Need *quick* help, buying new/used car, leasing or what?

My girlfriend's truck blew up three weeks ago -- it was a total loss -- and she is in desperate need of a replacement, mainly because she's a landscape gardener and it's her work truck. problem is, she's basically penniless and only has like $3000 to work with. what she wants is a year 2000 or so small truck, 4 cyl, auto, 2WD, extra cab, a ranger or a tacoma or the like.

thing of it is, we've been looking ever since the disaster and there's been nothing even close to what she wants on craigslist or anyplace. and that's at just about any price, too. mostly there are 4x4s or manuals and they're priced out of site.

just yesterday she said she was going to put the 3k down on a new truck and lease it. i read her some of the threads here about leasing and got her off that idea for the moment.

today she saw a 09 Tacoma with 18k miles for $15.5k, private seller. no king cab but she's getting ready to give that up. she'd go to the local credit union and take out the longest loan she could ... cause she doesn't make much money, either.

what a pickle.

so ... anyone have any suggestions about how one should proceed in a situation like, where she really really needs to get a truck fast?

she owes a TON on her home equity loan but maybe it'd be better to jack it up even higher then to take a bank loan. i don't know. help!

Quote from floete : My girlfriend's truck blew up three weeks ago -- it was a total loss -- and she is in desperate need of a replacement, mainly because she's a landscape gardener and it's her work truck. problem is, she's basically penniless and only has like $3000 to work with. what she wants is a year 2000 or so small truck, 4 cyl, auto, 2WD, extra cab, a ranger or a tacoma or the like. thing of it is, we've been looking ever since the disaster and there's been nothing even close to what she wants on craigslist or anyplace. and that's at just about any price, too. mostly there are 4x4s or manuals and they're priced out of site. just yesterday she said she was going to put the 3k down on a new truck and lease it. i read her some of the threads here about leasing and got her off that idea for the moment. today she saw a 09 Tacoma with 18k miles for $15.5k, private seller. no king cab but she's getting ready to give that up. she'd go to the local credit union and take out the longest loan she could ... cause she doesn't make much money, either. what a pickle. so ... anyone have any suggestions about how one should proceed in a situation like, where she really really needs to get a truck fast? she owes a TON on her home equity loan but maybe it'd be better to jack it up even higher then to take a bank loan. i don't know. help!

Sounds like you're in a "Cheap, Fast, Good. Pick any two.." situation. Since you gotta go fast, either a cheap (not so good) truck fast; or a good (not so cheap) truck fast.

My feeling is that, if she can afford the payment on a car loan through her credit union, then she should go that route. I bought my last vehicle with a $15k loan and the payment was ~$290/mo for 5 years. You can push it out longer depending on the bank, but you lose so much in interest paid.

I wouldn't lease; when you return them they expect the thing in pristine condition and will charge you and arm and a leg for every little thing that's wrong with it......and since this is for real work it's bound to be beaten up a bit.

One other thing I thought of, is you could check to see if there are any public auto auctions scheduled for you area in the near future; if you have 3k cash you might be able to score a deal quickly.

thanks.

and you think credit union would be better than home equity loan?

Buy something at least 5 years old, it's lost about 2/3 of its value by then. Don't let her bury herself any more in debt. Especially with gas prices, trucks are dropping in value very quickly. Heck, pick up a V6 F-150 or Silverado, the overall cost over 5 years will be exponentially less than leasing.

Quote from floete : thanks. and you think credit union would be better than home equity loan?

It depends, if this would entail a refi and she's already done this a few times then she's basically re-paying the same interest over and over. It may be more affordable as far as payments are concerned but interest will likely be more in the long run then a conventional auto loan; of course if this does classify as a type of mortgage that interest will be tax deductible.

Without knowing the specifics of the equity loan, and assuming she can afford the auto loan payments, I would choose the auto loan and that's what I'd recommend. Of course; this is her livelihood so, if she has to do the home equity to be able to afford to put food on the table month to month, you gotta do what you gotta do.

I would also recommend you crunch the numbers with an online loan calculator so that you can see the difference between the two, not only with the monthly payments, but with the interest paid over the life of the loan.