Quote:
Originally Posted by ST1LE
The payment alone is not enough info to answer this question. The 20/4/10 rule is a really good one.
Put down no less than 20%.
Finance the car for no more than 4 years.
Your payment should be no more than 10% your gross income.
Just looking at that last one, as to me its the most important. You need to make $84,000 a year to justify a $700 a month car payment. All that said ONLY you can decide if that car is worth that payment.
How you feel is also very important. A large car payment gives me serious anxiety for some reason. I make a little more than I need to for a $700/mo payment, but anything over around $500/mo just freaks me out a little.
In the end, do what makes you happy. If you stress about the payment, no matter how much you love the car, you wont be truly happy.
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This is really good advice! Even if you swing the number a little bit this is a good starting point to try to get it close to this. I know it's hard for young guys to put down big down payments but that's the easiest way to may the long-term of car ownership much easier.
I saved up for almost two years in preparation of getting a 6th gen, even though I was only 22 at the time I was able to put down $20k (so about 45%, and I know that seems like too big of a down payment to some) so my payments are under $450.
My recommendation is at first don't focus on the monthly payment, focus on the total purchase price ( the "Out The Door" price as we call it), once you make sure you are getting the best possible OTD price then you want to figure out the down payment needed to get your payments where you want it. I would say don't do more than 60 months, and the at least 20% down with a really low interest rate should get you at or under the $500 payment mark.
Just my 2 cents, good luck man!