Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
Your example of a $40k earning only having $20k to spend on a vehicle seems silly to me. I've never even spent $20k on a vehicle, and I've had nice vehicles.
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It's the 50% rule that I did not make up.
The most I've ever spent on a car was the Avalon for $15,000, and I make around $45k. I don't think I'd ever spend more than $20,000 on a car, and that's just going by my circumstances, not the rule.
I'm still not sure what an economy car actually is.
Looking at 5-year-old Toyota Yaris' and Honda Fits with less than 60k miles on Autotrader in a 300 mile radius of my zip code with the setting starting with cheapest gets me $15,595 and up, about the same as I paid for the Avalon.
The cheapest Nissan Versa with manual transmission (because I don't trust Nissan automatics) is $15,999 with those same search catagories, not much less than a brand new one.
If I fly to Florida I might get one of these cars for $12,000.
But if the calculations of Edmunds are anything to go by, a brand new Corolla hybrid might be cheaper in the long run.
Another question that runs through my head is, do I sell the Avalon now while it's still worth over $10k, or do I wait 3 years later when it has 200k on it, and pop in a $5k hybrid battery when that dies and keep going in a 14-year-old car with over 200k on it?