Hey guys!

I am 18, just starting my second semester in college. I am interested in buying a 2004 or 2005 Acura TL, and was wondering how much car insurance would be (I live in Minnesota by the way)? i have had no accidents with the car my Father provided for my sister and i (2002 Acura MDX) and no speeding tickets, and have been driving since i have been 16. Would it be a smart idea to purchase an Acura TL? i would most likely get a loan for maybe $5,000 or $6,000, if that is even a smart idea.. Please help inform me!

 

Student loan debt - ?
Car payment - ?
Car insurance - ?
Rent/room and board - ?
Monthly gas - ?

Only you know your financial capabilities. By the sound of your post, money is tight and therefore a determining factor of whether or not you get a TL. The best thing you can do is to call different insurance companies and get some quotes.

Even guessing what your car insurance would cost is nearly impossible. There are a ton of different factors that are considered when insurance companies quote you. I'm 22 with a perfect driving record like yourself (no tickets or crashes) and I pay $332 for 6 months of coverage through Geico. This is for in between the state provided minimum coverage and the maximum that you're able to get. With Progressive and other insurance companies, I was quoted nearly double that at just shy of $600 for the same exact coverage as I'm getting now through Geico. With that said, make sure you call around because some insurance companies are significantly cheaper than others depending on the area you live in. Where I live, Geico has very low risk with the drivers they insure as we have statistically one of the lowest per capita claim rates with Geico in the state.

Do you live in an area where you get a lot of snow?
Consider tires and other maintenance costs too when trying to determine how much it's going to cost you yearly to put you on the road in a TL. You may need tires in which case you'll be paying another $600-$1000 in a year between getting the new tires and getting them mounted/balanced and then also switching them back and forth when the season changes with your snow tires. It will cost your anywhere from $60-80 just to get the tires switched, so multiply that by 2 for a yearly figure.

 

we need an insurance vendor around this forum .. there is absolutely 0 way we can even guess close to this for you.

you will need to do your own research regarding this.

but, so you are not in the dark .. i pay $72 a month for full coverage

 

are you going through your own plan or add on to your parents plan?

if you can't get the car for cash outright, it's probably not a good idea. you're thinking of buying an 8-9 yr old car with a loan. that's a bad idea IMO. add in school costs, maintenance costs, the catastrophic if stuff breaks on an old car costs (esp higher mileage), insurance costs (most likely higher than a civic or an accord), and the other items that JJH has posted above. quotes can be had for insurance plans with a simple phone call or on one of those e-car insurance sites that can give you multiple quotes from multiple companies. college is not a time to buy your dream car...it's a time to buy a car that will be reliable with minimal headache until you get a real job with real money. no need to put yourself into a financial bind with more loans than you want before you're 20.

not saying that a TL will break on you, but there is inherent risk with a used 8-9 yr old car. when stuff breaks on the car it can be $$$ vs when stuff breaks on a civic.

 

Worry about more important things first. Food, rent, beer then car.

FWIW I am paying about $130 a month for 2 cars with Full Coverage.

 

You need to get a quote and see- there are so many variables to the price of insurance. I also agree that if you don't have any income, you probably won't be able to really afford the car. Colleges are hell on cars so I would get a beater if I were you and not a TL.

 

First I would like to say welcome to the site.

I will try to stay positive, but oh man this is gonna be hard. There are about 28 insurance threads started just this week.

All with the same end result.

You are going to have to do what the rest of us adults did when we wanted insurance quotes. Call around to a few different insurance companies and tell them your situation and what car you looking for. They may want a vin number. That is the only way you are going to get a quote.

But I would guess it is gonna be between 72.00 per month (on the lower side) to 480.00 per month (this will be more around your area).

Being 18, not married, under 25, not a home owner, short credit history, maybe even bad credit history? but definately not established credit, how many tickets and/or wrecks-collisions-accidents-claims you have had.

I would say getting insurance on your own and not under one of your parents policies will be tough and/or expensive.

Now, unless you have a co-signer, a shit load of cash, or damn good credit I would not expect to see you get a very good loan rate for a TL especially depending on how much purchase price is.

I borrowed money 2 years ago for my TL and my bank didn't want to do. Actually they weren't going to do it.
$25k car that was already 5 years old, the board said no. But the loan officer who got me a loan on a different vehicle back in 04 knew me and I paid it off early. I had a high 700's FICO score and I put $7k down and convinced her that this was not going to be a problem and that I was going to buy the car.

You may not be looking at that much, but lets say you buy a 10,000.00 car and need to finance that much. IF you get a 6% interest rate which would be low for you, you are looking at payments around 200-225.00 per month.

This is my nice answer, if stupid questions start to get asked I will not be able to control my niceness.

 

if you need to get a loan to finance over 75% (can't afford to pay 25% down) on the oldest of 3Gs it's probably not a wise decision. for a 04-05 I would put aside at least an additional $1.5k for repairs.

 

If this is going to be your fiest loan interest rate will be high. Insurance might not be too bad. I pay $50 for full coverage but have $1000 deductible.

 

too many variables. just call around your area and talk to some agents, go from there. they're the only ones who can really tell you how much it'll be. good luck.

 

Im a student too in your exact same situation, except Im a year older. Just started fourth semester.

My insurance is about $140 a month, full coverage, State Farm. Safe driver discount, no tickets.