On 2007-05-23, Peter R. wrote:
Car dealers around my part of the US are now offering 6 year car loans! With
auto depreciation being what it is, there will be a lot of upside-down auto
loans out there in a few more years.

Personally, I can never see myself ever buying a new car. My current
car, I bought in 2002 (it's a '95 model). If I had bought the same make
and model brand new in 2002, by 2005 it would have depreciated more than
the *entire* value of the car I have now. The maintenance cost of my now
12 year old car is less than the loan interest on a new car, let alone
the depreciation.

A good used car can be had for a song and will go on for years. Mine's
galvanized so it hasn't even gone rusty in the salty air here. It runs
as well as it did when it rolled off the dealer's lot in 1995. It gets
the fuel economy that the book says it should, too. I'm planning on
still having this car in 2015 when it's 20 years old!

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