My will
Mike, if these idiots understood that they wouldn't be selling vehicles with 45-60K on the clock. They would sell them with 150-200K on the clock and have at least 3 years or more of ownership with -no- car payment, and during that time they would be taking the money they were normally sticking into a car payment, and sticking it into a savings account. Then when they sold that 150-200K vehicle they would have a large enough down payment that what loan they would be getting for the car would be easily payable 1 - 2 years.
It's quite possible for a young person with no money, by carefully purchasing good used cars for the first 2-3 cars he owns in his life, and by saving the extra money he would be spending on interest and insurance, to get into a position by the time he hits his 30s where he has enough savings that he can approach vehicle purchase from a positive, rather than a negative. What he then can save in interest payments is huge and he can finance much lower monthly payments, or much shorter loan terms. In short he has a lot more flexibility in what he can do.
But of course this requires 2 things, delayed gratification, and self-discipline, which are not trained into most people when they are young, at least not in this culture.
My favorite line from people like this is when I tell them they would pay less overall if they saved up for a car and then bought it, rather than buying it on credit, and having them tell me they would never be able to save up the money because they would end up spending it.
Ted
