I prefer Chinese financing...
One Lump Sum..

Dry creek

 

In my case my truck pays for itself. Between hauling my cattle,grain,farm equipment it would normally cost me 15-20K a year.

When I traded my 04 for my 06 it only cost me $8,000. As far as the truck accesories everything from the 04 fit on the 06, It cost like $75 to get my TST to work on the 06.
Plus the fact I need something to drive anyways

 

I paid 19k for mine two years ago. So far new vp44 tires and wheels. The hood and visor were already on it as well as the 4 inch exhaust and the intake. I also have to support the Harley which I use a lot more than the truck. I have upgrades planned, but they will have to wait a while, till I get more money in the fun can.

 

the zero down financing really got people hooked a few years back. they were buying "more" vehicle than they probably could afford. they all ended upside down in theirs loans, which starts a dangerous trend- rolling over their debt into another vehicle loan. the worst thing is to be upside down in a loan- any kind of loan!. if i can not put a substantial amount down or pay cash for it- i simply can not afford- so i don't get it!!!!

 

I currently owe 28.2k for my rig. I traded my 01 for it and still owed on the 01 but was not upside down at all (owed ~1/3 of trade in value). I would love to pay off my truck sooner but with all the stupid mistakes I made in college with my creditcards I so not know how much sooner I will be able to pay it off. I prefer to make bigger payments on everything I finance, and I am not afraid to finance if I can afford it. I will not buy something that will cause me to get in a situation that I can not controll. In college I lived paycheck to paycheck, I no longer do and am getting more and more savings every day. All I can say is that I have made mistakes in my past with my credit but now I know better and am paying for it currently, just because the bank will loan you the money does not mean that you can afford it, and the loans that pay only interest are just plain bad news. I know several classmates that bought with these and they are paying for it greatly now. I am not trying to preach to anyone just trying to give some insight to others out there, and more than happy to learn from others out there.

 

A simple thought: the borrower is servant to the lender. You borrow and you sell yourself. Be sure you get what you're worth!

Folks purchase things to impress someone else. The friends say how nice the item looks one time, the owner gets to pay for months/years. Now that's an expensive ego massage.

I bought my truck 'cause my wife keep telling me I needed a better looking truck. Now she tells me how rough it rides each time she's in it!

And Oh, I bought it with a loan from my bank so I could improve my credit rating!!!!

 

bought my 93 back in 99 for 12500 cash. never had a payment on anything in life yet other than farm and that payment is long gone. D2 cat your right on in my line of thinking.

 

Even if I have the cash, I'll use someone else's money when I can get it for 6% or less interest.

 

I agree, but I lower the interest to the rate of inflation. I figure if inflation is 3% and interest is less than that, I actually MAKE money off the deal in terms of buying power.

Being upside down on a loan is a rough spot to be in. Sometimes it's unavoidable. It's worth noting that being upside down on a loan usually means that you BORROWED money for something that DECREASES in value. That's a double-whammy in itself.

The only debt I have now is my man-van. That was bought earlier than expected because if I didn't buy it then, I'd be facing buying a van in Hawaii-- which runs almost 10K more for the same thing. We were able to buy a used van in new condition for $8K less than the price of a new one. Plus, it's Honda so there might actually be some life left in it at the end of the payments.

That's what REALLY matters most to me-- how much use can you get out of a vehicle after it's paid for? If you are buying wisely, then the answer will be a LOT-- because you won't have payments very long (if at all), and you probably bought something that will last awhile.

The funny thing about posting a poll like this here on DTR is that it makes Americans look a lot better than we really are. DTR folks are salt-of-the-earth types, inclined more on average to live within or below their means.

If this was a nationwide poll, I suspect we'd fear the economy was on verge of collapse because so many were so overextended.

Justin

 

Well I understand this question, I too know people that get a new truck and dump 10,to 20 thousand into it and then trade it in after a couple of years. All i can figure is that either they have alot of bills or they make enough money to cover their toys and live too. Me personally I have worked my tail off for what I have in my truck. Luckily when I traded in my 01 ( loved the truck till I got hit at 75mph and it was never the same) on my 03 i knew the original owner of the truck and was able to strike up a heck of a deal on it. I don't have much left until its all mine. As far as all of the mods on the truck I have worked for a few of these companies so i haven't had to pay for them or I have paid ALOT less than even a dealer of the parts can get them for. Plus being a tech I do all of my own work for the most part. Plus i made a list of how I wanted to go about my mods and have been able to stay pretty much to it. I wait until i get the money and then i buy it. Usually i wait a few weeks or so before spend the money so I have enough extra saved up for those unplanned expenses which pop up every now and then. For those that don't really have to worry about the money more power to you. Have fun

 

I did most of the upgrades to my 98.5 while I was in the military. I was single and had money to blow then. When I bought the truck I had been without a vehicle for nearly a year, by choice so I would have money to put down on it. Now the 96 is a different story, the guy I bought it off of was having a lot of money and legal problems, so I bought the truck already bombed for 12500 and it only had 120,000 on it. Both trucks are paid for, now paying on the minivan.

 

I sold my 96 outright to a private individual. Bought the 01 new and got the promo rate of .9 for 36 months. I rolled everything into the loan taxes etc. The loan payment was 950ish a month. I took the money from the sale of the 96 and put it in quite a few different cds so that one termed every 3 months. Then when that cd termed I would use one third of it each month towards the payment which equaled about 1/2 the truck payment and made up the rest. Then the next cd termed and continued the cycle. The rate on the cd's was over 5% at the time. So after all was said and done the interest that I had earned on the cd's came to over 1.5 truck payments and that is after accounting for the interest paid on the truck loan and was also over and above what I would have saved in interest by just putting it all down at once at the time of the sale. Nothing like using someone elses money. Was it a pain in the rump to mess with it, a bit but was it worth 1500.00, yes.

 

bought my truck cash in 01 due to a couple of good years,(i raise mule deer) ill probably never come close to that again and will never buy a brand new one again even if i get a windfall , seems to me up here that most that do buy an not lease usually add them to their mortgage or refinance their property and live like kings, alot of my buddies work in the oilpatch making some pretty profound money the last couple years, most of them say they have no clue how people are living as high as they are, boils down to easy credit Id say.

 

don't get me wrong there are a few things in life that a loan works for you if you have to. land or house or something that you make your living at. personally as a small time hobby farmer i cannot justify much on the farm as so important i would get a loan , other than the land itself. i can have two older pickups and even with insurance and licensing i feel it still pencils out. anymore i never count on a job being there a lifetime. we will build a new house on the farm soon and hopefully half is cash and half will be a loan. i know to many people that cannot walk away from there job because of monthly payments on "stuff". i pay off credit card every month. and yes we live way below our income level to the point we get laughed at by some . luckey i don't care what people think much anymore. anyway i am a fix it kind of guy and i love the work when its on my own stuff. always getting mech. offers on local farms or wanting me to work on rigs during slow times.

 

I bought my 2004 in November of 2003. I traded in my 1999 Dodge Caravan, my 2001 Dodge 2500 reg cab diesel, and paid the difference in cash. All my cars and my house are paid for. I am totally debt free, but I am an old geezer with no wife or relatives.