Another car one, to add
...to the inevitable long list of car stories.

California, 2005. New job, new direction of life, decided I needed some fast car to keep up with the septic tanks and their muscle machines. But ive never been one for Merkin muscle cars, so I opted for a brand new Jap Lancer Evo 8. Problem was I had no credit history in the USA and they were wanting $36k for the car. Hmm.

I scraped together $3k and the dealer found a company willing to take me on finance. The APR was a whopping 28% though. No problem says the dealer, just call the finance guys up in a year when you have a year of history with them and they will re-finance the loan at a better rate.

So a year goes by of me paying a 1/4 of my monthly salary to this car. Rings the finance company who promptly tell me they dont do re-financing and ill have to speak to a different company if i want to refinance. The loan balance (thanks to the interest id paid each month) was still high - $30k, and the car worth now only $28k used. After much ringing around, no other company would take me with one year of credit history and a negative equity balance on the car so I was stuck firmly with the original finance company and their interest rate. Thanks to depreciation, and the plummeting of used car values in the states, it took me 3 years of paying more than the monthly payments to get out of negative equity. Pretty crippling considering other costs of living in california. I think the thing cost me $56k in total in the end.

I look back on that and think was all that shit-your-pants driving worth that?

Half of me says yes. The other says what a waste of money.

I drive cars which cost me less than a grand now. Throw them away when they break, buy another. Much simpler
(shamen Geekius Maximus, Thu 30 Sep 2010, 15:50, 2 replies)

$56k = what in £'s back then? and which version?
cause over here they were priced as follows:
260bhp = £24,000
300 = £28,000
320 = £30,000
340 = £33,000

so if it's the latter and the exchange rate was in your favour then you probably still got quite a good deal.
(Kip, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 9:22, closed)

was only
the gsr.. so the same as the 260 uk model. They didnt have the FQ series over there are the time, just the GSR and MR, both 260. I paid well over the odds ;)
(shamen Geekius Maximus, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 15:08, closed)