Best car under $25k?

Save your money and get something in the $3-5K range, and then continue to save your money.

 

need to narrow it down:

new or used?

how will you be using it?

local climate (ie do you need/want AWD/4WD)?

4 doors/two doors/wagon/convertible?

etc.

 

2012 Hyundai Sonata...Done and Done...

 

Do you not have any bills because you are young and live at home with your parents? Are you going to school? If so then this is not a bad idea:

 

Hard to beat the Hyundai. They got the 25k car market all figured out.

 

With an annual income of $16k, the reality is you cannot afford a 25k car. Maybe a 10k car tops. I'd look at a BMW e36 M3 for a good value under 10k.

 

That would be my guess since he states that he only makes 1400 per month. Buy something used and cheap, and spend the rest of the money on girls (or save it).

If you are planning on financing the full $25K, that is about 500 a month. Then add in insurance, gas, maintenance, etc.. Pretty quickly your income is gone. I made a similar mistake when I was in college.

If you are young, I would expect insurance on the Vette to be pretty expensive.

 

Mustang six with a track pack. Mazda Speed3, Mini Cooper, GTI, a loaded Focus, WRX.
Hyundai? no thanks.

 

FWIW I'd buy a new Hyundai before I'd buy a new VW.

 

Same here - the Elantra or Sonata looks hard to beat in this range.

 

The Genesis coupe is right around $25K. My friend loves his..

 

I rode with a few at my last Dragon extravaganza. Poor boys thought they could keep up

 

The rule of thumb is don't spend more than 15% of your take home on car payments. That puts you at ~$210/month or $10k. You're young, you have a HUGE opporunity to become as rich as many of the people on this board by saving money early! Go buy a $3-5k car and put the rest into a mutual fund.

Any car you buy is a bad financial investment, period.

 

Hyundai Sonata V6 or the genesis coupe...i mean 5yr60k mi. bumper to bumper warranty is hard to beat in that price range...I have never owned a hyundai, but most likely will one day

 

+1 The average car payment in the US is $475 per month. What could you do with that money if you weren't putting it into a car payment every month?

- If you were to invest that $475 per month into a good mutual fund with a 12% rate of return (average over the past 50 years) you would have over $100,000 in 10 years, at 20 years, you would have made $470,000... And at 30 years it would be worth over 1.6 million.

Credit to Dave Ramsey for this suggestion (straight from his website) -

"Here’s a new plan. What if you bought a cheap $2,000 car just to get around for 10 months? Then you take that $475—the average car payment—save it every month, and pay for a new car (with cash!), instead of giving it to the bank.

After 10 months of doing that, you’ll have $4,750 to use for that new ride. Add that to the $1,500–2,000 you can get for your old beater, and you have well over $6,000. That’s a major upgrade in car in just 10 months—without owing the bank a dime!

But the fun doesn’t end there. If you keep consistently putting the same amount of money away, 10 months later you would have another $4,750 to put toward a car. You could probably sell that $6,000 vehicle for about the same price you paid 10 months before—meaning you now have $11,000 to pay for a car, just 20 months after this whole process started."

Moral of the story -

DON'T FINANCE A CAR! PAY CASH!

 

All young people should be taught the power of compound interest. You're missing a huge opportunity to become wealthy if you decide to dump all that money into a car payment. Not to mention depreciation on a new car...

 

"Traineehinson" military maybe?


All those cars sound great, but don't leave much room for modifications, which I assume you will be doing.

The aforementioned E36 M3 (especially a sedan!) would be a great choice.

 

If you are making that little, don't buy a used muscle car or sports car like you said. You will break stuff, and want to mod it. Plus insurance will be high and you are not making enough. Get a new, fun car with a warranty. I say get a Mazdaspeed3 or wait for the Focus ST. When you can afford to have a toy, then get the other car.

 

Dont listen to these guys...you only live once.

Dont set your sights so low, step up to a Viper or a Ferrari 348 for ~$40k. Within insurance you will probably be able to afford a can of tun to eat every day....but you will look cool and get lots of Poontang !

Go for it !

 

So, hypothetically, lets say I'm 19 and have $100K in the bank/mutual funds. My living expenses are extremely low. If you were me, would you spend $40K on a 348 and daily drive it for a year or two just for the experience when young? Or would you drive something cheaper, invest the money, keep saving and get a 355, 360 or 911 a few years down the road?

 

Thank you for your service and welcome to F-Chat! E36 M3 is a tremendously fun car. Then you have something fun to drive and don't miss out on the opportunity to invest and take advantage of compound interest.

 

In my view, life is too short to purchase a cars you don't like. It's an asset that either depreciates or requires regular cash infusions...or both. With that said, there are fun and interesting cars at just about every price point.

That's all well and good. I don't know if I'd have the strength to follow that advice at 19 with $100k in available assets. The best course of action would be to buy something "cool" but inexpensive and know that I had the financial wherewithal to keep it running no matter what. That's actually pretty powerful, buying an older / classic and not worrying at all handling maintenance. So back to the hypothetical 19 year old with $100k. I'd probably spend a little a nice BMW 2002. Fun to drive, unique, will hold value.

The cool thing about cars is that there are so many cars I'd like to own someday...at all kinds of price ranges. Not spending $70k on a 355 doesn't have to mean "settling" for something uninspiring.