Hey, being 20 means you might not have stellar credit or home equity, but that's life. If you think most 20 year olds have the credit score (on their own) for the subvented captive financing, I bet you're mistaken. One of my friends has adult children, and his youngest daughter tried to get the low financing on a new Subaru. Ha! Sure, with Dad co-signing, but othewise, forget it. GMAC came back and said she could have the 0%, but a shorter term and a pretty sizable down payment. Read the fine print, OAC. Not everyone gets the advertised rate. Lots of people pay more.If you want to borrow money for a used car, a normal bank loan isn't such a bad thing. Sure, the interest rate is a bit higher than on a new car, but the cash outlay is much less too. And you might develop a ood relationship with a bank, which is not a bad thing. Having a good working relationship with my bank has been a nice thing on occasion over the years.I bought my first new car in the late 80's just as John Crow was determined to dive us into a deep and sustained recession with massive interest rate hikes. I was paying 18% on a NEW car. My $19,000 Acura cost $500 a month! The kicker was that, at the time, my wife and I took home a combined $1400 a month. What an idiot I was! Spending a third of our net income on a car. Was nice having a new car, but financially, stupid. And did we "save money on repairs?" Nope. Maintaining a new Acura, even under warranty, cost more than the repair AND maintenence bills on the old Civic it replaced. Then the car depreciated like crazy, and we ate it big time. Yeah, I've bought new cars since (including the MB, probably not the smartest move), but at least I knew going in that I was taking a financial beating and what I really wanted was a new car, not to "save money."
I also remember but I remember it as being 1981-82 for those monster interest rates not the late '80s. 10-11% mortgages and 12-13% car loans in 87-89 IIRC.
