car buying, monthly payments?

Question

if we wanted to buy a vehicle that was $25,000. and say we got a 12% interest rate. we wanted monthly payments $200 or under. how much of a down payment should we give? we won't have a trade-in.

Answer 1

Paige, you should not buy a car that way. Your first step should be to go to a bank or credit union, secure funding first, tell them that you want to pay $200 a month, tell them that you plan on buying a car that is $25,000.00 and that you have enough for a down payment. Most likely, your rate will be much less than 12%. That's a rediculously high rate, most lending institutions will give you a much better rate than that.
Also, when you go to buy a car, it's best to have all of that in place first, insurance, loan and everything as well as a check for the down payment that you can comfortably pay.
It's a good plan to have in place, it gives you more power in the game of cat and mouse called negotiations.
Look up the car you want to buy on any of the websites that are just made for that. MSN and YAHOO Autos are two that work. They both allow you to see the wholesale price of the car you want to buy, the invoice is what the dealer pays for the car but there are incentives that they get too, look for all of those and start your negotiations with that number. Don't let them get the upper hand. The last bit of advice is this, start your shopping just before the last day of the month, do not deviate from that. The dealer will want to sell much lower than at the beginning of the month, reason...they need to reach quota for the month, or beat last month or get a beetr check for selling the most cars.
That's it.

Answer 2

i disagree with the other 2 answers. i think if you are responsible with your money, you can definitely handle a car payment. Shop around and see what your best interest rates are going to be. Review the cars online to see which ones have the best reviews and lowest maintenance costs. You do need to realize that if you want to move out in the next 3-5 years, you may have to put that on hold to pay off your car. go for it and good luck.

Answer 3

Well, assuming 6% sales tax, you would have to put down about $18,000, to get your payment at $198/mo for 60 months.

Here's an online calculator you can use, and play with different numbers.

http://www.autobytel.com/content/shared/calculator/act_calculator.cfm?id=13148;ABTL

Answer 4

Based on a 60 month loan, you would have to put $18,929.00 down, give or take whatever your tax rate is, I used 7.75%

Answer 5

You would have to put 50-75% down, depending on how long you want to pay on the loan.

Answer 6

On a standard loan you can always figure $200.00 per month for every $10,000. financed on a 5 year loan. Hope that helps.

Answer 7

You'd need at least 12,000 down. Look at a car you can afford.

Answer 8

It would be best if you could give $12.500.~~