Cloud's car stuff

[Cloud]

I'm pretty amazed at the crap things people are doing with their car loans in general. I'm guilty of this also--in 2001 I bought a new car with my crappy credit and got a subprime 18% loan. With interest, I ended up paying twice the amount of the car. Now I know better.

Even on forums where people are supposedly trying to improve their financial situations, I see people buying too much car (if credit is bad, why are people buying $40K cars?); putting down the absolutely minimum down payment, thus putting themselves underwater immediately, having to buy gap insurance, leasing a car which never lets them have no monthly payments, trading in cars with underwater loans, thereby still paying interest on a car they don't even own. getting ridiculously long loan terms (why would you want to be making payments for six years, for crying out loud?) and focusing too much on monthly payments and not total amount owed. (But I got a sweet ride! and my payments are lower!).

I know I'm lucky in that I've managed to save a decent down payment., my car is not dying (even though it's 9 years old), and that I've managed to improve my credit scores and financial situation enough that I can probably get a decent loan, but I'm still left shaking my head at some of the things people will do to get wheels.