Not having a car payment

[Sonnenwende]

Is it considered extreme in your family and/or social circle not to have a car payment?

[frugalfranny]

No, it is considered "lucky"..........then their next question is:

How old is your car?

Don't think I know anyone that doesn't have one.

[flashyMcGee]

Not with my family since my dad has been in the car business forever. I've never carried a car payment and have always paid in cash. Among my friends, yes.

[greekislandgirl]

It's relatively normal around here to have a car payment. We have one. I can't WAIT til it's paid off, and I hope our car lasts a LONG time after that. Like 15 years. We still have about 3.5 more years to go on the payments

My dad owned at least 15 cars over the years I lived at home (he collected antique cars) and never paid a single car payment, always paid in cash.

[grneyegrl]

yes and no.. my bff paid cash for her suv,it was new..her mother pays cash for hers too.. other r enivious but i see how she saves every day by couponing,not buying stuff and shopping for the best deal..

i have a car payment brcause i totaled my car and didnt have a chance to save enough but i got my loan from a credit union.

[Sonnenwende]

The reason I ask is because this is the part of the debt free lifestyle people understand the least in my parts. A car payment seems to be a fact of life as much as the sun comes up tomorrow. Even among people who paid off their cars, there is the thought that when the car finally dies, they will go straight back to the car lot and finance another vehicle. The idea of buying something in cash...well might as well told them the sun is green.

The only people that really understand our lifestyle choice is my sister and BIL who are FPU facilitators and only buy vehicles in cash. :/

[khaski]

Hhhhmmm...I think I have one friend who paid off her car 1-2 years ago and still drives it- but I know they plan to finance another one shortly. I have one set of friends who are generally frugal, always bought semi-clunkers with cash, but with the little ones getting older now she went back to work and now they have.....a car payment, on their second car, a brand new Rav4. Another couple we know 'owns' their car, in that they paid the dealer cash in full....but they borrowed the cash from her parents!! So, most people I know finance one way or another, at best drive their paid off car another few years before financing another car with little down payment.

We paid off hubby's subaru last year, my mini van was on it's way out mechanically, so I bought an '03 minivan with about 72k miles on it, cash, asfter having a mechanic look at it. Funny thing is, I kind of hate the thing now, it's got some aggravating quirks, truth be told I'd like to set the thing on fire.....but it's a whole lot easier to swallow without payments following me around! My issues with it aren't mechanical, more convenience- I misshaving a 'fob' to auto open doors more than I thought I would, It takes FOREVER to defrost the darn thing, the sliding doors freeze shut easily in the winter....irritations, not the end of the world. I plan to drive it another 1.5 years or so, then buy a 2-4 year old van, with cash. We have stepped off the payment cylce and refuse to hop back on, even if it means driving 'lesser' vehicles. We have been saving, saving, saving, when we can, as much as we can, in our 'new car fund'. hubby's car shuld last him another 4-5 years, then it'll be his turn.NOT the norm around here to buy outright!

[monkeywrangler71]

I have no idea whether or not anyone in my family or social circle has a car payment. It seems a strange thing to come up in conversation. Our car is 10 years old, so it's pretty obvious that it's paid for, no one has ever commented on it.

[lparker]

khaski - can't help with the fob, but you can get some silicone spray for the door gaskets.

No car payment here (now). Got a '98 Durango with 76k on it in July, took $2000 from my heloc and $3500 cash to pay for it.. The heloc is payed down lower than it was in July (it's my snowball target).

[Sonnenwende]

I have no idea whether or not anyone in my family or social circle has a car payment. It seems a strange thing to come up in conversation. Our car is 10 years old, so it's pretty obvious that it's paid for, no one has ever commented on it.

The whole reason I made this thread is because of someone I know announced on FB yesterday that they were going to finance a car. I was disappointed because this person seemed like they were on the finance free wagon before, but seems to have fallen off. My husband then said we have an extreme position on this particular issue.

[Contrary Housewife]

Extreme, no. Unusual, maybe. I believe everyone I know has a car payment, a house payment, and credit card payments and accepts that as a fact of life. Or they drive the kind of beater you would only buy with cash. That we paid cash for our car two years ago raised a few eyebrows and earned us a few murmured comments about how great that was.

I think a lot of people secretly admit to themselves "if they could just get it together they could be paying cash too". It's actually committing to frugality where they fail.

[mateosbaby]

It's weird in my family, except for my dad. He's the only one on both sides of our family that has never had a car payment. Friends, too, as far as we know. It's just "normal" in America to have a car payment unless you're between cars, in which case you'll start over with the next car.

Next year, as soon as Christmas is over, we plan to start saving up for our next vehicle. We know this one is getting to be a pain in the neck with repairs and things that just suddenly "go wrong." Right now our automatic door locks don't work. Again. And our oil light keeps going on, for more than a year, for no apparent reason. We have a vehicle that is notorious for transmission breakdowns at a certain mileage, and we're not that far from it. Ugh.... Sure hope we can save up enough in time!

[krbshappy71]

I'd say its "acceptable" in my general circle to have a car payment although my parents paid cash for the last 2 brand new cars they paid for they have also had new cars with payments, used cars with payments, in general it has seemed normal to have a car payment in our family.

For awhile there I was preaching to everyone about "sell the car drive a beater!" but then panicked when my Honda started having problems and hit 205k miles, so I turned around, slunk off, and bought a used car on financing. Greebo had advised me when I sold my last car to then sock some of that previously-car-payment-money into a "next used car fund" and I didn't, so pretty much ended back into the same situation I was in before.

You can preach and teach as a friend but that's about all you can do for someone, the rest they have to do themselves. I can't speak for your friend but I agree its a "falling off the wagon" feeling when I do things like that. No one can save me or help me, I have to do it myself.

[dancemommy]

Not extreme or unusual. We know plenty of people with car payments and plenty without. Most are responsible with their money so I don't judge. We have our first car payment in 10 years again and I'm good with that...it was better than having a car that is not dependable. Sure, I'd love to have it paid off, but I have other priorities that take precedence right now.

[MomToTwoBoys]

I don't think anyone in the family has a car payment. Everyone from us to my mother to FIL/MIL, BIL/SIL don't have car payments. Everyone pays cash for their cars.