[Ypeguero]

Looking to move from my 2013 Accord Coupe CVT w/ Navi to a 2015 Accord Coupe V6 (most likely no nav).

I was just curious to see what the average consensus is about what an avg. Down Payment should be on Financing deals and what is the maximum you would give down.

I've only purchased one car which was around +/- 2k for the lease. Interested in hearing ppls pov's.

 

[trusaleen1]

I'd put zero down or at the most tax & license if you purchase. On the lease the worst thing you can do is put money down. For the lease all you need to pay is first month payment and tax. If your car gets totaled or stolen, you just flushed that money down the drain. Plus rates are so low its like free money.

 

[PeterLegend]

I financed my car and am planning on owning it for at least 10 years.

I downed $15,000. I could of downed $10,000 but oh well...

leasing is different though since you dont plan on owning the vehicle longer than 24-36 months.

 

[so-cal-accord]

If you're going to finance, then it all depends on the interest rate you're going to get.

My wife and I just purchased a 2015 Accord V6, and while we could have bought the car outright or put at least $10-$15k down, we only put $5k down. That's because we got a 0.9% interest rate. That's practically free money. Why would I give them all my cash now when I can hold on to it, invest it in any variety of ways over the next 5 years, and earn interest on it?

As far as leasing goes, as other have said, don't put a dime down when you get the car. That's just money down the drain.

At the end of the day, the salesman is always going to try and manipulate you by moving the numbers around to make your monthly payment as low as possible, making it more enticing for you. All you need to concern yourself with is the purchase price. You can decide for yourself what you want your monthly payments to be.

 

[PeterLegend]

The dealership that I went to would only give 0.9% if i did 36 months so I downed 15k.

If i downed 5k, I would owe 25K then be paying 694 for 36 months lol.

 

[Bond-007]

I have tier one credit (score is over 840) and I typically like to get title in 4 years tops and like to keep my monthly payment around $400 or less. So this means I usually end up financing around $17000. I get at least $10K dollars worth of equity in my trades since I trade my cars in before they hit 60K miles or 5 years. How much equity in the trade in and the negotiated sale price on the new car usually determine how much I put down. Could be anywhere from $2K-$5K. I bought a 2015 V6 Coupe loaded with navi for a sale price under $30K. They gave me $10,500 for my trade. I put less than $2K down and financed the rest. Monthly payment is a well under $400.

This is also why I never, ever lease even though leasing would easily put me into a lexus or bmw b/c there's no equity at the end.

 

[2012Taffeta]

Yea as stated above it all depends on your credit and if you are buying or leasing. My wife and I where going to but down 7k on her civic when we purchased it but she qualified for 0.9%. The sales guy who was super nice asked if we had any credit cards and we did. So we payed those off because the interest was wayyy higher on those bad boys. I think the dealer wanted 2k down because it was her first big purchase. Also depends how big you want your monthly to be, some people would prefer to have a smaller payment or pay it off quicker. Good luck with switching it up.

 

[so-cal-accord]

I have tier one credit (score is over 840) and I typically like to get title in 4 years tops and like to keep my monthly payment around $400 or less. So this means I usually end up financing around $17000. I get at least $10K dollars worth of equity in my trades since I trade my cars in before they hit 60K miles or 5 years. How much equity in the trade in and the negotiated sale price on the new car usually determine how much I put down. Could be anywhere from $2K-$5K. I bought a 2015 V6 Coupe loaded with navi for a sale price under $30K. They gave me $10,500 for my trade. I put less than $2K down and financed the rest. Monthly payment is a well under $400.

This is also why I never, ever lease even though leasing would easily put me into a lexus or bmw b/c there's no equity at the end.

But in your scenario, if you're always rolling that equity over into your next car and you always get rid of your cars before 60k or 5 years, what's the advantage over leasing? Assuming you don't put any money down on a lease, you don't need any equity from the previous car. And it sounds like you're OK with almost always having a car payment. So what's stopping you from leasing a BMW/Lexus?

(not trying to contradict you BTW, it's just that lease vs. buy is a constant argument I have in my head, and I'm always curious to hear people's rationale)

 

[Kamdog]

I decide how much a month I want to pay, and put down an amount that gets me there. For the Accord, it was ~$3,000 for the BMW it was ~$25,000. I always own 2 cars, but have payments for only one.

 

[hashamhk]

I put 10K down, I wanted to pay cash up front but I was told its good to pay monthly for a year or two before paying it off to build a good credit. Not sure if that is true or not but my biggest concern was the interest rate would be high since I was 22.

 

[Baldeagle]

I thought we had a similar thread a few months ago. It all depends on you. How large of a monthly payment can your cash flow comfortably handle? Must you target a payment? What will be your emergency fund after making the down payment? What else would you do with the down payment – opportunity cost? What is the loan interest rate? How is your credit? Would a loan improve your credit? How stable is your work? Is being debt-free or low-debt for safety important to you? If you make a large down payment, what will you do with the “lack of” car payment each month? Are you disciplined enough to reinvest that “lack of” payment into a retirement account or to rebuild the account from which you took that money? Do you have other debt? What is your total debt to income ratio. The questions can go on an on.

If you are looking for a base number I would suggest 20% down. That should give you enough equity in the car to never be upside down. No need for gap insurance. From that point, it is up to you.

And by the way, with leases it makes no difference what you put down. What is the better lease deal? A 24-month lease at $360/month with no money down or a 24-month lease at $235/month with $3,000 down? What is the total expenditure? I’ll cut to the chase: it is $8,640 for both leases. That is the way 99% of leases work. The total cost rarely changes. The lease company needs a certain amount of money in total during the lease period. It doesn’t matter how they get it. More cash up front means a proportionally lower payment. Total cost is almost always the same.

 

[StevieD]

0 down, no trade in required. 0.9% interest, 60 months, no gap insurance yada, yada, yada That is all credit score stuff. Car will be paid off early, because I can.


If I remember correctly, my first car that "I" bought was 0 down and 10.6% interest (if I had needed a deposit, they might have applied my trade in and called it good). Oh, and 10.6% interest was one heck of a deal back then because I had CD's paying from 11 to 17%. Yep, the 80's were financially wild.

"I" bought..... the car before that was bought used and might have had Dad's co-sign on it. Like I said, the 80's were wild and interest rates were nutz.

 

[TMVB]

All depends on the interest rate you can get. If you qualify for 0.9%, then you should put nothing down. Don't understand those putting $5K, $10K, or even $15K down when you can get practically free money from AHFC. Leave that $$ in your investment vehicle of choice. Last I checked, S&P 500 is up about 10% from a year ago. Why remove $ from a 10% return to put against something that is costing you 0.9%?

 

[Bond-007]

But in your scenario, if you're always rolling that equity over into your next car and you always get rid of your cars before 60k or 5 years, what's the advantage over leasing? Assuming you don't put any money down on a lease, you don't need any equity from the previous car. And it sounds like you're OK with almost always having a car payment. So what's stopping you from leasing a BMW/Lexus?

(not trying to contradict you BTW, it's just that lease vs. buy is a constant argument I have in my head, and I'm always curious to hear people's rationale)

Flexibility. If I want to keep the car I can, if I want to exceed 12K miles a year I can, etc. and its paid off for in 4 years. At 5 years, you still have good equity in the vehicle. There's two depreciation hits on a car - after the first year and after 5 years. I also save money doing this versus leasing. Leasing is ok if its a one time thing. But when you continually roll into a lease you loose a lot of money over the long term.
Also, yes I am comfortable with a car payment every month.

 

[Baldeagle]

But in your scenario, if you're always rolling that equity over into your next car and you always get rid of your cars before 60k or 5 years, what's the advantage over leasing? Assuming you don't put any money down on a lease, you don't need any equity from the previous car. And it sounds like you're OK with almost always having a car payment. So what's stopping you from leasing a BMW/Lexus?

(not trying to contradict you BTW, it's just that lease vs. buy is a constant argument I have in my head, and I'm always curious to hear people's rationale)

The primary financial advantage of owning a car verses leasing a car is an implied longer holding period. A longer holding period implies less total depreciation. (A lease payment is calculated to pass 100% of the depreciation on to the lease holder for that lease period, plus profit.)

Most cars depreciate at a flat rate each year. It doesn't really change from year to year and is typically around 17% per year. Starting with a $30,000 car, this would be the value at the end of each year for a 6-year period:


• Start: $30,000
• End of Year1: $24,900
• End of Year2: $20,667
• End of Year3: $17,154
• End of Year 4:$14,237
• End of Year 5: $11,817
• End of Year 6: $9,808

Total Depreciation: $20,192

A three-year lease would look like:

• Start: $30,000
• End of Year1: $24,900
• End of Year2: $20,667
• End of Year3: $17,154

Total Depreciation: $12,846

PLUS other new lease for the next three years:

• Start: $30,000
• End of Year1: $24,900
• End of Year2: $20,667
• End of Year3: $17,154

Total Depreciation: $12,846

Total depreciation for two three-year leases would be $25,692 versus $20,192 if you held one car for same six year period. However if you bought a car and traded it in every three years, the depreciation would be the same.

 

[Philaphlous]

I put 10K down, I wanted to pay cash up front but I was told its good to pay monthly for a year or two before paying it off to build a good credit. Not sure if that is true or not but my biggest concern was the interest rate would be high since I was 22.

That's what I know also. It's good to get your name on a loan and have good payment history, especially if you're trying to establish credit.


I dropped 12k on mine and paid the rest off in a year. If all goes well I'll probably have my car till 2021-2022....hopefully