Dagnammit - I Missed It!
The Cash for Clunkers program is already out of money and is being suspended! And I was just getting around to thinking about maybe taking advantage of it. I have the perfect vehicle - a 1993 Nissan Quest (combined EPA mph 17 - which is about what I actually get) that will not die. Each year I pump in about $1000, which gets tiresome but what kind of car can you get for $85 a month? I drive it to Newark each day (which is brutal on the suspension with all the potholes but do you really want to drive a nice car through that hellhole?) and sometimes take it on trips down the shore when we need the space. But one of these days it's just going to stop running and won't be worth fixing.
I don't have a "nice" car right now. Unfortunately, my last lease ran out in June - it was a Mercury Mariner which I got for $325/mth, no money down for 39 months and 48k miles, which spoiled me. You can't get a decent vehicle for that price these days as the financing just isn't there. So the Cash for Clunkers would be a good deal, but I'd still have to pay a lot more than $325/mth and be down a car to boot.
I don't have a "nice" car right now. Unfortunately, my last lease ran out in June - it was a Mercury Mariner which I got for $325/mth, no money down for 39 months and 48k miles, which spoiled me. You can't get a decent vehicle for that price these days as the financing just isn't there. So the Cash for Clunkers would be a good deal, but I'd still have to pay a lot more than $325/mth and be down a car to boot.
posted by ziel | 7/31/2009 08:09:00 AM
8 Comments:
What do you mean the "financing isn't there"? I bought an '08 Nissan Frontier SE for under 18 Grand with 5.25% financing. Granted my credit score is very good, but how bad is yours that you can't score a reasonable used car for under $325/mo? I'm assuming you can put some money down.
I dont want to buy I want to lease and I dont want to put any money down. thats what I got last time but the dealer told me point blank theres nothing like that now.
Not so fast now - the House just approved an additional 2 billion bucks for Cash for Clunkers, the program that has been "successful well beyond our expectations".
Thus, you still have a chance to shed the Nissan. Supposedly there's a huge backlog on the government end though, which has surprisingly led some (read Republicans) to unleash statements such as "if they can't handle a small program like this, how could they possibly efficiently manage universal health care?" Actually, it's not a bad question.
On the whimsy side, I always thought there was something admirable about driving the faithful old family vehicle until it dropped. That's hard for me to do now with teenage boys who have no interest in driving or riding in "uncool" cars.
When the kids wont drive your clunker then you never have to worry about them driving off with it just when you're about to go somewhere
"That's hard for me to do now with teenage boys who have no interest in driving or riding in "uncool" cars."
Bullshit. Tell them to STFU and walk if they don't like the car.
Now you're talking like real-man father of yore, not the emasculated, beaten down version of today.
Hey Anon, STFU and get a user name. :-)
Personally, given what is coming, I would look for an older quality car - for which parts can be found - that is pre-GPS. These cars will have higher mileage but think Cuba: we are heading for hte same system of government.
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