 |
| photo source: billboard.com |
Bruno Mars has a great line in his hit song, Twenty Four Karat Magic: "I'm a dangerous man with some money in my pocket!" Ain't that the truth!
Like I posted last column, that little bit of money has given me some options. It seems that options tend to make you dissatisfied with the status quo, although they might ultimately allow you to appreciate what you currently have more fully.
At least now, you have a choice.
Title price is monthly payment estimate*
Mileage: 100k miles
Exterior Color: Gold
Interior Color: Tan
Engine: 4.0L NA V8 double overhead cam (DOHC) 32V
Drive: rwd
Transmission: Automatic
VIN: SAJGX2048XC039325
Sale Price: $5888
*Monthly Payment Estimate: Finance at 3.99% APR for 72 months at $74 per month with $1178 down payment. Subject to credit approval. Adjustable terms available. This estimate does not represent an actual loan offer. Please call today for your custom monthly payment plan. Vehicle subject to prior sale. All prices plus government fees and taxes, any finance charges, dealer document processing charge, any electronic filing charge, and any emission testing charge. See dealer for details. Please mention Craigslist when calling about offer.
----------------------------------------------------------------
What's important about that Craig's List ad is not so much the car, which looks pretty clean to me. It's the financing that's offered. 3.99 %. I have never in my life been able to avail myself to a low interest rate when buying a new car. Interest rates were high back in the 1980s. When I bought my new '84 Mercury Cougar they were 14%. Even when I bought my first house, a fixed rate, 30 year mortgage was 15%! Luckily there was a first time buyer program offered by the County that subsidized two percent of that, reducing it to only 11%.
The point is that the price of money has a big effect on how much an item costs, as well as allowing you to buy something a bit more expensive than you might have originally planned. Stretching a bit can help secure a real buy sometimes.
Years ago, my Wife decided that I needed a separate source of funds for my hobby cars. Using the "family" credit card and especially the debit card, would often result in my added, unaccounted for (and unauthorized! ) expenses frequently placing our checking account into an overdrawn status. Of course this threw our monthly budget into a total mess. Since she is the one that pays the bills the situation became intolerable to her. It took me a bit to realize what a mess I was causing, but gradually I also came to that realization. So I needed to keep my car expenses completely separate from family finances.
Luckily for me, my Wife recognizes my need to play with cars and we came to an agreement for me to have a monthly car allowance that I can use for my projects. I then secured a credit card that I can use for online ordering and monthly amortizations of larger purchases. It also protects any hacked or unauthorized purchases from affecting our family finances.
I went with one of the many credit card offers that arrived in the junk mail. "You've been approved!" These reached me in my vulnerable state and I took the bait. The APR is 24%, that may be high but my plan was to pay off the balance every month or so, thereby making the high interest rate moot. Well it hasn't always worked out that way, but for the most part, it's given me a lot of flexibility. Flexibility is the key, that also gives you options.
Looking at that low APR for a used car loan the thought arises that I could buy a car that didn't need any work. A tempting thought, especially since I'm going to be very busy for the next couple of years. I wouldn't want to finance a low priced car over such a long period, 74.00 dollars a month seems like an excessively low payment. But for 4% a year, why not use their money?
This does open up some possibilities, I would have to buy something that was fairly low priced, under ten grand, but the dealer might take one of my cars in trade. Or I could try to sell it on Craig's List. It sure beats my idea of buying a car completely using my credit card!
I went to a used car lot to look at a 2004 Jaguar XJ8 that was offered at 4995.00. I wanted to take a first hand look at these newer aluminum bodied V8 sedans. To put it mildly, I was quite impressed. The car still looks like a classic Jaguar and the interior was just as gorgeous as they had ever been. And was it fast! And loaded with features like, navigation, adjustable pedals, and a glass moon roof. A really nice car.
This is option that I could choose to replace my current cars.
The other would be to just buy a similar car that is in better shape and would cost me the same, or less than the outstanding work that my present car needs.
For example, just adding up those projected numbers that I listed last post:
(Just remember that these numbers are just pulled out of thin air)
Suspension rebuild 2,000.00
convertible top replacement 2,500.00
a/c rebuild 1,000.00
reupholster front seats 1,200.00
projected total 6,700.00
I'm sure if I added in some additional odd and end repairs the total would be well over 7,000.00.
So, I could just buy another car in better shape that costs 7,000 bucks and come out the same. Even better if I can sell my one of my other cars for a few bucks.
Consider the XJS in the Craig's List ad below.
Jaguar - $4600 (Sacramento)
- do NOT contact me with unsolicited services or offers
Buying another car or one in better condition is a reasonable course of action. That's what most people would do. Maybe I'll follow that route. But first I'm going to put a few hundred miles on my XJS and see how I feel about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment