I’m surprised at how many pay cash. Before I was married I made payments on my brand new car. Hubby always pays cash, but I thought that was just because he’s a savvy investor. Friends seem to lease cars or make payments. For our daughters just starting out, there’s no way they will have enough cash to buy their first car.
PS. I bought my first car with cash. 1975 Mustang. Less than $3,000. I hated that car, but drove it for 10 years.
I’ve been leasing since I was 25 years old. Before that I always felt like I was dumping money into my used cars and, especially back in the 80s I was able to drive some really nice cars for low $$, cars that I could never afford to buy out-right and more importantly, vehicles that gave me peace of mind as a single parent with two children. I married my auto tech husband three years ago and made a decision that when my lease ran out August 2015 (the same time D would enter college) I would return the leased vehicle and go back to a used car and put the $5000 savings each year toward tuition instead. I bought a nice 2000 Jeep cash, knowing that if anything went wrong, my mechanic bill, less parts, would be zero. Great Jeep but not that comfortable for long drives and terrible on gas. Two months later I took a traveling job and needed a nicer/newer vehicle and went back to leasing, now I have my new Honda Accord lease and my beach vehicle lol.
@FlyMeTo the Moon–My first new car was a 1974 Mustang–Mustang was my dream car, and that was the year they changed the styling, but I was determined to get it anyway. It was about $3K, and I think I financed it but I honestly don’t remember.
A few years later I married DH, whose only indulgence was to get a new car every 3 years. I’d be glad to run cars into the ground, but we never buy anything pricey, so I lovingly defer to him on that. We’ve extended that to about 5 years, and always pay cash.
I too am impressed by the number of posters who can and do pay cash.
We are a two car family, with our hand me downs to son up till now. He bought his first 2 yr old “New” car at college grad so we’re done with that too.
We usually have one newish vehicle we’d be comfortable driving long distance, right now it’s our 2012 Hyundai Tucson, bought with 50% down and credit union loan for rest paid off at 3 yrs.
I drive the little around town vehicle, our 2008 scion XD, bought used at one yr for cash, $14000, I think.
We drive them for 10+ years…my 2008 scion has only 30k miles and hasn’t given me a lick of trouble so who knows?
We also pay cash. Once I calculated that, compared to lease prices, we break even after about 4 years depending on a model, and then the car is essentially free. After expiration of the manufacturer warranty that comes with the car, I buy a 7 years 100,000 miles extension warranty and get a new car soon after this, except 2003 Honda pilot which we keep in our vacation home in a different state.
Instructions are in the owner’s manual, in case he is not available to come and help.
We just bought a pre-owned 2013 Accord two weeks ago. Paid cash and got a great deal on it. It’s fully loaded. New it was $34k (orig sale receipt was in the glove compartment.) We paid $12k for it and they even gave H $500 for his 1998 Accord which was closing in on 200k miles. I’m still driving my 2005 Lexus - which was also pre-owned. We’ll look to replace with another Lexus in about 2 years. We like cars with lots of extras - especially heated leather seats so pre-owned is the way we always go.
Wow!
@ucbalumnus made a joke! 
We ordinarily move a little money around so that we have enough in the checking account to pay for the car, and then we write a check. Until 2013, we hadn’t financed a car in more than 30 years.
What happened in 2013? I bought a new car – a Hyundai Elantra (a truly great car if what you’re looking for is reliability and a relatively low sticker price). The dealer told me that I could get a substantial rebate if I financed at least $10,000 through Hyundai. So I did – and I got the rebate – and I paid the whole thing off the next month. I can’t figure out how Hyundai profited from this, and neither could the dealer, but there’s no arguing with corporate management.
(Financing the car was actually fun. Although I think of the Elantra as “my” car because I drive it, in fact my husband and I bought it jointly. The dealer had to check our credit ratings. Mine was one point better than his. Nyah, nyah.)
I know in theory how to change a tire. But I don’t think I’d be able to do it correctly in terms of getting the nuts off or back on tightly enough. I’d probably hurt my back again trying. In the old days, DH would come change it for me. Now I get free roadside assistance with my car, so I’d just call them.
We were in DH’s car a couple of weeks ago out in the middle of nowhere and blew a tire. The shoulder was really narrow and 18 wheelers were buzzing by so fast, it would have been way too dangerous to even try. Lucky for us, a couple of young troopers came up from behind with their lights on so we could slowly pull forward until we came to a little side road. Once there, they insisted on changing DH’s tire! They were so nice and polite and were from very small towns in west Texas. We could not have been more grateful.
My current car doesn’t even HAVE a spare tire. Not even one of those little things. I can easily change a tire. I had roadside assistance with my car until December…but I also have AAA.
AAA is great because I also use it to get tons of discounts on things not related to cars!
12k is super, what was the mileage? When I was looking, all the used with reasonable mileage (I think I was hoping for under 10-12k miles/year, maybe a couple of years old,) were well more expensive than that.
The thing about my lease is it’s so inexpensive that, when the two years are up, I’ll have paid less than 4k. I no longer commute distances to work, just for pleasure, so the mileage cap is no problem. Major repairs are on the dealer. (And I was frankly worn out from the constant threat of a breakdown, and the costs.) Granted, folks, it’s a Chevy. But it’s all I wanted. If some occasion arises where I want a fancy car, I can rent for a few days.
We always pay cash. Out of college we bought used Toyota Corollas. Now we buy new vehicles…just placed an order on a new Toyota RAV4 Limited Hybrid so we can get it before my daughter finishes the semester. We will let her take our old 2005 Honda CRV for her OOS summer internship.
My husband did the “get online quotes for the vehicle with our exact specifications” and then went in to our local dealership to see if they would match the lowest bid. They actually beat it by a little bit. We are charging the $3,000 max (the dealership’s figure) to our credit card…so we can get the miles…and will pay the balance with a check. And yes, we always pay off the credit card balance, so no worries there.
The only humorous part of our transaction was when the sales manager came over to congratulate us on our purchase. She asked if we were buying it for our daughter. Um, no…it’s for me. I laughed and thought, do I look too old for it? Too bad…I think it will fit my needs for years to come.
Cash, and usually 5-10+ years driving.
We used to finance our cars (no more than 3 years and usually a very low rate…sometimes even 0%). The last car we bought was cash. 
Once the kids are out of college, I expect we’ll be able to buy with cash regularly. We are trying to make our current cars last until then, but if it becomes necessary to buy one, I’m sure we’ll look for some very low (or free) financing.
We’ve used the Costco deal twice now and it’s really nice not to have to haggle or be pressured.
Few years ago, I got a slow flat while driving to DC. Once I pulled into the hotel’s garage I realized I wouldn’t be able to drive it back home. Since we were having a busy weekend (visiting schools and all), we wouldn’t have time to get the tire fixed, and I could see my kids were panicking.
I asked the garage attendant if they could take care of it for me. I gave him my roadside service number and told him I would take care of him later. I got a call from the attendant later that day to let me know they were able to patch the hole without calling the roadside service. My kids thought it was the ultimate “make it happen” mom moment.
^^That’s sweet @oldfort!
@lookingforward, 38k and change. Since H’s commute is only 10 miles even with that mileage he can drive it for years. It was one of the dealers “last chance” deals to make way for new used cars coming in this spring.
Cash the last 20years, always use Amex to the Max dealer alows. ( usually 5K) One exception a used BMW convertible where % rate < savings interest rate.
A lease my mom convinced me to do right out of college was a terrible choice. A flashy car she wanted me to drive).
@maya54, you are doing exactly what our financial planner recommends and what we have always done: Pay cash for your cars (and finance your house.) Keep your cars until they become more costly to repair than they are worth.
But every financial situation is different. This is advice for an upper middle to upper class family with good liquid assets.