[Maigrey]

On that note, look into purchasing next time a program car from the dealership. The automobile is in great shape (reasonable amount of miles) the car has been taken care of, and you don't have to eat the first 30% of the inflated value as soon as you drive it off the lot!

(I did that with my '97 Ford Escort. I got it as a program car with a little over 8000 miles on it. By purchasing slightly used, I saved over $4000 on the car's price!)

[Lucy Lake]

What is a program car?

[Conservative til I die]

I think a decent used car would be a good idea. I put $5500 down on my new car. Consider if I did that with say, a 1998 or 1999 model, I'd probably only have to pay off maybe $3000 on the balance instead of $13000.