keeping my cash somewhat liquid.

 

I hope the "sound effect" didn't deafen you, if the G's hadn't crushed you

I haven't actually rode in Vader, but did hear it behind me on a trip to the Speedway in early October.

 

AYYYEEE CARAMBA!

Esta muchacha esta loca por un S, y no hay nada que nadie puede decir a cambiar su mente. Bueno, por ahora ni lo voy a intentar. Pues para mi es igual a hablarle en otra lengua. Como mi ultimo intento a prevenir una tragedia financiera tengo esta sugerencia. Porque no cambias el color de tu MINI, Sam? Todos sabemos que rosada es tu color favorito, y aqui tengo una foto de un MINI pintado rosadito. Que bello, no?



Just foolin' with ya kiddo. Do whatever floats your boat.

 

Why, that's CRAPTASTIC!

 

what he said!

 

Oh my gosh - there have been a lot of posts here just since this morning for what should be a fairly simple decision. It has turned into (me contributing to this) a philisophical discussion. From reading this thread one would think that this decision is either going to make or break your happiness or make or break your financial lifetime.

So what I get from all of this is you have a couple scenarios:

1. Keep what you have and invest and you will be the next Warren Buffett and when you are 80 you will be able to buy 100 MINI's if you so desire (but you won't because you can't break the life long saving/investing discipline and you will be too damn old to drive).

2. Buy the S and you will have inner peace and happiness that would make the Dali Lama jealous but you will live paycheck to paycheck for the rest of yor life and die in your office cubicle working for the man or you will spend your retirement years eating dog food.

 

i'll take #2 please

 

BWAHAHAHAHAHA again.
:smile:

 

Well here it is.....the next SHORT BUS.........low spec 05 MCS in yeller and white

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=53740

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...66&postcount=1

it's even in Virginia!

I think the universe is trying to tell you something...

I've taken the liberty of doing a mapquest for you.

http://www.mapquest.com/directions/m...ienna&2s=va&2z=

 

Eric, beat me to it

It's a clear sign when the exact S you want is in the exact same state at the exact same time you want it.

You know you want it.

Go get it.

Life is short.