As for the debt/credit issues, Were pretty debt free, Compared to most americans were very debt free.. we do use credit, however I cant remember that last time we didn't pay of a debt early... and we have assets up the wazoo.. real estate in multiple states One property totally debt free the other with under 80k owed, multiple RV's, motorcycles, 2005 truck paid for in full way before scheduled..
Literally I could plop down a the title for the RV and the truck for collateral and get 30k to play with, get a fully loaded Prius if i wanted to.. but as I stated before that just wont pay off.. were looking at the best choice for the lowest cash to utilize this clunkers program.. we were planning on getting a high mpg car to replace the mini van in the future.. like 1 year out , this just gave us the boost to do it now if we can get a new car for the price of a 2 year old car.. seems like a no brainer..
As with hypermileing its making the best with what you have to work with.. and this is the same case, We want to get the best car for the minimum investment..
Right now our two top choices are the Honda Fit and the Nissan Versa.. both have the largest interior space... after all we are replacing a 7 seat minivan.. we never use the 3rd row, but would like as much space as we can get. The Yaris is nice car but its small by comparison..
As for the Hyundai and Rio offerings.. As I stated before we had a 2002 Accent 2 door, I sold it to a buddy when we had our son( not infant friendly) My friend racks up 25k+ a year, still running strong and he's well over 130k now.. The recent offerings from Hyunda are not the like there old ones.. I know they used to be really bad.. Im not scared of Hyundai.. as for Kia.. don't really know but there are owned by Hyundai.
As for negotiation we are going to negotiate the price no matter what car we get, I know exactly what they pay for the cars, including the holdbacks they get from the manufacture. With haggling and shopping the field, I plan to walk out of there paying less than MSRP including the destination tax and title fees. So about 1000 under MSRP.
Do you think a stingy hyper-miler who challenges them selfs to save a few cents in gas would do anything else
Allot of the manufactures incentives expire at the end of this month.. 6 days , well see what they offer up for this next quarter.. the quarter that the clunker program covers.. We have heard some murmuring of them plugging the program.. However I don't know how many people are going to qualify , 18mpg average is SUVs, trucks, and a few minivans, and how many of those people are going to give up a truck, or 4wd to take advantage of the program.. And then how many of those people that would like to do it actually could do it.. with the economic issues ect.. I know a couple people that there car would qualify and they need a better car and would love to do it , but they are either not working or have a bankruptcy or a foreclosure and HUGE amounts of debt already.
It will be interesting to see what people do, gas isnt expensive again.. if gas were $4 I could see people downsizing.. at $2.60 people are going to drive there SUVs..