If you wanted to buy a brand new car this weekend, could you?

[hunter]

Me, no.

I don't have the cash and a dealer who saw my credit report would probably send me to the used car place in a rough part of town; the one owned by his money-laundering loan-sharking brother-in-law.

24 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Yes, no problem.
	14 (58%)
	Yes, I know this lottery ticket I just bought is a winner!
	2 (8%)
	Little Tikes Cozy Coupes and Hot Wheels are awesome.
	8 (33%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[Warpy]

1. I got very, very lucky

because my dad surprised me with enough money to live well on after his death.

My credit rating is in the toilet (something I cultivated to cut down on the junk mail) but I can afford to write a check if it's not too big. In other words, I drive a Kia instead of a Porsche.

Before my surprise, my transportation was mistaken for a rez vehicle more than once and was old enough to vote when I turned it in. I've always driven junkers and tuna wagons.

[malaise]

3. We sold my nine year old Corolla and replaced it with a 2013 Corolla

last month.
We're not into high end cars.

[Warpy]

37. Third world cars were great when I was working

and parking in hospital parking lots. Every couple of weeks I'd go out and find a new dent from some careless twit added to the collection. It was either that or park a mile or so away and hope nervous residents didn't get it towed just because.

My little Kia is zippy and fun to drive and gets me where I need to go. It was even comfortable the year I made it up to Taos for the Wool Fiesta. It also gets 40+ on the highway.

I can't imagine buying a tank, er, SUV. It's just so unnecessary.

[malaise]

39. LOL

We've had the odd scratch over the years but never a dent. Still we can't afford to maintain high end cars and afford too many other things.
I love the new Corolla ad - when you drive a Corolla you can afford to do things you like. My good friend just bought a cute Kia.

[Liberal_in_LA]

50. luv my corolla.

[Eleanors38]

21. In Texas, mine is approaching Ranch Rocket status.

[Walk away]

2. My credit rating is excellent but I have been saving for a car ever since I paid off this one.

I have been driving my RAV4 for 8 years and I paid it off 4 years ago. I can almost buy a new one for cash now but this one runs great so I'll keep it on the road for another 100,000 miles if it's game to do so.
I always tell it that as long as it wants to go it can go with me.

Except for the usual tires, one brake replacement, a few belts, hoses and regular oil changes, my Toyota just hit 100,000. Best car I have ever had.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. 1993 seems to have been a good year for Toyota

Mine is still going strong.Knock wood.
Had to have a rebuilt A/C unit put in 8 years ago, plus usual maintanence.
Tis a blessing, since car prices have almost doubled since I bought it.

[pscot]

41. So was 1991

We plan to drive ours for another 12 years, or until they ban the internal combustion engine because of global warming.

[dixiegrrrrl]

43. Sounds like a great plan.

Any friend of Opus is a friend of mine...

[hunter]

10. Our two family cars, bought used, each have mileage to the Moon...

... and now we are coming back.

Distance to moon = 238,900 miles (384,400 km), more or less.

I hate cars and they hate me. Too stubborn to give it up.

[Walk away]

45. Wow! My brother used to buy used Volvo station wagons with over 100,000 miles on them...

(cheap from the dealer) and drive them back and forth to Cornell every weekend. Not the moon but in a year or two it came pretty close.

[Pelican]

58. Wife loves the RAV4 I got for her last year....

2012 and automatic with a nice warranty as I am often gone.

So far so good...

[NaturalHigh]

4. Yes, but I don't plan to any time soon.

I like to drive my vehicles until the wheels are about to come off. Not much trade-in value left, but I get my moneys worth out of cars.

[bigwillq]

5. I don't buy cars, I lease

but I could lease one now if I had to.

[Egalitarian Thug]

7. Could, but for a variety of reasons, never would. Cars are strictly a liability,

and the idea of making a liability a bigger liability by paying interest and fees is fucking crazy.

[Uben]

8. Yes, I could, but I wouldn't.....

I have the money.......I lack the will. I'll admit, I have never owned a brand new vehicle in my life, and doubt I ever will. I could never justify spending the extra thousands just to say I had a new car for one year. Call me frugal...whatever, but that's probably the reason I have the money to buy one now. Saving money has been kinda like an obsession to me. I have always been afraid of geting old and being broke. So now, I'm gettin old, and I have money, but my car is 9 yrs old. My house is 41 yrs old. I don't mind, they work just fine and serve their purpose.....and I have security.
I've kinda been struggling with this. I could cut loose and spend some cash, but it's hard to change after so many years. My wife died last year and I feel kinda guilty. We were both frugal, saving for our old age, and had just began enjoying an empty nest. We had plans to travel abroad, but cancer changed that. Now, I have money to enjoy, but no one to enjoy it with. Kinda defeats the purpose.
But, you have to plan for the future, just in case you do live a long life.

[HardTimes99]

53. Wow, that is a really sad story buried within your post. I do hope you will be good to yourself

now with the occasional luxury item, like a good bottle of wine for example or travel to new places.. Spoken by one who has lived as a Spartan in the Land 'o Plenty

[REP]

9. I could, but I love my current car an unreasonable amount

I am, in fact, buying it new tires as I type this. Well, I guess the tires are a gift for both of us

[Fumesucker]

11. No wonder economic issues don't resonate very much on DU

Overall most of us seem to be a fairly comfortable lot.

[Art_from_Ark]

42. Merely having enough cash to maybe buy a new car is not necessarily "comfortable"

I could probably scrape together the cash to buy the kind of "new but used" car that I described downthread, but if I did do that, I would feel very uncomfortable. What meager savings I have is "rainy day money", and recently, the days have been quite "rainy" indeed. Spending it unnecessarily on a car would be pretty foolish.

[hunter]

48. We have "Oh shit" in our checking account and we are waiting for people to pay us.

Those people have "Oh shit" in their checking accounts too...

It's "Oh Shit" turtles austerity all the way down.

Fortunately we have food in the pantry. We won't starve.

Meanwhile the uber-wealthy play silly pointless games among themselves with money that never "trickles down."

[Puzzledtraveller]

66. I've noticed this too

They should come work with me.

[premium]

12. I could, but I don't want or need to.

Our 1999 Ford Explorer has only 80,000 miles on it, still runs perfect, body has a couple of small dings but no dents, paint and interior are still in excellent condition.

[bunnies]

13. Nope. Not a chance in hell. nt

[Habibi]

14. Not with cash, no.

But both of our aged cars died last year and it was luck, really, that got us a decent loan for one 2010 Corolla. We're grateful.

[Bluenorthwest]

15. Why would I want to do that? Sounds like a hell of a lousy weekend...

i could, but I don't buy new autos, ever, never, never.

[HappyMe]

16. Nope.

Not a snowball's chance in hell.

[Spirochete]

17. No, I'd have to

put on my Darrel Issa mask, and steal one.

[ecstatic]

18. I'm a big time saver

and I take my credit report seriously (which kind of makes me a sucker since I'm staying in an underwater home and not walking away like so many others have). So technically, I could, but I wouldn't (at least not until my lease is up in a couple months), because, as I said before... I'm more of a saver than a spender. lol

[hunter]

35. I used to care about my credit rating and I thought our health insurance was good too.

Serious medical problems of the entirely random sort ended those fantasies.

Note to the automobile companies, small businesses, etc... If the USA had a Single Payer Health Care system like Canada, or a National Health Service like the United Kingdom, my wife and I might still be buying stuff and paying our bills on time. Whatever our taxes were, heck even up to 40%, we'd still be living comfortably. And I wouldn't be on such friendly terms with the collection agencies, saying nope, I ain't got nothing this month and they know it's true. Sometimes they get tired of calling and settle for less than the amount due.

My brother, who was surprised by cancer as a young man with no insurance, used to say before he declared bankruptcy, "Yep, I'm on the easy payment plan for life." He's pretty lucky, the cancer didn't come back but the credit problems remain.

I have no idea why businesses of all sorts don't support (gasp!) socialized medicine.

Well, actually I do have some idea. Most big businesses see their workers as serfs. They are afraid key employees with health problems would leave and start their own competing businesses if they were not afraid of losing their health insurance. We all know why the health insurance industry, pharmaceutical companies, hospital corporations and so on don't want socialized medicine. Their CEO's wouldn't be getting those multi-million dollar bonuses.

There was a time when my wife and I were uninsurable. We ran out a COBRA. My wife, who had the more serious health problems, was eventually accepted to our state's high risk insurance pool. Our kid's insurance was cheap, they are healthy. But I ended up with crappy "catastrophic" insurance that was very expensive.

Since then our health insurance costs, which my wife now gets through her work, have high deductibles and exceed our mortgage payments.

There are too many people living in the fantasy USA, a fantasy pushed by the propaganda machines. They think their insurance is good. They think that funny lump will be benign, that the weird EKG will turn out to be nothing serious, that the drunk or distracted driver will not run a stop light and T-bone their car.

When bad things happen the fantasy evaporates.

[oneshooter]

19. Bought a 2013 F-150 crew cab 3 months ago, paid cash (certified funds).

Could do the same today, but I would have to cash in some retirement coins.

[Art_from_Ark]

22. I might be able to buy a new car that's not officially a new car

In Japan, new cars that have been sitting on the lot for a few months are often downgraded to "used car" status even if the odometer reading is essentially zero. The reason has to do with the inspection system. A new car is inspected when it leaves the factory, and its 3-year inspection is effective starting at that point. The 3-year effective inspection period is a selling point for new cars, because they have to be rigorously inspected every two years after the initial 3-year inspection expires. So dealers will often deeply discount cars that have been wasting their inspection period sitting on the lot. That means if I could scrape up the cash, I could probably get a "new but used" sub-subcompact with a 3-cylinder motorcycle engine and 2 to 2 1/2 years of inspection for around $9,000.

[LWolf]

23. No? So why not make that an option?

Yes, if I were really stupid and didn't care about my financial health or longevity, I could probably swing a new car this weekend. At loan shark interest rates, by trading in my perfectly good 9 yo paid-for Tacoma.

[hunter]

38. You don't have a dollar or two for a toy car???

Our youngest kid, still in college, drives our oldest car to a summer job. This car was built a few years before my wife and I first met.

I have a love-hate relationship with this car. It has a salvage title, a mismatched transmission, and a bad-neighborhood-Los-Angeles-random-bullet-hole in the rear fender.

It matches the random-bullet-hole house we lived in when our kids were young.

[LWolf]

40. Sure.

I don't need a toy, though.

I had a love-love relationship with my former Toyota truck. I drove it for 10 years and 150k; turned it over to my son who drove it another 12 and about 325K. Reliable, easy maintenance, never broke down, until it finally did. Son sold it for $1500 a couple of weeks ago and got a newer used car. I miss seeing old faithful in his driveway.

My current truck? 9 years, about to hit 90K, runs great, and I've done the following in the way of maintenance/repair: oil changes, air filters, windshield wipers, tires, one headlight, one battery. That's my kind of vehicle.

[The Straight Story]

24. Nope. Not unless I sold a bunch of drugs, which I also don't have

I keep trying to get by on my good looks and charming personality, but that has not been working....

[Rod Walker]

25. I'll actually be test driving a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited shortly after I type this.

[MineralMan]

26. On Saturday, yes. Not on Sunday.

MN does not allow dealers to be open on Sundays. Blue laws.

[Link Speed]

27. My newest vehicle is 24 years old

and there is no new car that I would rather have than that one.

That car, new, would cost $145,000 dollars in today's money. I definitely could not afford it, today.

The rest of my vehicles are 1966 and older.

[CTyankee]

28. I could, but I won't. I will wait til my 1999 Altima gives out entirely...

I save my money to travel to Europe every year. I've got at least 3 good years ahead of me before I get too damn old, so I am fixing my damn car every time. It isn't bad, tho. The Altima is a great car. I've never had a better one! I'll get another one (used) when this one goes...

[TheKentuckian]

29. Yes, as long as Hotwheels count. Otherwise I need a FUCK NAW option

Not just no but NAW.

[liberal_at_heart]

30. damn no wonder most DUers aren't concerned with our country's economic policies.

Apparently everyone on DU is wealthy enough to buy a new car.

[bigwillq]

32. 44 people is "most DUers"?

Really?
Did you fail math?

[hfojvt]

31. yes, probably, but

I hate my job too much to want to buy a new car.

I now own two used ones, which is far more than enough.

Before I spent $20,000 on a new car plus interest payments, plus much higher insurance rates, etc., I would rather put that money towards my early retirement.

[Apophis]

33. Oh hell no.

Not even close.

[tammywammy]

34. I could, but have no plans to buy a new car any time soon

I have excellent credit. I like my current vehicle plenty and it's almost paid off. It is worth more than I owe on it. I plan to keep it around for a while.

[shanti]

36. yes, but i wouldn't

my van is 9 years old, with only 30,000 miles (in california too). it's great not having a car payment and higher insurance, especially being on a fixed income pension. there's nothing to prove to anybody, i've never been a 'keeping up with the jones's' kind of gal.

[JustAnotherGen]

44. Answered yes

But I have a 2006 Nissan Altima that has just over 100K miles. I should be able to get another 100k out of it.

I have the cash for my next car. Maybe a Leaf - but I have to see the prices go down on the technology. I figure I'll have two mre cars in my life.

I take fastidious care of this car and the three others I've owned. And this one has sentimental attachment - my dad went with me for back up when I bought it.

[Initech]

46. I sold my 2007 Altima for a 2013 model.

[H2O Man]

47. Two questions:

[1] Does stealing a car count?

[2] If "yes" to #1, does a few hours "joy ride" count?

[Zorra]

49. My credit score is over 800, so I suppose I could, but

I never buy anything if I can't pay cash for it.

Debt is like a trap to me.

[Kennah]

51. Used car dealers won't talk to me

[hunter]

52. Ten Franklins usually work for me...

... but I only show them four to start.

wikipedia

I like your bike icon. My dad bought me my bike more than forty years ago. I'm still riding it.

[SheilaT]

54. Yes, except that I'd define new car as a replacement to my current

vehicle, a 2004 Honda Civic with about 83,000 miles on it that does not need replacing. IN any case, I'd be buying a used car, not a new from the factory one.

And also, I would NEVER be walking into a dealer expecting to walk out with a car. If my car were totalled so that I need to replace it, I'd make use of a rental while I was doing a car search. It's my experience that the less anxious I am to buy a car, the more anxious the dealer is to give me a good buy.

[LuvNewcastle]

55. No, but I'm about to buy a scooter.

My old car quit a while back, and used cars have gotten so expensive that I've decided to buy a new scooter instead. I'll be spending a lot less on gas and insurance, and upkeep is much cheaper. They make plenty of scooters now that will do 50-60mph, and that's all the power I need for the local roads and smaller highways. Some of the bigger scooters can be ridden on the interstate. The only problem I foresee is riding in the rain, but I'll deal with it. Looking forward to the adventure.

[flvegan]

56. As a consumer? Yes. As an economist, No.

Buy a brand new car? Don't have Pagani money, so no.

[loli phabay]

57. actually buying a new toyota rav four this week so yes

[politicat]

59. Could but won't.

We've got a Kia Soul, paid for, just over 3 years old, with 30k miles. Decent mileage, under warranty, suits our needs. Bought new, still looks very fine.

Our next car is 6-10 years out, based on past performance, so our next will be either fully electric or biofueled -- either compressed biogas or biodiesel. Or we will have given up on car ownership altogether. Not sure which yet.

We both drove massively unreliable beaters for 20 years. I'm glad I know how to replace engine mounts and universal joints, but I'm glad I don't have to anymore.

I find cars are an example of Vimes law -- poverty means one spends more on a lot of pairs of cheap boots than one would if one could afford to buy one decent pair.

[eridani]

60. Where is the "if you are crazy enough to take on a car payment with a fixed income" option? n/t

[mhatrw]

61. Buy a 10+ year old Honda or Toyota with under 100,000 on it.

Buy it from a person, not a dealer and buy it in cash.

Get a Carfax type report on it.

Negotiate a fair price before inspection, then have someone you trust inspect it.

Use the results of the inspection to reduce your offer by a certain percentage of the necessary or soon to be necessary repairs cited by the car inspector.

Don't be a fool and get a new car on credit.

[quaker bill]

62. no problem, but I won't.

same could be said for every weekend over the last 10 years or so. Could have, but didn't.

[FreeJoe]

63. Today? Easily.

I've had a car since I bought a used Honda Civic back when I was in college. It served me faithfully for years until the clutch went out. I was too broke to fix it, so I lived without a car for almost six months in a town very hostile to public transportation. Those weren't good times. Since then, I purchased a couple of other used cars and have driven them until they were about ready to collapse. Finally, in my mid-40s, I purchased my first "luxury" car. It was still a used car, but it was my first with an automatic transmission or power windows.

Today, our coffers are filled and we're ready to replace my wife's 12 year old, 200,000 mile mini-van with a brand new one. I'll pay cash and this time we won't get the cheapest, most stripped down model.

I'm not sure what the future holds, but I have to admit that having cash in the bank is much less stressful than being broke.

[Earth_First]

64. At the moment, no...

My fiancee and I are self-paying for a wedding in August.

Generally, we could.

However I wouldn't. I would buy used first...

[Arcanetrance]

65. Not at all for many reasons beyond price of buying and credit