Before I bought my Acura, I purchased an A4.

The sticker price was $30,400.

I paid $31,100 in cash for it OTD.

I'm just curious:

1. How much money did the dealer make off of me?
2. How much money did I save by doing this as opposed to putting $10k down, and financing for 4 years at, say...6%, with a pre-tax purchase price of, let's say $29k?

I want to see what you all say about #1, and what figures you come up with for #2.

 

To answer #1 I think you need to list year, model, options. Offhand I could only guess they made $2-3,000.

#2 is easy to calculate but I'm to lazy right now.

 

can't help you specifically, i just dont have enough experience with these things yet...

but i was just discussing #2 with my brother, an accountant/econ double major, today:
if someone has just enough money to buy a car cash, why not just lease it to keep money in the bank during all the years of the lease?? but this way, one would obviously end up spending more on the car b/c of leasing it, but will always have money in the bank at any given time if anything were to happen....


so since im curious about that too, and you are a real world example, im hoping someone chimes in here.

 

1. 2003 1.8T/MT5. No HID's, no navigation. I did get the sport option (wheels/suspension). Leather. Quattro.

2. That is why I posted this thread, lol.

 

Keeping money in the bank, or having a cash reserve anywhere else is a great position to be in. You're brother's right in that regard.

But, I didn't want to end up paying more than I had to, and it was better to live without a car note.

 

I have NO clue why you wanna know this information 6 years later...

Its late but ill give it a go.

1. I gotta find invoice price of a new 2003 A4 with your options. Im not that bored to do that. Even if you paid invoice, the dealer still makes money off your sale from their dealer holdbacks. Although if i recall from my 04 purchase, there was about $2500 difference between MSRP and Invoice. If thats the case then you paid about 1k over invoice. Guessing.

2. If you paid $31,100 OTD, put 10k down and then financed $21,100 at 6% then you would have paid an extra $2660 in interest over 48 months.

 

why hyung why??

getting a new car!?

 

^
Lol. No, I was just bored, and this just popped into my head?

I'm not buying a new car.

 

princely bug, actually above i wasn't clear: i was the one arguing to lease it instead and keep money in the bank. my brother was the one thinking just like you that its better to pay it all out cash in the first place than to spend more in the long run.

he agrees you saved about $2500 in 4 years so it is worth it.

he looked at his "future value of a dollar" chart and that ~$2500 is basically worth ~$2600+ after the four years.

i say that if you are one of the few in this country with the means to buy a nice car cash: go for it, dont look back, count you savings, and enjoy the car.

 

^
I agree. Unfortunately, that was my first and probably last time I'll be able to do that.