How much should you spend on a first car?

It really depends on what you have to work with. You wanna spend between 1-2 grand at bare minimum though.

>>17466621
With finance you can "afford" pretty much anything up to $25k on a mcjob income

>>17466606
What is it the car needs to do? Commute to school? Work? How far away?

>>17466627
Owning a car outright has many benefits if you know what you're doing.

i bought my first car for $5000 6 years ago and it's still running strong

the sum total of all costs

>rough estimate of gas costs based on mileage and how much you drive
>estimate of insurance using various online quote things
>payments, if you have some. i honestly recommend it since it give you more flexibility and you can pay it off if you save up
>rough estimate of maintenance costs

should not exceed 15% of your gross income before taxes, maybe 20% if cars are your only expensive hobby.

so a lot of this hinges on your income and what kind of car you're looking at

>>17466606
not too much so that you can take care of it
enough so you're not fucked by maintenance

bought my first shitbox for 1100 euros 2 years ago
sold it for 700 euros and bought a miata for 4k

>>17466606
>20% down
>4 years maximum
>no more than 10% of GROSS income in payments INCLUDING insurance

That's the general rule if you don't want to be poor when your 50. For buying outright? Whatever you can afford that won't wipe out your nest egg.

>>17466700
I mean you aren't wrong but most investors say 20/4/20
20% down payment
4 years finance
Payments shouldn't exceed 20% gross monthly income (before taxes)

>>17467283
If I gross 40 a year and have the same in savings (no debt) how much used car can I afford with cash?

>>17467385
that's what, 3300 a month? that's $660 a month for everything together. depending on the car the maintenance costs, gas costs, and insurance costs can vary wildly.
so you'll want a cheaper less reliable more expensive to insure poor mpg car
OR
a more expensive reliable cheap to insure good gas mileage car

>>17467385
I wouldn't spend more than $20k, but that's me. A car is a tool and a hobby. It's not worth going broke for.

>>17467427
make that more like 13k at his salary, since in payments over 48 months with 20% down that's still $250 a month which is almost half his $660 a month limit

>>17466627
>falling for the debt jew

>>17467538
>falling for the cash only everything forever jew
hell most of the reason we have much of an economic model is because of mortgages and loans in general, frees up all that capital

>>17467416
Ya but I take home a lot less than that and high living expenses (west coast) had me thinking I can't spend more than 6-8k. Insurance isn't a big deal (for an older used), neither is gas because I ride the bus to work and would use the car casually, so probably less than average expenses there.

>>17467995
oh so like a weekend toy? yeah that'd reduce costs
so what's 15% of your monthly income after all over expenses are accounted for?

>>17468012
15% of my take home is 330. All my spending for a month leaves me with about $900 leftover.

>>17468067
in that case 6-8k is pretty realistic yeah

just don't be one of those faggots who totals his new car within a year of owning it