Today, an employee had visited a car sales rep for information on a 2008 ford mustang with all the features. The rep offered some discounts since we are deployed but the price quoted to him was over 28k.  To most everyone in the room, that seemed like a reasonable price!

My wife's car has over 130,000 miles on it but is still running alright.  When the time comes we were planning on replacing it with a few year old model probably around 15k-18k.  I just can't see spending over 20k for transportation when a good used car will do the job just as well. 

Has purchasing new cars every few years become a lifestyle for us?  And how much have car payments caused folks to go into debt?

Cars cost us a great deal, I think. For my wife and I, cars are one of our largest expenses. Although one of the cars is now paid off, the other is carrying a fairly heavy monthly payment. With plans to start a family in the future, we've realized that neither car is practical for us, so we'll have to replace both of them in the next couple of years. That probably means taking on two loan payments. My view is that we should get the most affordable vehicles that will do the job for us, but it's an emotional decision for my wife, who was raised in the Southern California car culture. The trick will be to find something she can get at least a little excited about, while keeping the overall cost of the cars to a minimum.

I'm still driving a 1989 Honda Civic. I've had so many months over the years with no car payment and no repair bill, I love that car.

But it doesn't support a "live style" image, which I'm alright with.

When I see someone driving a BMW, all I'm really sure of is either that person is wealthy and the car's paid for, or they can afford the $400 a month lease for it.

Either way there's no telling what their net worth is from what they're driving.

Who needs that Life style image?  I sure don't.  I do pay new cars, because once the warranty is over, I am done paying it off.  Now that it is paid off, I drive for about 5 more years payment free.  Since, I am into Toyota's I find that I don't have a lot of service repairs with it.  I think it works out well for me.

Let's say you buy a brand new car for $15,000 today on finance at 8% interest over 5 years. Your monthly repayments are only $305 per month! That's easy, right?

At the end of 5 years, that car has really cost you $18,300

That's about triple what it's worth at the end of that car loan...