[djacobs]

So Ive decided, I will own Esprit by this summer. Unfortunately that is going to require a loan. I have paid off all my other expenses, and can SPARE up to $600/mo for a payment plan. Im planning on using Grundy for insurance

The real question is where is the best place to get a loan from?
Ive looked into Manhatten Leasing, Woodside Credit, Putnam leasing, Becu, and the JJbest as suggested by Ebay.

Im wondering if anyone on here has experiences with these places? I talked to happy customers from Woodside and Putnam. I know most will suggest saving to pay it in full, but financing is DEFINATELY worth the extra expense to me.

Basically Im interested in your experiences, did anyone go the financing route?

Thanks for sharing!

 

[jlj3394]

So Ive decided, I will own Esprit by this summer. Unfortunately that is going to require a loan. I have paid off all my other expenses, and can SPARE up to $600/mo for a payment plan. Im planning on using Grundy for insurance

The real question is where is the best place to get a loan from?
Ive looked into Manhatten Leasing, Woodside Credit, Putnam leasing, Becu, and the JJbest as suggested by Ebay.

Im wondering if anyone on here has experiences with these places? I talked to happy customers from Woodside and Putnam. I know most will suggest saving to pay it in full, but financing is DEFINATELY worth the extra expense to me.

Basically Im interested in your experiences, did anyone go the financing route?

Thanks for sharing!

I don't mean to get up in your grill, but I would save your dough and purchase for cash. Freedom from car payments is power, especially when the car is a toy.

I can understand it when the single mom looks at the $3,000 in her bank account and says "I can either buy this used car for $3,000 and hope it doesn't break, or make payments on this Corolla for $11,000 and know it won't break, but if it does it has a warranty." I don't understand when folks purposely take on debt they don't need, especially in this economy.

With that said, I love the Esprit and have it in my long term plans. So if you do jump, good luck!

 

[RichS]

https://www.penfed.org/productsAndRates/loans/vehicleLoans/usedAutoLoans.asp

 

[Tracktimeplz]

I don't mean to get up in your grill, but I would save your dough and purchase for cash. Freedom from car payments is power, especially when the car is a toy.

I can understand it when the single mom looks at the $3,000 in her bank account and says "I can either buy this used car for $3,000 and hope it doesn't break, or make payments on this Corolla for $11,000 and know it won't break, but if it does it has a warranty." I don't understand when folks purposely take on debt they don't need, especially in this economy.

With that said, I love the Esprit and have it in my long term plans. So if you do jump, good luck!

Judging from this "and I can spare up to 600/mo" id say he doesnt make anywhere near the kind of money you do. If he were to save for the lotus, he would be saving for 5-7 years.....

We make pretty decent money, but it would still have taken me at least 3 years to save up for the lotus.... Im young, I wanted it now. Thats what being young is all about.

 

[RichS]

My personal view on car loans:

If you can't pay off the loan in 2 years or less then you can't afford the car. This doesn't mean that I actually get a 2 year loan from the bank. Usually I go with the longest term loan that I can (6 years) but then pay the loan off in 2 years. Why get a longer loan when you don't 'need' it? Getting a longer loan when you have the means to pay it off sooner does a nice thing for you: It lowers your debt to income ratio. It also gives you the flexibility to have a lower car payment for a month or two if 'something comes up'.

For example:

40K at 3.99 @ 60 mo = 736.48
40K at 3.99 @ 24 mo = 1736.82

So I'd get the 60 mo loan but make an extra 1000 payment towards principal each month (actually an extra 500 towards principal twice a month).

This gets the car paid off in two years but doesn't obligate me to a debt of $1736 each month.

 

[infernoflo]

My personal view on car loans:

If you can't pay off the loan in 2 years or less then you can't afford the car. This doesn't mean that I actually get a 2 year loan from the bank. Usually I go with the longest term loan that I can (6 years) but then pay the loan off in 2 years. Why get a longer loan when you don't 'need' it?

I agree with this. Some loans come with early payment penalties so make sure you find a loan that doesn't have one.

 

[RichS]

PFCU (the link I provided above) doesn't have pre-payment penalties.

 

[LotinElite]

There is nothing wrong with getting a car loan. In fact, for people like me, it is very beneficial in the way of establishing good credit. I'm about to turn 22 and the only credit I have had the opportunity to get other than car loans is my credit card. I've had it for about 3 years, use it as much as I possibly can and pay it off at the end of every month. I would have a mortgage but I currently don't know where I'll be living over the next few years.

Other than that I've had a 1 year car loan for $7,000 that was paid off and the loan for my Elise. My original loan for the Elise was for 72 months so that I had the smallest monthly obligation possible. I got the loan last May and paid whatever I could that I wasn't investing since then. Come January I owed about half of what I did originally so I refinanced to a 36 month loan for the lower interest rate.

My 5.5% interest rate is lower than what I think I can earn by investing. So instead of wasting all that money to pay cash for my car I instead was able to invest it. As long as I do better than 5.5% I'll be profitable. Even if I don't beat 5.5% I'll consider my loses a fee to establish credit.

There are a few caveat's to this:
1. I had enough liquid assets to pay off the car if something bad happened. If you aren't able to pay cash for the car you probably shouldn't be buying it in the first place.
2. My DTI and credit are good enough to garner a relatively low interest rate.
3. I have a bad weather/utility vehicle.
4. I'm not going to lose my job/source of income.

What do you mean you can "Spare" $600/mo? Are you investing anything or is that $600/mo after expenses. If it's the latter I'd suggest seeing what you can do with that money first. A rule I use is that I must be investing at least as much as I'm spending on luxuries like a car.

 

[CosmosMpower]

My personal view on car loans:

If you can't pay off the loan in 2 years or less then you can't afford the car. This doesn't mean that I actually get a 2 year loan from the bank. Usually I go with the longest term loan that I can (6 years) but then pay the loan off in 2 years. Why get a longer loan when you don't 'need' it? Getting a longer loan when you have the means to pay it off sooner does a nice thing for you: It lowers your debt to income ratio. It also gives you the flexibility to have a lower car payment for a month or two if 'something comes up'.

For example:

40K at 3.99 @ 60 mo = 736.48
40K at 3.99 @ 24 mo = 1736.82

So I'd get the 60 mo loan but make an extra 1000 payment towards principal each month (actually an extra 500 towards principal twice a month).

This gets the car paid off in two years but doesn't obligate me to a debt of $1736 each month.

You must make pretty good money if you can cover a mortgage, a "normal car", other expenses and afford a $1736/month car payment. The $1736 alone would get you a pretty nice house in TX.

 

[RichS]

You must make pretty good money if you can cover a mortgage, a "normal car", other expenses and afford a $1736/month car payment. The $1736 alone would get you a pretty nice house in TX.

No need for a 'normal' car as I work out of my house and can use the Exige as a 'daily driver' (Can you do that, maybe I should make a post to ask?). And my mortgage is about to be $650 with a refi I have under way... Guess what... I don't have any debt at all (Exige was purchased in 2006 and paid off before the end of 2008) except for that mortgage and I should have that paid off in the next two years or so.

I'm not a big fan of debt. Kind of drives my wife crazy a bit at times, but you can't argue with owing nobody nothing. Or, if you do have to owe somebody something, have a plan to pay that off as soon as you can.

 

[RacyTracy]

I used Woodside when I bought my Porsche. I was trying to sell a house at the same time and was planning to use the money from the house for the car. I took a 10 year loan to keep the payments low....expecting the house would sell in less than a year. It took almost 2...but I sold the house and paid off the car loan. No early payment penalties or anything. They got the title to me right away too.....everything went smooth with them from beginning to end and I would not hesitate to use them again.

 

[Demonized]

I would not have bought this car if I couldn't have done it cash, I hate paying for stuff I already have.

 

[Chris Mackey]

I'm not sure that financing a 5+ year old car with a spotty reliability record and hard to get parts and service is a good idea.

Buy your toys with cash. If the Esprit isn't going to be a toy, something is wrong. It sure as hell shouldn't be the car you depend on.

The Elise/Exige isn't much better, but they do seem to be pretty reliable.

 

[jlj3394]

Judging from this "and I can spare up to 600/mo" id say he doesnt make anywhere near the kind of money you do. If he were to save for the lotus, he would be saving for 5-7 years.....

We make pretty decent money, but it would still have taken me at least 3 years to save up for the lotus.... Im young, I wanted it now. Thats what being young is all about.

I'm young. I do believe in living in the present, but making payments on a toy just doesn't make any sense.

It would be better to sell you DD, buy a $2000 Civic, and then buy the Esprit for cash.

 

[chabot150]

well what if it isn't a toy, but simply a dd?

 

[Bane]

Old(er) Lotus as a DD? rotfl

Some people do it but you better have an understanding family/circle of friends to come pick you up all the time

 

[VisualEchos]

US Bank kicked everyone's ass when I got my loan 3 months ago, and you can check their rates online in about 5 seconds.

 

[infernoflo]

bankrate.com

This website is excellent for searching for good loan rates, i got a good rate and went with FirstAgain.com as the lender. They are very easy and quick. They aren't lending currently due to the credit market conditions but should they open up again, I wouldn't hesistate to use them again.

 

[djacobs]

Thank you all for your inputs, links, stories, and suggestions!! Perhaps I should say where Im coming from.
I know Im going to be called foolish but basically I dont care about investing or profiting anything at this point. Ill definately look into that but to start Im perfectally fine spending my earned income this way.
I want to get into an Esprit, very soon, thats priority #1 right now for me. This is beyond being a 'toy' as its a life long dream, and very close at hand. Yes, I do have other (Toyota) transportation.
I have no desire for home ownership or any of that sort (perhaps in several years to come) Yes, its worth the extra expense to me going this route. Call me a rare breed. I have a passion.
I should be able to pay it off in 2 or 3 years, should I have to, but I like the low payments for flexability. Im highly considering that S4s on Ebay right now *drools*

What I meant earlier about the $600/mo is thats the minimum of what I can spare after all expenses of living comfortably. I imagine Ill be making a lot of double payments.

So if I apply for many loans at the same time, does that hurt the credit rating?
Thanks for reading this far if you have, and I appriciate all the different views on the topic

 

[Shewillbemine]

Shoot, we can all relate to this.

I went from a Civic to a Civic HB to a WRX to an STI to a Scion XB (I know) to an M3. I'm 30 years old and looking to purchase my first home in Orange County some time this year.

Being young, impulsive and engaging of instant gratification has its moments, but believe me, if you ever hope to marry a girl (or at least keep one happy) you're gonna "want" a house sooner rather than later.

Enjoy the ride, sounds like you've worked hard for it. You're probably on the younger side of 25. If you're over 30, on the other hand...