I've owned my Mirage for 85 months - 1 owner's time

[dspace9]

Thanks!!

The less I have to spend getting to and from work, is more money in my pocket. And more money in my savings.

I'm actually doing a bunch of house stuff this month (new furnace is literally being installed right now, this morning.. & no AC unit; matching my Mirage).

7milesout I was paying 2.99% on my 84 month loan. Return on my investments is much better.. bull market with housing and the stock market right now.

[7milesout]

2.99% ... what a deal!

[Mark]

Thanks!!

The less I have to spend getting to and from work, is more money in my pocket. And more money in my savings.

I'm actually doing a bunch of house stuff this month (new furnace is literally being installed right now, this morning.. & no AC unit; matching my Mirage).

7milesout I was paying 2.99% on my 84 month loan. Return on my investments is much better.. bull market with housing and the stock market right now.

Not saying your 84 month loan was a bad deal for you, but I just heard someone really slamming Nissan this past week for pushing their dealerships to steer customers to 84+ month loans. Dealers will receive a $450 incentive from the company when pushing their customers into long term loans.

https://jalopnik.com/nissan-is-going...ers-1846636646

This is being seen as taking advantage of customers.

I like the one comment to the above article -

"Just bought a car yesterday and the finance person made some huge assumptions before meeting with us. She had the paperwork drawn up with zero down and 72 and 84 month options with helpful breakdowns of monthly payments including all of the extended warranty and add ons they offer.
I told her we were doing 10k down and wanted to see what 36-48 mo. rates were, also no add ons. I’m assuming I won’t be her favorite customer this month.
If we would have went with everything she was selling, the $42,000 car would have cost us $54,500 over 7 years."

Other articles on the topic -

https://www.thedrive.com/news/40108/...r-loans-report

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/n...uto-loan-term/

Imagine buying a Nissan & having to live with long after the warranty expires. Meanwhile, your loan is greater than what your car is worth, & the CVT craps out on you. Talk about a nightmare!

Someone else said it best - "At this rate, Nissan will soon be pushing perpetual car loans!"

I'm sure most brands do things similar to this, & it may seem like Nissan is being picked on here?

[dspace9]

That monthly payment cost is what many customers only see.

They want to know how much that red Nissan will cost them per month. I don't think they realize 83 more months after that. Well they do but they don't care.

In April 2014 I was pretty sure I was gonna be driving my (then new) Mirage for at least 7 years. So the $1,600 in borrowing costs didn't seem so bad. My car my Mirage replaced was a 16 year old Ford Escort.

[Mark]

That monthly payment cost is what many customers only see.

They want to know how much that red Nissan will cost them per month. I don't think they realize 83 more months after that. Well they do but they don't care.

In April 2014 I was pretty sure I was gonna be driving my (then new) Mirage for at least 7 years. So the $1,600 in borrowing costs didn't seem so bad. My car my Mirage replaced was a 16 year old Ford Escort.

$1,600 is a lot less than $12,500 extra for the $42,000 vehicle in the example I shared in the previous post. Cars are money pits. Keeping the pit small is always good!

Your situation is surely different than selling someone more vehicle than they can really afford by extending payments 7 years or more.

Nissan is desperate to sell cars.

[dspace9]

This is off topic, but you seem likely to have bought one or two furnaces before, I went with a Tempstar, which is like the economy brand of Carrier. Supposed to be a good one. Downdraft so my new furnace is literally upside down. That's how they do it. Lennox makes a dedicated downdraft. Anyways my furnace is on the main floor eh.

10 year warranty on my new furnace. 1 year labour 10 years parts.

[dspace9]

Dspace9 - Much respect to you. I actually think your car (our Mirage's in general) looks somewhat tough, with the steel wheels uncovered. I don't know what it is. They look like a junkyard dog, rough and tough. But whatever. Glad to hear your car seems to be in great shape after 85 months.

I don't mean to respond to you 7milesout and not everyone lol, but that is too funny what you say. I agree, my Mirage does look tough there, looks almost like a used Civic hatchback from the early 90s. And my old house behind it is a real tank too, the roofer says he feels stable and safe on my house's roof, and new houses he says are woobly half the time up there. Tough stuff

Honestly I chose that photo because I too thought my Mirage looks tough with the steelies. First time with no hubcaps or alloys in 6.5 years in that photo. I always keep my hubcaps on but my tires were getting retorqued the next day.

[7milesout]

I think we're all agreeing. For clarity, if I had $12k to purchase my Mirage, including taxes, etc. (mine was a skosh more than that all in), I would be better off paying 2.99% interest, and sticking $12k in a (good) investment over 7 years.

Theoretically in 7 years, my $12k would have more than doubled ... but let's just say it doubled to $24k. For that privelege, I paid what, $158 per month and $1,318 in interest. Quite a deal. My point is, some car loans aren't a bad deal, depending. But even if a person is living paycheck-to-paycheck, a 2.99% loan (or less) on a new car isn't not such a bad thing.

If a person does as Mark suggests, and keep their money pit as small as possible, and does like Dspace9 did and think long-term and take care of their small money pitt, in the long-run, you're going to be much better off than your equivalent peer who went and leased a BMW X5 (for example) so he / she could look like a big success. What a turd that vehicle is (different thread).

In my case, there was mitigating reasons I just paid cash. Partly because I have lived the above paragraph a couple / few times over, and now I'm better off than many of my equivalent peers. Got a buddy about my same age. And even though he is doing better here lately, he would FLIP OUT if he knew my monetary station, compared to his. But he doesn't know. I don't tell him and I have little interest in clothes, so I pretty much go around looking like Raggedy Andy, driving a Mirage. So nobody expects anything. The downside being, I'm not living a panty dropper lifestyle. The upside being I don't have to worry about STDs. Besides, the wife doesn't prefer it when I have "relations" with other women. So, I guess I'm doing OK with my lifestyle.

I'm betting Mark and Dspace9 are doing good as well. I've made some mistakes. I bought a friggin Lexus LS 460L (used). While it is a heckuva vehicle, it was/is a big money pit. Oh well, it's the only car mistake I have made. Course now I want an LC 500 (used of course). Will I make that mistake too? Only time will tell.

[dspace9]

When I was younger I was more willing to pack it up and move for love.

But now I actually have my own car, not just my girlfriend's mauve car, and my own house, All in my name. None of my stuff is opulent. Some rare books and CDs and LPs yes. Even my gucci cologne is a tester bottle that I got on ebay.

I save money where I can. Clothes I'm cheap with, back racks at Macy's...cars I'm cheap, coupons and half price deals and flyers are how I roll. No AC in my house, or my car. But i live in small town country setting, so it's cooler with the leafy streets for everyone across town.

I have refurbished Nintendo classic edition nes, and a refurbished Microsoft Xbox One, both from the actual company store.

https://www.autotrader.ca/a/porsche/...x=-2&modalXS=1

[MetroMPG]

As some people on the Mirage Forum know already, I have my Mirage all paid off as of last week.

WOOHOO! Congrats, dspace9!

(I saw the comment you dropped in another thread about being just days away from your last payment, and was hoping you would start a new topic. Not disappointed!)

the 5 speed manual has kinda gotten worked in better over the years.

Mine has just a few more km on it than yours. I still find it to be a little too stiff/notchy in the depths of winter. I want to change to a lighter weight gear oil. Tried finding a local parts store that sold Redline MTL last year and struck out.

I toss and turn about wanting a bigger car

Haha - the seven year itch.

Negatives: tires seem to be less common for sure, and I feel like I need new tires every 2 years.

You don't have to stick with 165's. TONS more options in 175 width that will work perfectly and fill out the wheel arches a bit more. Though as far as I know, you won't find anything in a 175 width that beats your 165 wide Dunlop RE92's for LRR.

Coincidentally, my brother is one month away from paying off his Scion Xb (that he got used). I feel like I can confidently predict you are going to put your surplus cashflow to better purposes than my brother will.