For those who own cars.......
1. What is your total income?
2. Do you buy or lease?
3. What is your monthly payment?
Trending Content - Off Topic Forum
Career Resources
WSO Free Modeling Series - Now Open Through
May 31, 2026
9 Free Financial Modeling Lessons
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
+Bonus: Get 27 financial modeling templates in swipe file
+Bonus: Get 27 financial modeling templates in swipe file
High Finance Applications
Guaranteed
Get at least one offer GUARANTEED
- 1:1 support
- 92% success rate
- 2,000+ mentor network
- Unlimited Live bootcamps
- AI for resume + LinkedIn
- Networking automation tools
- HireVue simulation tool
- Full course library
- Private Slack community
- 20hrs of mocks
- + much more...
I don’t think leasing a car is owning it. It’s like renting it
Unless you keep cars a long time, you are basically renting it from the bank anyway.
this post wasn’t about rent/lease. More curious what people are spending on their cars.
Or you buy it with your own money and not borrow money to buy it
If you own a car not sure what monthly payment would be besides maybe insurance and maintenance, etc
parking
Tx
Look @ lease takeovers. Specific brands like BMW and cars between $60k - $150k are best for this because a lot of young males with their first or second real job buy $$$ cars, then realize they can't afford them and dump the lease inexpensively.
So I have been working on cars for a very long time, started at age 13. My uncles and father were always into cars.
I buy luxury cars that were slightly damaged (ie fender, hood, lights, wheel, busted radiator, etc) at a huge discount and fix them myself. After paint and parts I normally end up with a 20-25% profit. I could paint parts on my own, but it is more cost efficient if I do this externally. I don't work on cars full-time.
Recently I had BMW M4, Continental GT, and a Porsche Cayman.
re: leasing vs financing vs cash vs pre-paid lease vs. rest
- I have never owned a car I didn't pay for outright in cash. Either that or I got the car for free through family members.
- If the income derived from the car usage is higher than fees/interest/cost of ownership, then it may make sense to lease it. In this case you won't be able to change anything on this vehicle since it has to be returned stock when the lease ends. If driving a car is just usage for you, maybe leasing is for you. Kind of a long-term rental with a few things you have to do yourself.
- semiconductor shortage: in some markets and on some models the demand is higher than supply because of manufacturing and supply chain issues.
What is your total income? not enough
Do you buy or lease? lease
What is your monthly payment? way too much
Income: when I bought was ~$700k
Buy or lease: Buy
Payments: fully paid, no payments
I trust you have a fairly well rounded garage at this point
You would think so, especially since I love cars, but living in nyc makes that a bad idea. I have rented (and borrowed from friends) some sports cars just to see if I could tolerate owning those in nyc (and use for weekend trips) but it was a giant pain in the a**.
Good for you
you're missing the biggest question -- how much do you need a car?
Where do you live? Do you have a family?
And purpose of car -- for enjoyment or for transportation
Will need to buy a car soon, but below is based on what I plan to do. Aiming to spend $25-35k on a car.
What is your total income? ~$150k-175k salary (excluding bonus)
Do you buy or lease? Plan to buy
What is your monthly payment? Hoping for ~$500 of interest + amort w/36 month term (I intend to put 30-50% down / I'm pretty risk averse)
what's your bonus?
I don't factor bonus in / I just assume it's $0 every year.
What is your total income? $100k
Do you buy or lease? Buy
What is your monthly payment? $500
You bought the car yet you have a $500 monthly payment for what?
For the loan, I put down a down-payment and then got a loan for the rest of the cost.
Anyone else think it’s smart to buy an electric at this point since it’s becoming industry standard? Might as well start adjusting I think. Idk
I'm going to get a hybrid suv for 5-10 years and hope the electric infrastructure picks up by then. You're basically limited to an around town car with electric in its current state and I don't want to have to worry about going further than 300 miles in one go.
Tesla has charging stations built into its mapping system? You don’t want to rely on its mapping system?
Would love to see you siphon electricity out of an abandoned vehicle as zombies close in on your family, pal
Total income: c. $375-$400k
Bought it: ~$50k with roughly $30k financed at an egregious 6% and a massive term (6 yrs)
~$600 monthly payment
Could have bought it all cash and considered doing so. Logic on the crazy financing was that I could get more than 6% on that $30k that I was borrowing against the vehicle and I have done multiples of that. I still hate the fact that I'm paying 6% APR on this loan and want to take it all out in one go out of principle.
Dude... what is your credit score. I would not have paid 6% for a car loan
There's some nuance behind the APR.
My credit score in the US was low 800s and in Canada (where I bought it) is currently high 700s. Not sure how much experience you have with car loans, and don't wanna come off as condescending or patronizing, but 6% was only ~1% above market at the time. Every single major bank was offering 6%. Coulda found lower APRs from "boutique" sources of financing, but would have paid more sticker in doing so.
I had just moved back to Canada when I bought it, and hadn't had a Canadian income in a few years. Financing came from my bank that I used across border, but couldn't use my US credit for obvious reasons. Bought it during the pandemic when there was a "shortage" of the type of vehicle I got and the used car market was white hot so I guess banks were gouging people. I also wanted to use the loan to help speed up my CAD credit building too and its much 'cleaner' for me to have the loan from the bank I bank with. I coulda bought it outright and had demonstrated this along with my US income to my bank but they wouldn't budge.
What I SHOULD have done is taken out a LoC from the same bank and used that rather than a standard car loan. LoCs were lower APR. Oh well. the difference is literally $2,000 over 6 years.
Everybody freaks out over the 6% APR, and I get it. It's a bit wack when rates are so low.. but it's a few thousand dollars over 6 years in exchange for me being able to put the $30k of capital to work in the stock market and I've done very well since then (as has literally everybody, lol) so I am not at all bothered by it. I wouldn't recommend taking a 6% APR to most folks but given that its a rounding error in my monthly expenses and income I didn't really blink at it.
id refi but im 3 years behind on taxes whoops
What did you buy?
Deleted.
Hard to say no to 0%. What did you get?
Not that hard
Aut et fuga delectus fugit dolorem dolorum facilis dolores. Fuga provident nemo dolor quia modi. Et aut qui iure nobis est earum sed. Inventore voluptatum consequatur pariatur amet dolore.
Aut tempore dolores quos placeat voluptates dolores quaerat. Consequatur dolores et debitis ex natus soluta. Velit soluta modi voluptatibus consequatur reprehenderit. Et blanditiis animi vitae occaecati nobis. Consequatur alias amet quos modi omnis voluptatem.
Quis autem est doloribus placeat voluptatem et officia. Eos eum voluptas consequatur ducimus quisquam ut nesciunt. Qui sit quis illum nostrum vel.
Voluptatem asperiores a doloremque nesciunt omnis ut quo. Natus ipsam rerum sint ratione qui qui tenetur. Excepturi ad repellendus illum dolores fugiat saepe temporibus. Nisi placeat adipisci ipsum molestias et veritatis.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Consequuntur repudiandae eligendi eius voluptatem. Numquam accusamus facere expedita aliquid. Dolor ut aperiam provident ipsam quia nisi. Et aut dolorem blanditiis nisi. Nobis eligendi minus qui sunt dolor. Iure necessitatibus aperiam et rerum possimus eveniet.