Posted on 10/12/2008 8:59:55 PM PDT by bornred
An inflatable gorilla beckoned from the roof of Don Brown Chevrolet in St. Louis, servers doled out free bowls of pasta and a salesman urged potential customers to "come on up under the canopy and put your hands on" a new set of wheels.
But sitting across from a salesman in a quiet back room, Adrian Clark could see it would not be nearly that easy. This was the ninth or tenth dealership for Clark, a steamfitter looking for a car to commute to a new job. Every one offered a variation on the discouragement he was getting here: Without $1,000 for a downpayment, no loan.
...
"I think we're undergoing a fundamental shift from living on borrowed money to one where living within your means, saving and investing for the future, comes back into vogue," said Greg McBride, senior analyst at Bankrate.com.
(Excerpt) Read more at biz.yahoo.com ...
Lots of things ‘totally suck’. So why the hell should anyone just give you a loan without a down payment? Why the hell should you even have a car if you can’t afford to pay for it?
Perhaps you would be more at home at another, less conservative, website? There, people might not be as keen on relying on themselves to fix their own problems.
Oh, I get it. You’re a troll.
Well, I tell ya what. On your way back to DU, why don’t you just give all of your income to the government, so they can buy this jackass the car that he’s ‘entitled’ to. Then you can feel oh so good about yourself.
Let’s see if I’ve got this right:
No cash -> no car - no loan for you!
No car -> no job -> no income -> no money to buy car to get job.
Looks like a bad loop here.
Back to DU with you, you slimy troll.
There are a lot of people with unrealistic expectations. When I bought a car in 2002, the idiots at the next salesman’s desk were trying to buy a truck they could not afford.
They wanted to buy a $30k truck without any money down. They finally walked out when the sales manager told them that he could not sell them a Tundra, but that they could buy a Tacoma.
It’s kind of ironic that the dealership was doing the right thing even though they looked like the bad guys to the people who couldn’t buy the truck they wanted.
Save your money and pay cash.
(scratching head) If he just got a job, and was previously unemployed, what money was he supposed to save?
I started plastwreing for my father when I was 14.
Bought a 40 Ford coupe and spent 2 years building it so I would have a richous street racer when I turned 16.
The wirst thing was that my parents wouldn’t let me be on their insurance policy and I had to buy my own and they demanded a minimum of $100k liability.
The insurance cost me $625/year and that was in 1952, almost as much as I had in the car.
When we got married in 1958 I had to promise to quit racing so I sold the 40 for $600 to buy her rings!
If someone is that pathetic, then then should just go ahead and apply for asylum to North Korea. Then Dear Leader will help them to find productive employment.
Oh, my...a ‘lot of toil’.
Did you ever stop to think that MANY of us who are no longer in such a situation have lived through just that???!!?
Sorry, bud. Zero sympathy for you. Take your lumps. Earn your money. THEN enjoy the spoils of success. Until then, work your ass off like the rest of us did.
We need to be prudent, but we also need to realize that this is the one material life we will have and we weren’t put here merely to struggle through and barely get by until we drop dead of worry and regret.
Millions of people do this - I do - what else were they put here for?
And if his mommy beat him up and his boyfriend robbed him to support his crystal meth habit, that would suck too...
Dang...life is tough sometimes.
That may be your plan, but there are a lot of people in this country who are prone to skipping steps 2-4. The lender needs to take reasonable measures to ensure that the buyer will make good on his obligation.
As we have seen, writing a big fat loan check with no money down and minimal documentation didn’t work out so good. I do hope those days are gone since this practice drove prices sky-high for cash customers.
I’m not a rich person, I saved for a long time for that money (about 4 yrs).
I started walking a paper rout when I was 8.
I also opened abank account and started saving my money.
Within a few months I bought a bicycle to do the route with.
I’ve never in my life let my savings get below 6 monrhs earnings, that’s what I was taught and have lived by it for 71 yars.
“$1K is a lot of money and represents a lot of toil.”
BS, When I was making $3.25/hr when we got married we saved $7,000 in 8 years to have the necessary 29% down to buy a home.
We both had cars, paid for in cash and my wife didn’t work.
No, I’m not saying people are entitled to a car. But Lars Larson has on many occasions noted that access to a car provides a greater boost in earnings than a high school diploma. There is some private-sector program which helps finance beaters for people who want to go to work, (that’s a loan, not a handout) and we should be supporting this sort of activity, not scorning it as an entitlement issue.
And taking the damn bus isn’t always feasible. There were some swing shift janitor jobs at a top tech firm I wanted to apply for but the place is 90 minutes by bus and the shift ends too late to get home by bus. Just a few minutes ago I found a job on Craigslist and there’s no bus that runs anywhere near there. (You can actually plan a bus trip online, unless there are no buses that go there.)
So if someone lives in BFE and they don’t have a car and they can’t get to a job, how do they pull themselves out of it?
Here's the deal. You've got 3 numbers to play with when buying a car--the price of the car, the interest rate on the loan, and the down payment. That's it. You and the dealer have to make those 3 numbers come out to something you can handle. And I'm saying there ain't a number you can handle if you can't even manage to scare up $1000 bucks.
For someone in your situation, being young and all, I recommend hitting up your parents. If they can't help you get started with a loan, maybe they can let you live rent free for a while. Work out a deal to "rent" their car if possible. If not, walk to work if you have to. Been there, done that. Take any job at all. Even at minimum wage you could clear a couple hundred a week. If you can eat your parents food and sleep in your old bedroom, you can have $1000 in about a month.
It's not that tough. Most people just have no sense or aren't willing to swallow their pride, do what they need to do. Once you get the car, and the phat job, do the right thing and pay your parents back in installments for letting you stay there. Even if they refuse, do it. It'll completely buy back your sense of pride and self-sufficiency.
If your parents aren't an option, there are plenty other ways. Find a cheap ass room to live in. Even a grungy boarding house. Better would be just a very small room in an apt house somewhere. Get one in a town with lots of jobs. Get one, or better still, two of those jobs. Save up 1000 dollars buy living cheap, having no fun for a while. Instead of going out and chasing girls, stay at home and read classic books that inspire and educate, so you will become a stronger, more capable person.
Anyway, I won't be surprised if you come back with all sorts of reason why nothing will work. If that's the case, just accept that you're a big LOSER, and go get a tattoo of a big red L on your forehead. Pay for it with a credit card.
So am I to believe that along with medical care owning a car is now a right??? Wow, where have I been all these years?
Get an old car and fix it up. They may take more gas, but they are way cheaper in the long run if you can fix them yourself.
I just got a line on a 69 El Camino that I will pick up for $2500. It smokes a bit, is pretty clean, not much rust.
I will go through the brakes and shocks, rebuild the motor adding flattop pistons, 202 heads, and after-market 4bbl manifold, carb and headers, 2 1/2" dual exhaust, new fat rubber and nice wheels (2nd hand from junk yard), Up grade the radio, add some gauges... upholstery, and paint after while..
I know I won't hit $7000, I doubt I will hit $6000 in the whole project, just do a bit at a time and wait for the parts to show up on the street or on sale...
I will wind up with a tough little rig that will beat the pants off of most stock cars, fly through traffic, be a blast to drive, chocked full of old skool cool, get 22 to 25 mpg hwy, yet be simple enough to fix myself. You can buy a lot of gas for what a $95 an hour mechanic costs.
LOL. I think you've got the right idea.
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