Reply #71: Several years ago a friend was looking at cars... and the salesperson

[salin]

kept telling her how much the cost would be "per month" with the financing. She kept insisting that wasn't the figure she wanted but the actual total cost in the end with the financing - and he kept insisting in giving her the monthly rate. She couldn't figure out if he didn't know/couldn't figure it out, or if he was told that they way to sell was to keep folks from thinking about the final price, and instead talk interms of "affordability" per monthly payments.

The rules have changed.

I must be a dinosaur for my generation. I have never bought a car on financing - always saved up front and bought (when I first learned one could end up paying several thousand more for the car due to financing, I decided that I would work hard never to pay that extra money - and if I had to, to have as large as possible of a down payment to drive down the amount extra paid in the end). I also was fortunate to have saved aggressively (for a large downpayment) when I found a modest house that I could buy outright with what I had saved. I am personally very risk adverse.