Made my bed, and now I must sleep in it.

[YarisOwnersDad]

Originally Posted by Kal-El

Thanks for the helpful post Tom.

At least now you are seeing the problem with your one real indulgence.

Are you going to have the strength to stick with your Yaris for many years while focusing on debt? It seems like purchasing a Yaris was your first great step to fix your finances as it has the lowest cost of ownership of any car out there.

Out of curiosity, what is your monthly payment/term on your Yaris since we assume negative equity from your previous car was added in.

I had a period of being fairly reasonable for a few years, and I actually paid off a 2004 Impala that I bought brand new in December of 2003.

I was driving a 1989 S-10 pickup with over 200K miles on it when I decided to buy a 2008 Cobalt in June of 2008, and I had the financing set up with a three month deferment on the first payment, so that I would only have three months where I had to make a Cobalt payment and an Impala payment.

I traded in the old beater pickup and bought the Cobalt, which had all kinds of incentives on it at the time. I kept the Cobalt only 10 months and traded on April 13, 2009, for my Yaris.

I took the no interest for 60 months option instead of the $1000 cash rebate, and my payments are $316.77. There was no cash down payment, so the Yaris will end up costing me $19,000.62, which covers the tax and license and the debt carried over from the Cobalt. See what trading in with upside down equity will do for ya? Is a Yaris sedan, nice car that it is, really worth $19,000? I don't think so!

Tom

[Kal-El]

Originally Posted by YarisOwnersDad

...
I took the no interest for 60 months option instead of the $1000 cash rebate, and my payments are $316.77. There was no cash down payment, so the Yaris will end up costing me $19,000.62, which covers the tax and license and the debt carried over from the Cobalt. See what trading in with upside down equity will do for ya? Is a Yaris sedan, nice car that it is, really worth $19,000? I don't think so!

Tom

You might as well pay the $19K especially since it's interest free and then keep the Yaris beyond that. So do you plan on taking it on the long haul?

One other thing I forgot to ask was why you didn't lease vehicles? That's usually the way to go if you want a new car every two years or so. I noticed most of the previous cars you owned were American and had horrendous resale value. I can only imagine the hit you took.

[YarisOwnersDad]

Originally Posted by Kal-El

You might as well pay the $19K especially since it's interest free and then keep the Yaris beyond that. So do you plan on taking it on the long haul?

One other thing I forgot to ask was why you didn't lease vehicles? That's usually the way to go if you want a new car every two years or so. I noticed most of the previous cars you owned were American and had horrendous resale value. I can only imagine the hit you took.

I put about 20K miles on a car per year, so leasing is kind of out of the question for me.

I have no plans to trade my Yaris for anything. I think I can count on Toyota quality to keep that little car running for 300K miles without much more than routine maintenance.

Tom