What I mean is, I'm 19 right now, I live with my parents with basically no bills, and I drive my 2005 toyota camry with 188k miles. It's been running fine, without anything crazy popping up right now. My concern is that it might die within the next 5-10 years, and I would need a car anyway.
I really enjoy having a good sound system in a car, and I would want to upgrade a new car that I buy, so I would want to buy a car that I would keep for a while. I also have never bought a car before, and never had any types of loans. I only have credit cards, and a 747 credit score (FICO score 9) from those cards.
The car I would want to buy would be a 2025 toyota camry hybrid, used, awd. The reason I want this is because I want something that is reliable, I will drive for 10+ years, and that has awd because I live in minnesota. I also want a hybrid so that I can get good mpg and save some money with that. I would want to buy this car at some point in 2027, with a 10k down payment, so that I will have had my credit cards for over two years, and so my credit is better. I would also try and pay it off within 2 years.
But my question is, what is ultimately better? Should I invest the money that I would spend on the car, and have a bigger house down payment to get a better apy, OR, should I buy the car, pay it off within 2 years so that I don't pay as much interest rate, and that way have an installment loan on my history, and a good loan that I paid every month on my history, which would also help the interest rate be lower with the house? I plan on buying the house at around 23-25. So 4-6~ years from now or so. Let me know if you have questions!