Adrians07Z

I bought my '07 Touring Z back in april and made 5 payments on it so far ..

I've been thinking about going back to college starting January since I'm currently maxed out where im at now (painter at a Dodge body shop) and I'm only 19 .. so figure it would be best to go back to school whilst im still young


At first I just thought get a loan to pay for school and get a part time job to pay for the Z .. then I got to looking around autotrader at a few other options

Now this is just a idea I got, but I owe about what my Z is worth on KBB trade in value and will end up with almost 30K in the car after making all the payments / interest .. payments are 415 / month

I found a bunch of Honda S2000's with about 50 to 70K miles for $10,000 to $12,000 .. which will be a payment off around 200 / month which will be A LOT easier to deal with whilst im in school but it'll still be a reliable yet fast / fun car to drive


Anyone think this would be a bad idea and to just stick with my payments since I only have 11K miles on my Z .. or am I thinking right to trade it in for something with lower payments that way I can put the other $200 / month torwards paying for school since I have to pay for all that myself which will be around $60,000


now don't get me wrong .. I LOVE my 350z .. if I knew I could afford the payments no problem whilst im in college I wouldn't think of trading it .. but I just dont want to have a $60,000 school loan and struggle to pay for a $30,000 car note

Entaille

iTrader: (16)

I could care less what vehicle you get, but taking that same logic, you could find a Z with miles and get it on the cheap too. if you are looking to cut a monthly expense and you aren't going to lose a bunch of money by selling your car, it's not a bad thing to think about.

Adrians07Z

true ..

I'm not set on the car yet .. I need to drive a s2k before making my mind .. might end up with a older Z or something else .. idk


another thing is I need to make sure carmax or a dealer will give me close to what I owe .. if I'm going to loose too much then I'm just going to keep my '07 Z

but if I can cut my payments in half it would be a huge help since I will be going from full time $2000 + / month to part time $800 / month

boomfranco

iTrader: (10)

don't sell to a dealer/carmax unless you are in an extreme situation.. they will buy it for an amount of money so that when they resell it they make a nice profit out of it

DavesZ#3

iTrader: (26)

Sell the Z, buy a $1500 beater Honda. Once you finish school, buy another Z, or anything else that floats your boat.

vthao

iTrader: (3)

Keep the Z

Ragingbull350Z

iTrader: (7)

I was 19 when I got my Z too. If I could've done it all over again, I would've waited. I'm crazy about my Z, but keeping up with Monthly payments/Insurance/Mods definitely took a toll on other parts of life. Sell the Z, get into something more affordable, and come back to it when you graduate and can easily afford it. The overall theme of this is GET AN EDUCATION! Please! GL

davidv

iTrader: (2)

This is not really a 350Z question its a personal finance question.

Lesson learned: Anything you buy with someone else's money gets expensive.

dhays

iTrader: (10)

^+1

Please don't take this wrong but:

-Going back to school now is probably the smartest thing you could do at this point.

-Having any kind of car payment is probably the stupidest thing you could do at this point.

Get rid of the Z and buy that beater Honda. Get your education. Get a job. Save some money. Then buy a more "fun" car when you can really afford it.

TheFarmer

iTrader: (19)

Adrians07Z

I agree 100% on the get rid of the car payment and get an education .. then get a Z or nice car again later


but for the "beater" car idea .. I got a few "beaters" I own right now but don't think a second about using them for going to a college 200 miles away from home

I've been through plenty of beater cars in high school and found that you end up spending more money fixing them than you would just buying a fairly new / reliable car .. the main reason I bought the Z for driving the 100 mile a day trip for work (but I have a good paying full time job right now)

so I figure a $200 / month payment (or less) wouldn't be bad at all compared to my current $415 / month payment

yes, I could drive my 91 camaro or 89 mr2 but I can easily spend more than $200 on a weekend fixing stuff on them .. so I don't want to go down that road whilst i'm in school since I wont have time and or the money to dump into them

As far as I can find on the internet and talking to people that have driven / owned them .. a honda s2000 is pretty darn reliable and there dead simple compared to most other cars

mcarther101

iTrader: (8)

Sell the Z, it doesn't sound like you can afford it.

Go buy a late '80s early '90s sports car for $3k, tune it and you'll have just as much fun for less than half the cost. Rx7 FC turbo, 240sx, 200sx, 180sx, 240z, 280z, Porsche 944, AE86... you get the picture. Or... if you have an MR2 and Camaro... sell all 3 cars? Just get an old one that is reliable.

SoldzMyZ

iTrader: (11)

seriously your youthful naivete is apparent in your desire to own a fast car while you are in undergrad. not the smartest decision imo.

dhays

iTrader: (10)

I hope that one of the first courses you take is some basic math.

If you want to pay under $200 a month then on a 4 year used car loan that is a loan amount of $8000. If you can put 10% down then that is a S2000 for $8900 include tax, license, etc... How many S2000s are around that you can buy for $8500? A quick check of Autotrader shows 4 of them. Nationwide.

$200/month is $2400/year. You will not be spending $2400 a year to keep an old Honda Civic running. Plus, the difference between insuranc on an old Honda Civic that you only have to carry liability insurance on, vs an S2000 that you would need to carry full insurance on could be as much as another $100/month.

Face it, you are deluding yourself. Buying an S2000 makes absolutely no financial or practical sense. You just want to drive a "fun" car. Nothing wrong with that when you are at a time in your life when you can afford it.

Notice that we weren't talking about a 91 Camaro or an 89 MR2. Buy an old Honda Civic for $2000 and you won't have to put much money at all into it over the next four years.

Adrians07Z

I have no problem affording the Z right now with a full time job .. the payments don't bother me at all .. I was at first looking at a 370z but got a slightly used '07 Touring 350z for way cheaper than a base 370z

and even if I get a part time job at a body shop in college it still wont be anything to make the payments .. paint a car or a few bumpers and thats it ..

I'm just looking at the "worst case" scenario if I end up in a minimum wage part time job .. don't want to be working my butt off just to make a car payment when I could start paying off the college loan

the job I'm in now is my first real "Job" and I started at $15 / hour on commission which is a pretty darn good paycheck when the shop is busy for a 19 year old .. most of my friends are working at parts stores or oil change places on minimum wage

Adrians07Z

$200 / month was with the same loan I got now .. 6 years .. not looking at a 4 year loan

as for a Honda civic .. theres no way in hell I'd drive one .. I'd rather paint a couple cars on the weekends and pay for the Z

dont want a old ragged out car to drive .. I dont mind making a car payment .. just looking at cutting it down to be a similar % of my income when I go from a full time to part time job

jimpactmfsc

iTrader: (5)

u cud always go to school part time and try to work your schedule around your job if you wanna keep your z,but that of course is easier said then done.

In your position i would say bite the bullet,sell the z ,buy a 240,go to school...it'll pay off so much more in the end. what school are you going to btw?

Adrians07Z

I looked into the part time thing .. was looking at a online degree that I could do at home after work

but my parents told me to drop that idea and go to a real college for 4 years ..

so i was considering Georgia Southern for mechanical engineering and they got a program to transfer to Georgia Tech

my dad was a engineer at Rolls Royce for the aero engines .. so kinda looking to do something similar since I got the brains to do it and the pay is pretty attractive compared to my measly Painter paychecks

jimpactmfsc

iTrader: (5)

yes nothing beats a real deal college education,im currently a mechanical engineering major myself at southern polytechnic. if i had to trade down i would look into something cheap like a 240 maybe even a 300zx,im a nissan fan tho haha..for 12-15 k you could probably find a earlier model z thats a pretty good bet to

I DTW I

I'm pretty sure I have the answer for you. I am your age exactly. I bought my '03 from working weekends during freshman & sophomore years. Here's what you need to do, sell the one you have and get an '03 for $13,000. Or since you mentioned 11k, you can get 350Z for 11k or even 10k if you use cars.com.

The bottom line is: low end 350Zs cost just the same as those low end S2000s. And obviously you already decided you'd rather have a 350Z than a S2000. And even S2000 guys will agree that the 350Z LOOKS way more attractive.

I have a 2003 LeMans Sunset, and everybody thinks its a brand new car. And you can EASILY work on your off time to pay for the car. I did it easy. And believe me, being a single guy in college with a 350Z is like nothing else I can describe. You think you can imagine..........but you can't. It's just something you have to experience.......and you are lucky enough to be able to experience what so many guys our age can only DREAM ABOUT!!!