My husband and I have always fallen into great used vehicles from family at outrageously good prices (never more than $2500, and our last one was $1000 and lasted 3 years).
For the first time, our vehicle has died unexpectedly while we're just starting to save for the next one (medical bills wiped out our savings), and this time, there's no more used deals from family on the horizon.
We have no desire to make unending monthly payments, get sucked into a lease, or aim for new and fancy. But we do need a reliable vehicle (a van is almost required for my job), and we know that there is a tipping point where buying TOO cheap just means a ton of money in repairs.
We simply can't spend more than $2500 in cash right now. So it's between a sub-$2000 "get us through the winter" vehicle, or some kind of financing, which we are completely unfamiliar with.
Is it better to get a bank loan than a car place loan? (are they called different things?) Would it be completely insane to put it on a no-interest for 9 months CC?
Also, any tips on how to used car shop? We've always had family offer us vehicles and never had to deal with overwhelming amounts of craigslist / FB marketplace ads. :( We don't "know" vehicles at all and wouldn't know if certain ones are better or worse!
Ultimately, our goal was to save up $5000 - $7000 or so and spend that. I'm reasonably certain that we would have had that money saved by next fall, so I feel we could "pay off" that much by then, too- but we don't want to drown in interest in the meantime!
Any advice?
December 19, 2017 at 01:32PM
