Financing or Auction?
Hi,
I’m pretty young and an anxious driver so I’m not the most eager to get a first car. I’ve been using Uber and Lyft for most of my life. However, it’s gotten to a point where I think it needs to stop.
A bit of background but you can skip this paragraph…
I’m a recent college grad and I have a stable job, it’s good pay, but my office is very far from where I live. So i usually have to uber back and forth (about $45 each trip). On days when I can, I take public transport to save money. However, work has been getting really busy in the past few months and I’m having to come in earlier and leave later and public transport is fairly unreliable so I’ve been ubering consistently instead. I looked at how much uber “saved” me and it’s A LOT. Which in turn means I’m probably spending about $400 a week on transport to get to and from work.
I asked my dad a few months ago when I first got my job if it would be about time I go to a dealership to get a car but he recommended against it that I should save my money to buy a car from the auction so I only have to worry about paying insurance rather than car payments + insurance. But saving has been very hard with Ubers taking over half of my paycheck. It’s very easy to say, well just wake up early and take public transport, but I’m exhausted. I get off work to work more at home, going to sleep at 10/11, only to wake up at 5am to do the same thing everyday. I know payment plans are horrible but my credit score is excellent and I’ll be paying the same amount I spend in a week for uber ~$400, in a month if I do car payments. I understand where he’s coming from but I wanted to hear some other perspective from anyone more familiar with dealerships. Is it worth the monthly hassle? Or is it better to wait to save and buy a whole car from an auction? Also, how easy is it to sell a car a few years after buying from a dealership?
And if you have any car recommendations, it would be greatly appreciated! I don’t have a specific preference, I genuinely don’t care how the car looks or sounds! I just want something reliable that can get me from point a-b for years and that won’t break down every other month; preferably low maintenance too.
Thank you!