Justification of truck payment.....

[chrisbh17]

I was at the dealership last week getting some maintenance done on my 14 Big Horn and was surprised to see my exact model and optioned truck is now stickered 10k higher just 3 model years later, that is a joke!

It's not like they've added anything significant the last 3 years to warrant that number. I just think they are getting people use to a 7-10 year financing term and that enables them to increase the price to ride out the $600ish payment people are use to when they use to pay it for 5 years.

Window sticker (and dealer invoice, for that matter) have become "watered down" in the last 5 years or so. NOTHING should really sell for window sticker, but I feel like the manufacturers put it out there just in case someone "just wants it now". All they need is a few people to do that and they've made enough profit to cover 5 or 6 "deals" from before inflated MSRP and invoice prices.

Family member bought a Nissan a few years ago, the car stickered for 41K and the dealers "starting deal" was 35K. If a dealer knocks off that much just for asking, you KNOW they are making oodles of $$$ at any price point.

My '17 Big Horn stickered for $45K, I bought it for a bit over $32K.

 

[smiley]

We never buy new. Bought my 2012 in 2015. Just paid it off 2 months ago. There’s mechanically no difference between an 09 and a 17, so I couldn’t justify the price difference.

In theory you are correct mostly but there is differences in model years that make a big difference. Transfer cases and transmissions most notably. There is also changes such as vendor changes that we don’t get told about but end up being an issue down the road. That is why when recalls happen they often are only a certain year or range but they look like the same trucks.

 

[troutspinner]

Same here, got about 11k off of sticker. My rule of thumb was always 10k off sticker and see where you go from there with trucks. But even 10k off of the new prices, the price is still too much IMO. I'd want 20k and I know they wouldn't budge for that.

 

[Danno]

I have a $60k power wagon that I pay 600 on. I go to the bank and ask for preapproval tell them how much I want to pay a month. Then go to the dealer and show they the check, tell them take it or leave it as There s dealers on every corner. The other thing I do is take income tax return and it pays for my payments for a year. So it's money don't see, ever and I don't feel the pain of a payment.

$1k or more a month for a vehicle payment. I bard a hard time accepting $600, not the money out of pocket but when did it become so high and is it worth it.

 

[ExpressRules]

. The other thing I do is take income tax return and it pays for my payments for a year. So it's money don't see, ever and I don't feel the pain of a payment.

.

Income tax return is money that you lent to uncle Sam as a free loan so if you set your payroll deduction properly you it would be money you could have seen.

 

[Jeepwalker]

[deleted post]

 

[barr0208]

man I did ok I got $16,000 off msrp of $62,500 taxes in $48795 ($37620 us) for factory ordered 2016 Laramie quad cab.,oh and financed 72 months $712 cad -$550us

 

[R/T_Fire]

I don't always buy new, Most vehicles I modify to my taste so I don't worry about all the bells and whistles on it by ordering it, just a few certain basics and add the rest later for cheaper and better quality of after market.

Buying a 2-3 year old truck you get lower miles, a pretty much new truck without the depreciation that comes in the first 2-3 years. I bought my 2011 R/T when it was 3 years old.... my payment is $275 a month with 2.5% interest.
The other way to look at stomaching the payment is when you get a truck that is 10-15 years old you have to stomach all the repair costs, so in reality you pay that car payments anyway, just in repairs of motors, transmissions, axles, accessories etc etc.... May be a little cheaper and some may get lucky and skate buy without repair bills but over all it all works out to be pretty similar in cost....
Most vehicles that are past their time and still have "collector" or hobby value I tend to modify, play with and keep, or sell to buy another toy or new/newer car to go play with...

 

[Lesnocker]

Our market just sucks right now due to the natural gas fracking. One bedroom apartments went from $400.00 to $850 a month. Even campers doubled in price. If you want a 2500 quad cab diesel your paying above sticker. These companies come in and buy 50+ at a time as fleet trucks. Took my 2nd Gen to the shop. Needs about a grand worth of work so I said the hell with it. Sorry I'm now just ranting. But when our local bar becomes a cowboys bar......20 minutes from Heinz feild I become a little upset. Then some of them boys from Texas and Arizona have no idea why there's this slippery white stuff on the ground and pull 70 mph wondering why they're upside down in a ditch. lol

 

[Danno]

Income tax return is money that you lent to uncle Sam as a free loan so if you set your payroll deduction properly you it would be money you could have seen.

I'm good, go messing with HR and I won't see a paycheck for months.

As far as the fracking, what are you talking about? Yes property value has risen including rent. Vehicles, no so much. I live in the track belt and haven't notice any increase in vehicle prices but have notice a flood of used diesel, beat to help diesels for cheap.

 

[GsRAM]

For trucks, I'll only buy new if i can going forward. Trucks hold their value so well these days. When i was looking before i purchased my 15 Silverado 1500 i had before this ram, $20k would get you a 10yr old truck with over 100k miles. No thanks! Yeah, new costs more, but i know what i have and what's been done to it. It's worth it to me, ,but that's just my preference.

Op, you need to shop around, check online for Dennis Dillon and see what he has. I've heard he's very reasonable. You have to travel there and drive it back, but may be worth it. Good luck.

Fracking is a proccess of drilling to get natural gas out of the ground.

 

[Murphy Slaw]

Huge down payment and you're never upside down.

And the note is like the old days.

 

[Ramjet]

Really sounds very high. Keep shopping

 

[Jeepwalker]

Some guys want new and squeaky clean, but it's going to cost ya. Others can accept some boogers for low (or no) payments at the risk of higher repair costs. Comes down to values. That's what makes this country great, you have choices. Seems to be a pretty linear scale right now for trucks if you can get 11k off sticker. You can see in the graphic below that all three never overlap, but if you turn over enough rocks you can likely find a great deal and skew things heavily away from the cost circle (you 'hope'). There are good deals out there from time to time ...but pretty rare right now in this economy. That'll change when the next gas 'shock' comes and the current group of truck owners dump their trucks for more efficient cars. I don't see anything on the horizon at the moment though for at least a couple years. But difficult to see ..the future is.

 

[Usual Suspect]

Just my opinion... there is no justification for making payments on a vehicle. Not saying I haven't done it because I have many years ago. Then I decided it was a losing proposition and worked my ass off to pay it off early and kept working working my ass off to have the funds to enable myself to not step into the hole again. If I could do it, anyone else could also. And it sure is sweet at trading time to just deal in trade difference amount with cash money.

I traded for a 17 BigHorn crew 4wd a couple weeks ago. I pulled into a dealer I'd never been to before, picked out the one I wanted, drove it, let them look mine over, then told the salesman what I would give in difference. Then I told him he had 15 minutes while I stood outside and made a couple calls. If he couldn't do it by then I was headed to another dealer to look at a truck. He came out in 10 min. and offered back $1k higher. I thanked him for his time and headed for my truck. The sales manager trotted out and said hold up, I'll accept your offer. 30 min. later I'm driving my new truck home. No financing and no B/S.

 

[StinkyHotChocolate]

If you can get a good rate, financing makes perfect sense. Invest the different in something that makes a higher return than your auto loan, pocket the difference. People get into trouble when they start trading around and get upside down, buying more than they can afford, etc.

 

[chrisbh17]

If you can get a good rate, financing makes perfect sense. Invest the different in something that makes a higher return than your auto loan, pocket the difference. People get into trouble when they start trading around and get upside down, buying more than they can afford, etc.

This.

I actually had a finance guy hand me back my down payment check "I will not take that much from you, your rate is 0.9%, take half of that amount and put it into a CD"

Financing is OK in my book, you just need to be smart about it. If I insisted on paying 100% for whatever vehicle I bought, between a wife and 2 kids and a house, Id own a bicycle forever.

 

[mtofell]

Yep, prices are ridiculous for trucks and everything else in the world these days. Unless you come in with a healthy down payment any monthly payment is going to be scary.

In March of 2014 I put about 10K down on a 48K MSRP Ram. I paid about 80% of that MSRP so about 39K. After the 10K down I financed +/- 29K @ 2.5% for 5 years. I've been making super aggressive payments and have about $7,000 to go. I should have it paid off by summer.

My business pays for about 95% of my vehicle expenses so I do get quite a good deal with deducting the expenses. My accountant is actually frowning at how fast I'm paying it off since the loan interest rate is so good. I don't care.... I just want to have no payment.

I also bought a MaxCare lifetime warranty so I'm in it for the long haul.

As for the OP's question - yeah, it's crazy how much a payment would be on a new truck with no down payment.

 

[usaf2006]

My '17 Rebel payment is $560 for 72 months. Financed 36,400. I'm not happy with having to pay it, but I forget it every time I drive it lol.

 

[Skrap]

Please don't buy that truck or any truck with that trim level for that price. I'd probably look at good used truck in the $25K range or so that has a lot of nice options.

I couldn't imagine driving a bare bones truck for $600/month for 84+ months. It may feel good for the first couple days but then it would hit you that you got yourself into a mess.

BTW, if you decide to take on a longer payment period with a lower rate and want to double up on payments occasionally make sure you additional payments are applied toward the principle only. Some loans may be set up where if you make additional payments you are still paying interest and some small amount of principle. IN the end you really need to shop around and you really need to fix your credit. It will make life so much easier.