Discussions

how would you recommend a newly young adult to purchase or lease a vehicle. don’t have much financial freedom, anyone familiar with how to go about it?

Best advise: buy a bike. Don’t waste your money on a car! But that is my personal opinion. Don’t buy from a dealership either, as you will forever be in their debt. Save up your money then buy outright if possible. That’s what my dad always told me! And I didn’t listen lol

I agree. Buy the best you can get with cash or don’t buy a vehicle. No one needs regular car payments hanging over their heads especially when a vehicle loses value so fast anyway.  
Vehicles are usually a terrible investment but often a necessity.  
If you do buy a vehicle maintain it properly, look after it and keep it a long time or you’ll never come out ahead.  
 
Edited by Farmergeorge, 2023-05-15 18:30:15

I'm also firmly in the buy in cash camp. When we were younger we bought with financing, always regretted it. We've driven used, paid in cash cars for close to 15 years now.  
 
Now, the caveat being cars were cheaper. We were looking at replacing ours and used car prices shot up during the pandemic and subsequent supply chain issues and new cars were hard to come by. I know several people who sold their cars for more than they paid for them new. That's more or less unheard of. So we just keep driving our current ones and wait to see of prices come down (spoiler: they haven't)  
 
But I was literally telling my kids a few weeks ago, if I was 20-something and kidless again, I would just buy an e-bike. Brandon is small enough, and the city seems to be wanting to make active transportation infrastructure a priority in the proposed master plan.  
 
Cars are expensive. Really expensive. Even when you own it outright.

i have only bought a few vehicles in my life but this is some of the things I look at:  
1)new or used weight your options of both. new you get a warenty but used are cheeper in the older days  
2) how long am i planning keep it for most of mine i hold onto is the 10 year mark. this is for deprecation  
3) start to narrow down but plan for a bit for the future. my first car was a midsize and after 4 year kinda found it to small, and didnt have some of the features that i wanted to get at the time  
4) do your budget on it. insurance, and gas are the two main ones you can plan but also look at possible replaced of tires, and other part.  
5) narrow down your make and models and trim level  
be happy with your purchase  
6) what are must have features, and can you option some later if you can.  
7) start looking on the sites and dealers to see what they have or might be getting in.  
8) look at the reviews if mainly going used. you can find out alot of issue about a vehcile then.  
9) test drive. at one time i thoguht i wanted a jeep wrangler. sat in it didn't like the seats or interoir so never went back.  
10) look at the next model year. maybe they are doing a redesign or changing features. I know my dad had one lexus, and then never went back after they changed there front grill cause he didnt like the look.

i appreciate all the help! i cannot consider a bike too much, as i do have to head out of town very often. thank you for all the info!