299,999+ Mile Club

double post

 

I'm not sure what this means. Can you translate that one for me?

 

If you are going to drive so many miles so that the car will reach the end of its useful life in a two-year period, it clearly does not make sense to finance the car over six years. Even worse is the 12.99% interest rate which implies a very bad credit score.

If you need to finance the car purchase, you need to buy a car that is priced low enough so that you can pay it off before its useful life is over. So if you are going to wear out a car in two years you need to complete paying for it in two years.

Yes, you should drive the current Prius until it dies, I hope it makes 430K miles. When it does die, you might be better off buying a 3 year old used car so that much of the depreciation hit has already been taken by the first owner. Good luck.

12.99% Annual Percentage Rate, $5K down payment.

 

That is a terrible offer. It works out to borrowing $30,594.71 BEFORE your down payment, $35594.71 including the down payment. If you subtract the pay-off, they are receiving your current car and $23994.71 and a nasty interest rate for the '11. If you figure the trade-in value covers car delivery and dealer crapola, they offered you MSRP+ at a nasty interest rate. I cannot say I am surprised though, and I doubt any other dealer will offer anything better.

Dealers have the upper hand at the moment, and you have a car running well that you still owe $11,600 on. Seems like an easy choice to me.

2fasforu: You can download a simple financial calculator and get these numbers yourself. You really do not want to be in a position of not knowing if the dealer is screwing you. Patrick's advice is spot on: A year of current payments and the $5k down payment applied to your car loan will have it paid off. Then you can buy a lightly used Prius for ~ 15k at a much lower interest rate with payments of about $450 for 3 years, instead of $614 for 6 years. That will keep you out of the trap of ever increasing negative equity.

Honestly guy, you are playing with fire. At the moment your negative equity has taken away all bargaining power on price, and set you up for a 12.99 interest rate. If you do another cycle like you are considering, in two years your negative equity might be so high you CANNOT finance another car. Without a car, no work right ? Below is the payoff schedule out to 43 months of the 60 month contract for the terms you were offered. Notice that after two years of payments you still owe almost $23,000 on the car.



Sorry for the off-topic everybody. 2fasforU, if you want to discuss this further please start a new thread.

 

I think the 12.99 is more from the fact that the trade-in is severely upside-down. It's just a way to make the numbers work out for the dealer without any particular item sounding too egregious to the buyer.

Another aspect of this is that you are in the latter stages of the loan on the '09, so a larger fraction of your current payment goes for principal as opposed to a new loan. Go another year and you'll be in better financial shape. I personally think you could go 1 million miles with anywhere from zero to two major component failures (engine, trans, battery)

 

I don't want to keep it going. Although I was a little excited about buying a new car I wanted to show that this dealership tried to get me to pay 44000 for a prius that only cost 26000 (after trade roll over 5000 plus 27500 for prius plus 5000 down payment plus taxes and then try to it me with 12.99 with a credit score of 667 for a total after 72 months comes out to 49500.) Anyway I appreciate all feedback since I began posting.

 

You can approximately sum up the offer like this: Dealer takes car and $5000 from you, and offers $6500 trade-in allowance. Then dealer offers 12.99 apr financing for new car at MSRP plus current debt.

As I said earlier, your car is not worth $5500 let alone $6500. You know it, the dealer knows it, and the rest of the story is smoke and mirrors.

 

OK here we go. Prius has and is still doing me good. I had my mind set on the new prius V wagon, since the disaster in Japan happened I said there is no way they are going to produce unless they transfer everything to the U.S. Therefore I said I will settle for a 2011, at least if they do produce I know I can at least get 3 good years, especially if I could get close to what I am paying now. So it is still a possibility of getting one, however I was a little surprised that the dealership I went to tried to profit 20,000 from me. On sunday I stopped by toyota in palm beach, fl and they had about 6 09 and 08 prius v all going for about 21,000 with about 30,000 miles on them most likely lease returns, I will keep my options open but at least for now 430000 here i come. Here is something funny I said if the prius doesnt work out maybe I might try the honda hybrid and dont u know they to are produce in Japan, oh well.

 

2008 & 2009's for $21,000? Wow, that still seems pretty high. I picked up an '09 with 52K for $16,000. If you're driving these cars as throw-away cars (2-3 year lifespans), you'd be better off picking up an older model in the Gen II class with low miles. Offering you $6500 for a trade-in is only offsetting what you're paying later, as someone else noted. And like others have mentioned, your car is likely in good shape (other than the high miles), why not just drive her until she's completely pooped? You can get low-mile batteries from a totaled car for relatively cheap these days, and not sure what a motor costs to replace, but it's gotta be a whole lot cheaper than a new $40,000 car. The only major component left is the transmission, and the thing is so simplistic (abou the size of a popcan), it can't cost as much as a new transmission in other cars. Again, you could find a low mile one from a totaled car. Hell, look around, you might be able to buy a salvaged title car for 1/2 of what you could get all 3 of them for new. There really aren't many Prii with the kind of miles you have on yours, so who knows- the damn thing could go for 2 million miles. Most vehicles that even MAKE it to 340,000 miles have had engine rebuilds, transmissions replaced, etc. You've had relatively nothing done to it yet.

Your car is still "new" on the outside, I guess I can't imagine why you would want to get rid of it, if 1.) there's nothing wrong with it. 2.) You're still paying for it, and 3.) you could fix issues that come up for cheaper than you can buy a whole new car. Sure you may have a little extra expense for a rental while this one's in the shop, but it sure isn't going to come near your monthly car payment. Not to mention, as someone else stated, if you're planning on going through these cars every 2-3 years, you'll never pay them off. If this car you want to buy now lasts 3 years, you'll still owe $18,000 on it. By the end of your 4th car, you'll have a $100,000 car payment on a junk car, with all of the cumulative loans rolling over.

 

Just to clarify, the Prius has a hybrid transaxle that contains the two motor-generators. I would characterize it as the single-most expensive possible repair, whether new ($4,000) or used ($2,000).

 

Ack! Double post

 

Right you are. I should have said motorS.

 

345000 today. Had to replace 12v battery today. Under warranty so free.

 

2 years and a couple of weeks. But it had about 170,000 miles on it. The original battery made it to 175,000.

 

I am assuming this is the OEM battery. Do they come with 3 year warranty?

 

No, sorry if i wasnt clear. I replaced the oem with an Autozone Gold 51 series battery just over two years ago. I took it in yesterday to warranty it out and they told me it was a free replacement, so either the guy fudged the date to make it free, or the gold has a 3 year free replacement.