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Posted
Jul 06 2009, 05:43 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
When I bought my used Mini Cooper in April, things didn't go exactly as I'd planned. Part of this was because I hadn't done enough research. But a lot of it was because the dealership had some tricks up its sleeve and I did not.
At Car and Driver, Jared Gall has compiled a list of car dealer tricks to watch for when buying a vehicle. He says the following are common practices:
- Juggling the foursquare. The "foursquare" is the worksheet on which the salesperson jots down the terms of the deal. It's an easy way for her to manipulate one factor (purchase price, down payment, monthly payments, trade-in value) or another.
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Posted
Jan 12 2009, 05:15 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This guest post comes from Jason at Frugal Dad.
"RDS" of Smart Financial Values left an intriguing comment in response to a recent post at Frugal Dad asking readers if they would be willing to sell all material possessions to become debt-free. RDS mentions that when it comes to possessions, "the transformation from desired, valued item to clutter happens very suddenly."
It forced me to reflect on the life cycle of a few of my own purchases in the past, and how I feel toward those items today.
The object of my desire
I had it bad. I looked at pictures of her in magazines, at online videos, and often rode by during lunch breaks just to catch a glimpse of her. Her name was Silverado, as in Chevy Silverado.
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Posted
Jan 08 2009, 04:06 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Vehicle repo men were in overdrive last year, picking up a record 1.67 million cars and trucks.
According to Automotive News, that figure is from Tom Webb, chief economist at Manheim Consulting, and represents a 12% increase over 2007.
In the only bright note in this story, Webb expects an overall increase of only 5% for all of 2009, with an actual decrease in repos coming in the second six months of the year.
Other factlets from the story:
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Posted
Jan 05 2009, 08:38 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Are you confident that the ailing economy will rebound quickly? Apparently Hyundai is betting that you aren't. Under the new Hyundai Assurance plan, if you buy or lease a new Hyundai and lose your job within a year, you can take the car back without credit hassles.
Depending on what the car is worth at the time, you may not even owe another dime.
This may be what it takes to get nervous buyers into showrooms. Of course, there are a few little hitches in this unusual marketing approach. Among them:
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Posted
Dec 23 2008, 05:59 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
What would you think of a bailout proposal that rewards people who buy new cars? That idea is the basis of several bills introduced in Congress. Car buyers would get a $10,000 incentive in one form or another to buy a new car and, in the process, heal the ailing U.S. auto industry. It's certainly not the strangest car-related stuff we've read recently. (That would be an article about a Beverly Hills physician who powered his car with biodiesel made from liposuctioned human fat.)
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Posted
Dec 19 2008, 05:59 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Filed under: spending, savings, The Simple Dollar, car models, gas prices, prices, cars, used cars, gas mileage, car loans, car shopping
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. In just a few short months, the price of gas at the station I regularly use has dropped from $4.09 per gallon to $1.49 per gallon -- an absolutely amazing drop. Not long ago, I spent $82 filling up my truck (which has a 20-gallon tank). The other day, I filled the tank for under $30. From a strict personal-finance perspective (and ignoring the larger global economic concerns) this is fantastic news for most people. If you have to fill a typical car tank each week (12 gallons), the price change is saving you somewhere on the order of $30 a week. That's $120 a month, an amount that can really help with debt repayment, saving for a down payment, or preparing for retirement. This shift in gas prices comes at an interesting time for me and my family. My wife and I have been carefully studying potential automobile purchases, and our calculations had led us to focus on automobiles that are efficient with their fuel. Using our numbers, assuming a $4 to $5 gallon of gas going forward, fuel efficiency was so valuable that it often trumped a higher price at the dealership.
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Posted
Dec 11 2008, 08:53 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com. It's not only Congress and the American taxpayer possibly coming to the aid of ailing U.S. automakers. A group of Midwest credit unions is pledging $10 billion in low-cost financing for the purchase of General Motors vehicles. The plan is called Invest in America, according to the Michigan Credit Union League's Web site. The site says the credit union league is talking to Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler about similar programs. The league claims a membership of about 12 million consumers. The program will be tested in four Midwestern states, possibly going nationwide early next year.
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Posted
Dec 04 2008, 05:19 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Quartermain, Cathryn Sykes' trusty 1994 GMC Safari van, recently reached a big milestone -- 250,000 miles on the odometer, with the original engine and transmission, no less. She paid $9,000 in cash for him 11 years ago and has treated him with loving care. In return, he's dependably hauled hay, plywood and a miniature horse, plus occasionally pulled a horse trailer. What's not to love, she explains in an ode to her used van at Money to Spare. (Her dedication to her vehicle, "Quart" for short, reminds us of Miss Thrifty's regard for the fabulous Thriftymobile.)
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Posted
Oct 13 2008, 08:23 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
If you want to buy a General Motors vehicle with GMAC financing, you'd better have your financial ducks in a row. GMAC Financial Services announced today that it's temporarily limiting contracts to people with at least a 700 credit score.
"The credit markets are tightening up everywhere and this is just a reflection of that,'' GM spokesman John McDonald told Bloomberg.com. "Dealers have a number of options for customers, including GMAC and non-captive financing, to be able to finance vehicles.''
Whether this will have a widespread impact on GM car sales is debatable. It appears that when the economy is unpredictable, smart people aren't looking for new debt.
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Posted
Apr 22 2008, 01:44 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Some people are financially sidelined by circumstances beyond their control, while others just poor-mouth -- making excuses for their circumstances with phrases like "The poor man just can't get ahead" or "We struggle just to make ends meet" or "I work hard so I deserve it." "Frugal Dad" calls these folks the "perpetual poor" and explains how you can identify them in this biting and humorous post. For instance, he writes, those who use the "poor man" rant referenced above "can recite the last five winners of American Idle (that's not a typo) from memory, haven't picked up a book since high school," and "never stretched to learn a new skill at work, but complain about being passed over for promotions."
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