The longest day

I could pay for my Prime when it gets here, but I will be financing it.

Someone I know very well bought one of those extremely unreliable Jeep small SUV's that was a lemon from day one. The whole dash panel went out after less than 500 miles, and the Jeep dealer couldn't get the parts to fix it. Jeep themselves couldn't get it either as all the parts they had went into new cars. Well, this person paid with cash, and since Jeep decided that they couldn't fix it, the jeep dealership had to buy it back, well, that didn't go so well, it took a long time. (months)

I'm in a little better shape financially than this person, and it really wouldn't hurt me much if I had to wait, the whole experience just left a bad taste in my mouth and I want to avoid the possibility. At least with a loan, you have a little more leverage and not so much out of pocket just sitting there if your car is that bad.

 

Since the Prime is a Toyota you should not have any of the concerns of the Jeep. I had one top of the line Chrysler product that was nothing but trouble. That taught me that you get what you pay for.

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Hang in there...it'll be worth the wait! We just got word that ours should be here 2nd week of June. We'll believe when we lay eyes on it.

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I agree, I had a '75 Celica (sold @ 150k miles), a '99 Solara that my son is still driving at 380k and a 2012 v (sold at 125k). And my Prime, which is the best of the four or any car I've ever owned.

 

I agree, it's not likely for a toyota to be that bad, but still, seeing someone bitten, twice shy.

 

Not sure how having a loan would help in that situation. The dealer will have already received payment in full from the bank, even if it's financed through the dealer. The bank meanwhile couldn't care less if you have problems with the car, their only concern is that you keep making the payments on time. So it's not like you can stop making payments if the dealer doesn't fix it. If you do the bank will repo the car, then the full unpaid loan amount will be immediately due, plus bank charges and repo fees, less whatever trivial amount they sell the car for at auction.

Your only recourse for a lemon would be legal action, which would be true whether you paid cash or financed.

The more common argument for financing even when you could pay cash, which you may be alluding to when you say being less out of pocket, is avoiding reducing your cash reserves in case you had an unrelated financial emergency. But that would be true even if the car runs like a top with no problems. It's the same reason that retirees are sometimes advised not to pay off their home mortgage if that will leave them with low cash reserves.

But you pay for that insurance via interest payments. So ideally you get the shortest loan term possible that will give you the lowest interest rate, and even then start making extra payments early on which will reduce the total amount of interest paid. A lot of people don't realize that making early payments on a loan has a much greater impact than paying a loan off early in the final months, when you are mostly paying principal anyway.

 

Exactly, you're not out of that cash until the dealer buys it back, so buying a new replacement car is not delayed -- it's just a cash flow problem. Legal action, if needed, takes even more time. Paying a bit for the "insurance" is acceptable to me, and I'd for sure be paying it off early in any case.

Well, when my Prime gets here I'll make that decision, but if the APR on the loan is higher than I think it's going to be, well, that does change a few things.

 

Some states, such as California have "Lemon Laws", which force dealers to take back cars that are deemed "unrepairable" (as defined in the law).

 

Our "other car" is an SUV (mainly for pulling a small RV). At one point, it was a Dodge Durango, and on every visit to the service department, we could count on $400-$500 repairs. Some sensor went out, some actuator was failing, always something. Our current SUV is a Honda Pilot, and we have had no trouble with it, and all visits to the service department have been only for routine scheduled items.

 

I think our state is one of them, it only made sure they'd get their money back, but no promise on how long it would take...

 

Or, as I like to say: "I'll believe it when it becomes past tense!"

 

Congratulations! I was wondering because I just did an Autotrader search and a blue magnetism premium showed up at Diehl. How's it been so far?

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Congrats!
Pics, or it didn't happen!

 

Congrats! Let the fun begin.

 

Yay, love the avatar!

 

Cool! I missed that avatar change.
Enjoy a holiday weekend getting acquainted with your new friend!

 

Awesome pics!

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