Do you have a car loan?

[Glamourcide]

Goth Mum, I don't get it. Can't you go to another town to buy a car?

Well, not really. The nearest 'big smoke' is 600km away, we had no car of our own and couldn't get anybody to take us (nor could we afford plane tix etc), and DH and I would never trust an internet ad as the sole basis of us buying a car - he couldn't afford to take a week or so off work to go and check it out thoroughly and ensure it was all legit and in good working order. Plus, it would have been a massive waste to spend money on accommodation, plane tix etc only to get there and find out the car wasn't in good nick and either come home empty-handed or have to search desperately for something else within our price range (not that we even had any savings to pay cash for a car if we'd taken that route).
It might have been alright for us if we could have bought a smaller car, but DH being over 6'4 means he literally can't fit into an Excel or Barina or something - buying a VZ Commodore wasn't anything to do with getting a near-new car that looks nice, it was solely that he can't drive anything smaller than a family sedan, and it was just sheer luck that this particular one came up at the time it did - it was exactly what we needed, for a price we could afford, and in exceptionally good condition (and it's great because it's completely stocko - no flashy show-offs here!! We like it because it's 'respectable' and not tacky like some of these hotted-up things our friends drive, we never get targeted by police patrols like our friends in big shiny turbo-charged things do).

I guess the key issue is that cars are like houses, really - you never get back what you actually paid for it, but at least buying a good-quality second-hand car with low km's etc, we will get our money's worth out of it - chances are we just wouldn't have been so lucky if we'd gone private sale or bought something older or cheaper.

We didn't choose this car on the basis of 'we need a new-ish car to impress people', we chose it on the basis of 'we need a new-ish car so that it actually lasts us 10 or 15 years rather than 5, so we'll have paid out the loan years before it carks it, and we'll actually get $30k worth out of it, and when it finally dies we will be in a better position to go out and buy a similar car again'. We'll never buy a new car, DH's friend has bought no less than four brand-new cars in the last three years (the first he wrote off and got a new one with insurance money, the second he lost his licence and sold off, the third he took out a $45k loan for and then decided it was too expensive to keep - it's a huge V8 Clubsport that looks great but chews a lot of fuel - and he's just traded it in for a Kia Cerato... we'll see how long this one lasts!!) and DH and I both think he's either completely insane, or just really frivolous. New cars are for rich people lol!!