On Cars

[jetpack_monkey]

I have never owned my own car. Living in a giant metropolitan area as I do, this is becoming more and more problematic. While my roommate has stated on several occasions that she's more than happy to cart my butt around should I need it, that limits my transportation to bus schedules and her availability. Plus, I feel like a huge mooch, even when I do chip in for gas.

I would like to purchase a car. There are a couple of problems with this:

1) My credit sucks, due to some credit card debt from years and years ago.
2) I don't know anything about cars.
3) I have a lot of expenses in the upcoming year.
4) Insurance in Arizona is insanely expensive.

Any thoughts, ideas? Any help at all would be much appreciated.

Comments

[lizbetann]

Honestly? Given 1-4, I would say this isn't the year for you to buy a car. #3 and #4 are really the killers.

Your best bet would be to buy a 3-7 year old car, which would land you with a monthly car payment because a decent 3-7 year old car would cost you $8000 - $14000. Insurance would likely be $1200 - $2000 a year in addition. (You're still barely under twenty-five, so that is going to put you on the high end of the scale.)

When you can comfortably commit $400 - $600 a month towards a car, go for it. But if you have upcoming expensens, then I'd hold off until those are taken care of.

I checked to see if there was a ZipCar near you, but the closest one is San Francisco.

(No, I haven't been thinking about a new car myself, why do you ask?) ;)

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

The problem is, I have a lot of expenses in any given year. Comic-Con runs me about 2Gs every year, between hotels, travel expenses, and just buying stuff. There's usually another out-of-town trip at some point because OMG miss my friends and this year I need to replace my desktop as it is old and busted.

I'd say I just need to earn more money, but my expenses have a tendency to grow to meet my budget. *sigh*