I tend to keep vehicles until acquiring parts becomes problematic. My 34 year old BMW motorcycle is still on the road (well over 200,000 miles). My old Toyota had 380,000 on it when I sold it. I turn my own wrenches, and intend to keep this truck till I die.
Just wish I'd bought one with a manual transmission so my wife wouldn't take it all the time.

 

well, I think I'm with the right crowd here because I think of the 4 vehicles I've owned, I've spend a total of about 15K. I've been waiting for a long time to finally be able to "afford" the vehicle I want. Right now I've saving up to put 50% down on an 05/06 2500 5.9L 3:73 48RE Laramie. I've been waiting since I got my license 11 years ago to finally have a vehicle I wanted and hopefully next year I can finally get it. It sure is tough though watching all these guys driving around in 50K rigs asking yourself "What in the world do they do for a living and how could they actually 'afford' it?" I guess the real answer is that, they probably can't, they are leveraged to the hilt, or like a few of the lucky members of DTR, their job uses their rig so it pays for itself.

 

btw ... after I get this truck, I will hopefully have the good sense to drive it until weeds pop thru the injectors.

 

I own mine outright, I could`nt afford a payment anyway so it works ok for me.

 

Words to live by. IMO

 

I know there are lots of guys around this area that are part of the monkey see monkey do club. Like said above how do they do it. I don't know myself. I do know that one will try and out do the next. One will see something new and just have to have it and the cycle begins.

They try to have the bigger better truck at whatever the exspense. I have made a descent living most my life but when I was buying my trucks I still had to save in order to modify. I have been self-employed for years and the company payed for most. When it came to adding a mod I used money that I had saved for a particular mod. I plan on having this truck until I'm gone. It's payed for and if I want a new one I have time to save and pay with cash. Bunyan

 

According to the latest Poll #s....almost 70% of members here paid >10% down and almost 37% paid CASH.

In my book, if someone has >$3000 CASH to lay out on a purchase (any purchase) they are RICH !!

 

And smart

 

This thread reminds me of a couple a few blocks away from me.

Their house had a rather severe fire a couple years back (2005). Not bad enough to be condemmed, so they continued living in it while "fixing it" back up.

Well, they got a rather hefty insurance settlement for the repairs (I'm guessing $75-100K). They promptly took this huge sump of $$$ and laid it down on a brand new HUMMER H2 !!!

I shake my head everytime I drive past their place seeing the brand new Hummer parked out front and seeing the results of the (2) year old unrepaired FIRE damage! They must do enough little work to keep the City Inspector of their butts.
Unbelieveable what some folks do!

 

See, I'm not ready to believe that almost 4 out of 10 people paid cash. MAYBE if we consider that over 1/2 of those guys bought trucks that were sold for less than $10K..........?

For the rest of us flunkies...... if you have $34-$40K in cash laying around to go out and buy a new truck,........ you are the man.

 

That's my goal the next time around but by then trucks will probably be $80-90K!

 

I disagree. You don't have to be rich. I am not, I have never made more than $40k a year. You just need to have the self discipline to live on less money than you make and not to buy anything unless you have the cash to do it. I wait and save instead of spending what I don't have and paying for it every month for the next 20 years.

 

I'll be honest like Hohn. I'm still young and make good money. But I was also younger and made stupid mistakes with an ex Fiance. I still have a hard time saying no to myself.
Between my truck, car, boat and stupid credit card stuff I'm 40k in debt and don't own a home. I owe 7k on the truck and plan on keeping it for a very long time. I'm selling the car to my parents and now must really sacrifice and sell the boat (20k). I'm making it, but barely. I'm tired of living paycheck to paycheck. Thanks for all the great advice and encouragement. Someday I will pay cash for a new truck.

 

Good for you! I used to pay cash for everything and then one day I decided to buy a new truck and finance it. Now that I have recovered I am going back to cash only.

 

Payed cash for the 98 (under 10k) Put 1/3 down in cash and one crappy payed for nissan on the 02 2 years ago, It will be payed off in one more year.