Tunaboy

Couldn't agree with you more when I got my 99 TL about a year and a half ago paid up front with green.

cdkruaya

In response to you guys that are 23 years old and younger. typing "paid for" "paid mine off" in this forum leads me to believe that you are full of shit. Unless you got a job right after highschool and lived at home and saved every check without spending a dime could you afford a TL. When you parents tranfer large sums of cash from their accounts into your account, it does not count for you buying it.

Just my .02 cents, Especially you people in here still in your teens, it is impossible for you guys to have saved that much money.

respectfully,

Playa hater that went to college for six years so that he could "afford" this car and a big house.

Saintor

I tend to agree here. I paid off my house. Then I bought a condo that I rent and it basically pays itself. Then what do you do with the money that was allowed for mortgage? You buy a TL! Of course, one could argue that the interest rate is higher on a car, but the point is that before putting 35K$ on a car, one should get serious assets FIRST.

JetJock

I wish MOMMY bought me a new car too!!!

Perziankabob

i'm 19...i paid for my 1993 acura legend when i got my licence in 2001 (bought it from my parents for 4K..i loved it so much). and when i turned 18 i purchased a 2002 TL in cash. i run a series of websites that average a profit in $600-1500 a day. i've been doing this for some time now. i pay for my college, insurance, and any other bills by myself. only thing i don't pay for is the roof over my head (thank God).

i didn't purchase the TL until i had the amount for the TL and half of the value in my personal account.

it's very possible for people under 23 these days to have enough money saved up to purchase a car like these by them selves with out mom and dad's help. though i'm not going to rely on this business for the rest of my life. i'm a political science student transfering to ucla next year, and plan on pursuing a future in law. i thank God every day that i'm so fortunate so far.

Edit: oh yeah i know there's a difference between affording a car and affording to buy a car. i maintain my cars. also to an above post...i realize real estate is a better investment now, and i wish someone was around to tell me that real estate was such a booming market before i purchased the TL, but i guess you live and learn.

JohnDoe2

Borrowing money to buy a luxury car is an indication you can't really afford a luxury car. You would be hurting yourself financially.

Pot80h

In response to cdkruaya's post, I have to say that this REALLY touches a nerve. It is absolutely possible for people under the age of 25 to pay for a car like the TL in cash. And how they do that is their business. If their parents bought them a car as nice as the TL, then more power to them! I bought a condo at the age of 21, and sold it 2 years later for a 100% increase - a complete fluke, I might add!

Personally, I think fiscal responsibility and investing should be taught at school. When I left high school, I didn't even know how to run a bank account. I had to learn about investing myself, and then relearn everything when we moved to the States. Thankfully, I seem to have done OK (I got a gold star from my financial advisor!).

RIght now, I'm looking at my options for getting my TL when the 05's come out. After years of leasing, we're working towards no car payments. We bought a $35K Ram in December, putting $20K cash down (from my husband's severance pay) and financing the rest at about 3%. We've been loading the payments ($1K per month) and now have about $7 left. But as the interest rates have gone up, we might revert to the standard payment and pay more off the TL. It's sooo much fun

Ooopsie! I mean $7K left!

Nodoze2004

Every dealership my wife has worked for (roughly 10) would not accept CC's for anything other than a downpayment, and even then they were reluctant. If your dealer excepted CC for full payment I am VERY surprised as they face at a minimum a 3% transaction fee.

Assuming you got it at or near list, that is rouhly 1000.00 just to process the transaction. Not saying it didn't happen, just seems a little curious.

Also what type of MC has a 35,000 limit?? I have seen no limit Amexaccounts, but was under the impression that MC limits were much lower (typically in the 10-12 range). If you have a 35000 limit MC you must make well in excess of 250 per year!!

jdone

I 95% agree with this. I would make exception for those times when the borrowed money is very cheap and you are getting a better return on investment elsewhere. For instance, if the car maker lends you money at 2.9% it would be silly to sell a bond or stock paying 5% just to pay cash for the car. Having said that, I always pay cash for cars-I just don't want to bother with making payments for anything. Don't even have a mortgage on the house.

Saintor

Naaah. It is more related to income and it has to be balanced with rest. That's all.

Formula 350

Don't get involved with some of these people who think young people are all living off the tit of their parents... As the sale of Google shows, you can become a BILLIONAIRE when you are young if the timing is right and you are in the right place at the right time. It was not that way when I was young, but isn't the American way great.

Now, if you ARE living off you parents, get off your lazy ass and get out and earn your own way!!!

:gheywave:

92NSX

That is a pretty good wage.....
if I didn't have to pay for that I would be able to buy my TL cash too!!

ibDursty

Man, if I had a website that was bringing down $300,000+ per year... the hell with school, LOL. What kinda website do you have that's making that much money? (must be porn related, LOL).

strauch

classifying the tl as a "luxury car" is a good indication that you don't have as much money as you like to portray.

strauch

also i am confused as to why you guys are refering leasing to a stupid decisicion. In a lot of instances leasing is a better value as long as you can avoid a large non-refundable drive off deposit.

If my uncle leases, leasing is a good idea.

1SICKLEX

strauch

so you grossed 22k a year and bought a 32k car cash? talk about dedication.

TLud

I didn't buy the TL, but bought another car for just over $40k, so what I have to say still applies. I paid half down in cash on my car. Can I afford this car? Yes, my required monthly payments are less than 8% of my salary (although like someone else said earlier, I'm overpaying my payments). Here's why I financed:

1. To establish credit for when I start buying real estate: Finishing college and law school, I had absolutely no credit. I paid for my beater school cars in cash. It would be tough for me to get a loan otherwise.

2. To leave myself some liquid assets in case of an emergency.

3. Financed my car at 1.9%. If you can't make more than 1.9% investing right now, you have no business touching money.

There are a lot of ridiculous generalizations being thrown around in this thread. First, there's no reason why, in today's world, a young person couldn't pay cash (their own) for a $35k car. Granted, I'm sure some of the young people here received some help from their parents, but it sounds like there's a lot of jealousy mixed in with the disbelief. Second, whether or not you pay cash has nothing to do with whether or not you can afford the car. I'm not a big fan of debt myself, but if handled responsibly, it can be a tool to increase overall wealth.

TXTL

Paid cash! Like my tax escrow on the house. I set aside cash on a monthly basis to fund the next car. I hate payments.

04 TL - Paid off
03 Tahoe - Paid off
New Home - Paid off

I'm feel so free!!!

1SICKLEX

You know, I find it really weird the same people complaining about price and value etc etc about a car and that is the reason you buy an Acura always have shit paid for and 800 rating credit, no money issues, the young guys kill me with their stories, no one has any kind of payment.

Just an observation. The way some of ya'll talk, why no Ferrari or S65????

PoochaKannInc

The lack of punctuation makes me wonder about what you just said.

But I "think" I agree with you. Good point.

fla-tls

I dropped $20k cash on mine when I bought it. The rest was paid for in less than a year. My cash flow calulations showed that it would be a better investment to buy the car if I planned on owning it for 5 years (my normal car use period) than to lease. So.... that's my plan.

The last several years I have seen no car payments. I must say that having no car payment ROCKS!

cblackburn

I paid for all but 10k in cash. I put the remaining 10k on a 0% credit card. The card stays 0% until Feb2005. I liked the added flexibilty of being able to extend the benefits w/o paying any interest at all. Come Feb2005, I should still have around $8000'ish to pay, so at that point I will finish paying it off in one lump some.

It's not worth it to me to pay it off all at once when I can milk the 0% interest. After all, I've got a house payment ($1000/month although I pay $500 extra/month) and you never know what other expenses may pop up such as repairs, family emergencies, vacations, etc.

Currently, I saving for an engagement ring too. Let the expenses begin!

KilroyR1

If you look at the people who paid for their car in full, most are in places that have a high cost of living. As the cost of living is high, we get paid more than someone from, say, Arkansas. However, many items are no more expensive in these areas, like cars, milk and shoes. As such, we generally have more income available for discreationary items.

I wrote the largest check of my life for the TL and sometimes think I over-bought.

Love the car though.

Don

ndabunka

[QUOTE=WDP-Acura TL]Who paid for their TL in full, I did its awesome not to have a car note.

You should also pay for your Country Club home and you beach house second home with cash also. Really makes you realize that you have the world by the horns. Next thing your going to ask is what we all do for a living, right? Go play with the other children please!

ndabunka

Your uncle is heading towards the bridge...Go for it... Leasing ONLY makes sense if you can write it off as a business expense. Otherwise your just RENTING a car for the period. Do you also RENT your house? Of course NOT! Yea, leasing makes sense...

ndabunka

You should also pay cash for your Country Club home and your beach house. Really makes you realize that you have the world by the horns. Next thing your going to ask is what we all do for a living, right? Go play with the other children please!

strauch

ok..

and thats the reason i feel leasing is smart. with all these "big ballers" in here i figured most were owners of a business seeing as how they can apparently drop 33k at once on a car. or maybe their stories are just bs. and if thats the case we have some pretty smart business owners on our hands.....

ndabunka

95% are BS or "daddy's money" types. Now I remember why I don't visit this site much anymore....

TXTL

Many people have different ways of dealing with finances. When I graudated college, I was 60K in debt. Over the years, I paid off this debt. I vowed never to be in debt again (credit cards, car, etc...) The only debt I allowed myself and my family to carry was the mortgage. I feel I got lucky on a real estate deal which allowed me to purchase a new home cash. I have also accumilated 4 rental properites over the past 15 years. Note that I never spent one dollar of the profits. I rolled all profits back into paying off the mortgages. All 4 rentals are free and clear. The rental net profits plus my 9-5 job allows me and my family the freedom to purchase things in cash.....

cblackburn

Agreed. My dad drilled into all of his kids about how debt is evil.... how it can ruin you before you know it (blah blah blah). As a result, I'm paranoid over debt, heh. When I first got my house a while back, it was for 30 years at 7 7/8%. (at the time, that was actually a good deal). However.. I then refi'd to get 5% and 15 years. At my current rate, the house should be paid off in 12 years. I want to kill that debt ASAP ( while still having some in reserve of course). I hope to get into the rental property game as well.

Financing the car was never an option, regardless of the low interest rate. If I can't afford it, then I don't buy it. However, my girl on the other hand has about 30k of debt (school loans and a car). that's already driving me nuts.

fla-tls

You can't universally say that. Some higher end cars have very attractive lease packages because the car is not anticipated to depreciate much.

You have to run a NPV analysis comparing the two scenarios. In my case, leasing the TL would have made very good sense if I only wanted to have it for a short period of time (like 3 years). Once the lease was up, the cost to obtain a new leased vehicle made enough difference to make leasing not attractive.

jdone

I live in Kentucky and I always pay cash for cars and everything else-I don't even have a mortgage on my house. I enjoy collecting interest a lot more than I like paying it.

dseag2

TL paid in full. QX4 leased. This has everything to do with depreciation.

te3point5

Yes, but if you get a low finance rate, lets say 2%, and you have an investment that will make you 4%, you can choose to finance, then take the large sum you would have paid in full with, invest it, then make out with a 2% gain

utvol9903

While I did not buy my car in full I did put a large percentage down and will be paying off the rest as soon as possible.
Even with low interest rates it is always best to pay for everything in cash. Not having payments is a great way to live. Listen to a radio show named the Dave Ramsey show and he will explain why it is never a good idea to borrow money no matter what interest rate you are getting.

ARX-01b

iTrader: (1)

My sister bought mine for me. That's even better than paying cash

Spryster

I paid cash (check) for my 2004 TL... It is sweet, no car note

Spryster

Paid cash for my ride

jdone

I was about to say something mean about Floyd's Knobs, Indiana until I remembered my mom lives there.