8 year car loan

Sounds like a stupid thing to me. All that interest. And for about 7 1/2 years, it costs more to repay the loan than the car is worth.

Realistically if you can't afford the payments on the car at 48 months or less then you can't afford the car. It's really that simple.

Simply pathetic to go into hock for a car that long. Better plan on keeping it awhile otherwise you can get in real deep! If it is wrecked, the insurance company is only obligated to pay for the current value of the car, not what the poor sucker owes in financing. Better take a step back and see if they really need that $35,000 monster truck or $40,000 suv. John

Or even that $10,000 econ box.

Perhaps that used car is a better deal after all.

Jeff

Just think in a few years there may be a 30 year loan! Your kida can pay it off after you kick the bucket!

Ford has a special promo here in the NY metro area for the Explorer. 0% financing for 6 years. I don't know if its the same nationwide but just thought I pass this along.

Cars today hold up much better than they did in the past. I see many 10+ year old cars that are in very good condition. Before the mid 80's, a 10- year old car would probably be a rattling, leaky rust bucket. Today, even with minimal or no maintenance, a car can hold up pretty well. I do worry about the last few years, with automakers squeezing suppliers to cut prices. Quality and durability will be one of the first things to go. Even computer modeling to design parts 'just enough' to hold up during the warranty doesn't help.

I've read articles over the years showing that the average life of a car, and how long people hold onto their own cars, keeps hitting records every year. Found one link here. Shows it's nearly 9 years now:

Lets see.. My father owns a 1986 Ford Ranger with 350k miles on it.. He's replaced a water pump, and his universal twice. No other mechanical problems, he drives it to work every day. It's just now getting to the point where he has to baby it to keep it running.

My grandfather owned a 1976 Ford F150 Ranger, that he bought new, and kept it until 1997, when sold it outright for $1500US cash, then bought a new

My folks also bought a 1984 Crown Vic, drove it off the showroom floor, and kept it until 1997, traded it for a used 1995 Thunderbird, for $15,000US which began developing problems within months, so they sold it for $13kUS, and bought a little right-hand-drive Suburu wagon (my mother was a mail carrier). Me, on the other hand, I go through cars like a hot knife through butter :/ (in 93, they bought a Probe for me, which had tranny problems, kept it until 96, when I traded it in on a 1991 Mazda MX6.. kept it until 2001, when it caught fire, bought the 1993 Taurus LX 3.8L for 2k, a year later it started having tranny problems, then I bought a 1995 Rodeo last year, and kept the Taurus as a backup vehicle (I was delivering newspapers with it, thats pretty hard on transmissions, especially front- wheel-drive, as most of my route was dirt roads) Got married in March, my wife didn't have anything to drive, so she now drives the Rodeo, and I'm driving the clunker of a Taurus, but I wouldn't trade it for anything...

Chuck

Same deal here in the Philly area for leftover 2003 Taurus's.