Join Early Retirement Today
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 10-31-2021, 10:17 AM   #21
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
pb4uski's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Sarasota, FL & Vermont
Posts: 36,266
Quote:
Originally Posted by OldShooter View Post
As a matter of policy I will not borrow money to buy a car. ...
So if you were buying a car and the manufactuer was offering a 60-month, 0% loan and whether or not you took the loan had absolutely no impact on the total out-the-door purchase price then you would NOT take the loan?
__________________
If something cannot endure laughter.... it cannot endure.
Patience is the art of concealing your impatience.
Slow and steady wins the race.

Retired Jan 2012 at age 56
pb4uski is online now   Reply With Quote
Join the #1 Early Retirement and Financial Independence Forum Today - It's Totally Free!

Are you planning to be financially independent as early as possible so you can live life on your own terms? Discuss successful investing strategies, asset allocation models, tax strategies and other related topics in our online forum community. Our members range from young folks just starting their journey to financial independence, military retirees and even multimillionaires. No matter where you fit in you'll find that Early-Retirement.org is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with our members, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create a retirement blog, send private messages and so much, much more!

Old 10-31-2021, 11:41 AM   #22
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
OldShooter's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: City
Posts: 10,337
Quote:
Originally Posted by pb4uski View Post
So if you were buying a car and the manufactuer was offering a 60-month, 0% loan and whether or not you took the loan had absolutely no impact on the total out-the-door purchase price then you would NOT take the loan?
Probably not an option. I think those deals are typically offered on current model cars that the market doesn't like for some reason. The part that you clipped out of my post says that we don't buy current model year cars. The few pennies that might be made from interest rate arbitrage would be swamped by the thousands of dollars hit from first year depreciation.

If your hypothetical loan were an option, though, it is probably 50/50 at best whether I would screw around with it for a probably-small arbitrage profit.

I did take a car loan once, on the Mazda RX-8 I bought a decade or so ago. Mazda Finance offered a $2500 cash credit if I financed my new-last-year leftover car with them So I took the money, paid it off as soon as the title cleared the state and netted about $2100.

And, really, the no-loans policy was more important much earlier in our financial lives, where it kept us from buying cars we could not afford. That was tremendously beneficial to our net worth trajectory. I borrowed once; to buy a used Porsche when I got out of graduate school. God, I hated that loan and vowed "Never again." Until the RX-8, never did.
__________________
Ignoramus et ignorabimus
OldShooter is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-31-2021, 11:58 AM   #23
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 1,298
Quote:
Originally Posted by DayDreaming View Post
Having just ordered a Tesla myself, the ordering process could not be any easier. You order directly from their website, from the comfort of your own home. No dealer is involved at all.
True, no dealer involved with putting the order in, but still a lot of headaches (maybe self induced).

I plan to buy the Model 3 Long Range. The estimated delivery is December 2021. The latest I have seen on the possible EV incentive credits is that the Senate version will be $10,000 for a Tesla and retroactive. The House version would be $8000 for a Tesla but would only apply if delivery is after January 1, 2022. The rumor is that the House version will be the compromise.

So, it looks like most people will be trying to delay their delivery into 2022 and my guess is that anyone that does not put their order on hold will be bumped to the head of the line and get delivery in 2021.

From various forum discussions, it seems that you get put to the back of the line if you put your order on hold then release it. I would imagine waiting until January or the last week of December would put my order into a huge stampede. The only hopeful fact is that the Standard Range Plus seems to be much more in demand.

I would not be surprised if your Model Y order delivery is sped up quite a bit depending on how the law is written. Also, it said that there is a price cap for the incentive and the Model Y would only get the credit if it is classified as an SUV.

It would work out much better if Congress would just make the incentive effective as of the signing of the bill.

So, while I don't have to deal with a sleazy car salesman, I still manage to find enough to worry about.

If I was not worried about something expensive going wrong with my 2004 Acura TSX, I would probably just wait until next summer when things are more back to normal.
joesxm3 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-31-2021, 12:02 PM   #24
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 1,298
Quote:
Originally Posted by OldShooter View Post
I borrowed once; to buy a used Porsche when I got out of graduate school. God, I hated that loan and vowed "Never again." Until the RX-8, never did.
I was flat broke when I bought my first new car, a 1981 Diesel VW Rabbit. I had just made the leap from working in the VW Auto Parts Department to an entry level computer programming job (after paying the rip off trade school $6000). I even had to talk the general manager into loaning me the down payment for two weeks.

I buckled down and paid off that loan as fast as I could. The two cars since then were cash.
joesxm3 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-31-2021, 12:08 PM   #25
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 1,298
Quote:
Originally Posted by DayDreaming View Post
There is a lot of speculation about how Tesla will use these new batteries in their existing models. Most think that Tesla will not just do a 1 to 1 swap of old & new batteries and say "here's a car that gets more range, with no price change". More likely, they will put less of these new batteries into the Model 3, so that it still has the same range, for the same price. To the buyer, it's effectively the same car, but it would weigh a bit less and probably would charge a bit faster. Tesla might then use the new batteries to make an extra-long-range version of the Model 3 for a higher price.
I watched a couple You Tube videos on batteries and am a bit more comfortable with the idea that the batteries will not crap out after a couple years.

The Tesla warrantee is 120,000 miles or 8 years. So I guess that should be my projected life span of the car.

One video referenced a study that said that Tesla Model S batteries after 8 years still retained 90% capacity. Those would have been older battery technology.

So I guess I will probably just pay cash, since I doubt that even if the market crashes I won't be jumping in so heavy that the $50K or $60K will make me run out of liquidity.
joesxm3 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-31-2021, 12:20 PM   #26
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: Western NC
Posts: 4,610
Tesla's switching their lower-end to lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) batteries...cheaper, less range, but safer (no 'thermal runaway') versus their current nickel-cobalt-aluminum (NCA) batteries that they say they will keep for their higher-end (long range) vehicles.

I remain hopeful that by 2030 we will see solid-state batteries (double the range for the same size/weight/price) in production & in EVs.

Given the latter I won't be buying any pure EVs before then...just hybrids, traditional or plug-in.
ncbill is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-31-2021, 02:18 PM   #27
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Koolau's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Leeward Oahu
Posts: 17,809
Hmmm. I had to think hard to recall the last car loan I had. It was in 1978 on a "new" 1977 Datsun. I paid it off early (through my credit union). YMMV
__________________
Ko'olau's Law -

Anything which can be used can be misused. Anything which can be misused will be.
Koolau is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
PPP loan - where to find the SBA loan number? RenoJay FIRE and Money 1 07-07-2020 05:32 PM
Saving up for car vs Investing and take out car loan sizzlinkola FIRE and Money 12 12-09-2019 12:35 PM
How much does car color play a part in your car purchase decision? easysurfer Other topics 37 05-14-2011 09:10 AM
Found 15 acres, loan to buy land, loan to build... how is it done? jIMOh FIRE and Money 17 11-05-2010 12:18 PM
Advice on new notebook purchase? Zoocat Other topics 6 01-22-2007 11:59 AM

» Quick Links

 
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 03:37 AM.
 
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.