Question on 21 year old buying a car

[Rockbadchild]

Milage vs year; in this day, I think its not unreasonable to get to get something below 120k. Id rather a 3 year old vehicle with 120k, than a 15 year old vehicle with 60k. Of coarse there is a lot of room between those two extremes. I worry when I see something with less than 6k/year, meaning it just sat.

I would say it depends on the price... when you see a 3 years old vehicle they often still ask top dollar for it like $20,000 but it has 100k on it when you can add $10,000 and have one new its a no brainer to go new... The price of used vehicle is very good lately, considering the maintained cost increase after 100k it get to a point that the choice is not as obvious.

 

[Sigarms]

Milage vs year; in this day, I think its not unreasonable to get to get something below 120k. Id rather a 3 year old vehicle with 120k, than a 15 year old vehicle with 60k. Of coarse there is a lot of room between those two extremes. I worry when I see something with less than 6k/year, meaning it just sat.

Completely agree.

My wife and I are a a lot alike in that aspect. We've never owned a new vehicle in our lives, nor do we want to, as it generally loses money once its driven off the lot.

We bought a 2001 accord about 5 years ago with 91K on it for 5 grand for the kids to learn how to drive. Car worked out great, sold it a buddies father for his daughter who was still living with him at a great price IMO for 3K with 121K on the odometer.

Our truck and SUV we paid a total of about 30K for both, having a combined mileage of 138K (1998 year on the truck and 2008 year on the SUV). Combined 33 years later owning both of them, they now have a combined mileage of 485K. On major service bills, we've probably paid another 15K (less oil changes and tires). That may sound like a lot for service work, but that's over a 33 year period time. Reality is it would be pretty easy to spend 30K alone on a new vehicle in 2008.

My boss once told me I had to be a rich man. I asked him why. Because at the time, we owned 4 vehicles of our own and my son had his when living with us before he enlisted. What I asked my boss is how many vehicles he had, he told me two. I asked him how much did those two vehicles cost him combined, and he said about 100K. I looked at him and told him those 4 vehicles cost me less than 50K combined. I told him he sounded more rich to me for having 2 vehicles that cost twice as much as my 4 combined LOL

My wife did make me get rid of our 1998 Avalon though. Bought it for 10K with 75K on the odometer, and she got tired of all the nuances the car had when it 375k on it. Finally got rid of it at 396K. We just will drive a car into the ground as once you buy something outright, the only cost is maintenance and insurance.

That said, my work truck is a 2020 Ford 150, and it has 196K on it now, and to be honest, I've been impressed with it (no real service other than oil changes and tires). My boss bought a new F150 Tremor model for a pretty penny, and 6 months later it was in the shop for over 2 weeks. Go figure.

We do have my dads 2017 Honda V6 coupe he left me when he died (that was sporty enough for my dad LOL). He gave his grandsons driving lessons in that car. Car is sitting in the garage with only 67K on the odometer, and I told my son when he's in his 40's and married with kids someday, that car will be his as I know my dad would want him to have it as they had some good memories sharing it (it wasn't until my dad died that I learned he was teaching my son how to fishtail it though, not certain if I should be happy or mad LOL). We still have the Polkas CD's in it and they'll stay there along with their wedding bans and how my dad "left it".

 

[Runner]

(it wasn't until my dad died that I learned he was teaching my son how to fishtail it though, not certain if I should be happy or mad LOL).

Handbrake U-turns and snap oversteer response/prevention are things every person using front wheel drive cars should practice.

 

[Sigarms]

Handbrake U-turns and snap oversteer response/prevention are things every person using front wheel drive cars should practice.

I don't disagree with you.

Funny thing is my dad didn't go over that training with me, but he did with his grandkids.

For some reason, it seemed easier for my dad with his grandkids than it was with me. My boys loved him, and when I was their age (at that time with him as a kid), he was nothing but a hard ass with me. Go figure.

 

[Runner]

I don't disagree with you.

Funny thing is my dad didn't go over that training with me, but he did with his grandkids.

For some reason, it seemed easier for my dad with his grandkids than it was with me. My boys loved him, and when I was their age (at that time with him as a kid), he was nothing but a hard ass with me. Go figure.

I've always heard that one of the advantages of being a grandparent is you get to spoil the grand kids and let the parents deal with the discipline.

 

[IndyIan]

In hindsight, I should have never bought that truck when I was in the Marine Corps. This was back in 1984 and I was stationed at Camp Pendleton in Southern California. The bus went to Oceanside and a few other places, but then you had to catch another bus to get to the Mall or where you wanted to go. Going out at night wasn't practical on the bus, so I wanted a truck. After getting the truck, I hardly every drove it because a group of us all went to town in the same car, that held a lot more people than my truck. It literally sat there for weeks at a time since everything on base was in walking distance. Then a year later I went overseas for Embassy Duty and those monthly payments really annoyed me. Fortunately, my parents were able to sell it for me while I was away. When I got out, I bought another truck from a different dealer and got started with my life. If I could go back in time, I would not have bought that truck or anything else while I was in the Marines.

Yeah, the money you spent on the truck could've been earning interest for you, instead of disappearing into depreciation and interest for them. I almost bought the $35k new pickup when we got our land, but at the end when we were finishing the house a few years later, I'm glad we didn't have that $40k hole in our bank account as we got in habitable without a mortgage! We made do with a couple trailers which carry more stuff and is easier to load than a pickup bed.

I guess it depends on his living situation, how much money he makes, but out of the rust belt, $6-8k Mazda3/Matrix base engine manual hatchback should go to the moon and back with only simple stuff to fix. Banking $15-20-25k now really is nice for early retirement, or buying his patch of land to play tractors on, in 8-10 years.

 

[WinterDeere]

I would like for him to build up his independence from us on buying a car, and was wondering at what point does a 21 year not need their parents to co sign a car loan on their behalf? I thinking with the limited credit history, if he can't buy the car paid in cash in full, he would need our signature.

Forgive me if you mentioned it, I didn't read all 5 pages of the thread, but what's he doing when he gets back? Is he going back to school, or starting his career?

I figure we'll be paying our kids expenses until they finish whatever schooling is required to launch their respective careers, and possibly co-signing loans some time a little past that. They may have their own jobs along the way, but as long as their primary focus is school, I can afford to support them.

Of course that all flips when they start into their career. My mother's greatest thrill was when I started taking her out to dinner, and paying for her to come visit us on vacation, versus the other way around. I'm looking forward to being treated for dinner, but we're still a few years off from that, here.

 

[Sigarms]

Forgive me if you mentioned it, I didn't read all 5 pages of the thread, but what's he doing when he gets back? Is he going back to school, or starting his career?

I figure we'll be paying our kids expenses until they finish whatever schooling is required to launch their respective careers, and possibly co-signing loans some time a little past that. They may have their own jobs along the way, but as long as their primary focus is school, I can afford to support them.

Of course that all flips when they start into their career. My mother's greatest thrill was when I started taking her out to dinner, and paying for her to come visit us on vacation, versus the other way around. I'm looking forward to being treated for dinner, but we're still a few years off from that, here.

There are 3 possibilities when his deployment is up.

1 - He comes back to his primary duty station, which is less than a 4 hour drive from around our area.

2 - He comes back, only to find out that his duty station is changing somewhere else in the US.

3 - While overseas, he's offered the opportunity to transfer somewhere else outside the US (lets just say it's not the greatest place right now, and not what my wife feels is the "safest" area, but I told him if he gets offered Japan, Italy or Germany afterwards, he would be nuts not to go or volunteer LOL).

He's only been enlisted for a little over 2 years now. He has 4 more years to go and decide if he wants out or to stay in for another stint.

The nice thing is he's doing college classes now for free (although most likely not doing any right now due to his work schedule), and hopefully (if he decides to get out) he the Air Force will pay for schooling after that. He has a cousin that was stationed in Jersey, spent 4 years active, 2 years reserves, and he's out now, but is going to school for radiology and the Air Force is paying for it.

On a plus note, although he lost out in the competition for an early promotion before he left, he was informed that the promotion was coming when his deployment is up.

 

[JasperFrank]

There is Cool and then there is pragmatical. All my cars have been practical. I have absolutely no interest in pretending to being cool. Even when I was single. If the date thought, I'd have an expensive car or something, that's a one time date. Cause I don't tell them about any thing else. Books and Covers. If they don't want to read the book.........pass.

 

[WinterDeere]

There is Cool and then there is pragmatical. All my cars have been practical. I have absolutely no interest in pretending to being cool. Even when I was single. If the date thought, I'd have an expensive car or something, that's a one time date. Cause I don't tell them about any thing else. Books and Covers. If they don't want to read the book.........pass.

I can understand this sentiment, but on the flip side, there's the "dress for success" argument. Dating aside, everyone from prospective clients to employers make assumptions about your wealth and income, when making decisions on the compensation required to retain your services, based on what they might see you driving.

I'll show up in my 1/2 ton pickup truck to meet with clients, which is fine... they know I'm an engineer. But when my beloved 2005 Ram started rusting thru the body while still reliable as concrete in 2017, it had to go. I wasn't going to show up for a client meeting in a rusted-out pickup truck.