I caught some sort of bug that put me out of commission last night.  I wanted to do a quick followup on what it’s like to pay cash for a car. 

First, I looked more carefully when it was coming out of my pocket.  Having purchased cars with loans in the past and cash this time, I noticed that I actually cared a lot more.  This leads me to believe that it’s far to easy to walk into to a dealer and ask how much a month and how much down.  That line of thinking is stupid and costs people a lot of money.  Rather than thinking long term about total costs, it’s much too easy to think short term and go for the monthly payment.

Second, it may take longer to find the right car with cash.  Longer in this sense is a bit relative.  It took us just over a week to find and purchase a vehicle.  I have to tell you it felt like eternity… Maybe that’s why so many of us leave a train wreck’s worth of bad decisions behind us when we drive that new car off the lot.  We don’t want to wait a day, or two or seven, so we find what we like and sign the dotted line to pay later.  Not realizing that we’re selling our future in order to have something now. 

I don’t have a good third point.  It felt more risky, walking around with 6k in my pocket.  I was more careful in vetting the cars.  I did bother to research pricing and was able to negotiate a better price to the tune of 1400 dollars better. 

In summary, paying cash for a car was a new and enlightening experience.  I recommend that you try it the next time around.  You can go to a dealer if you like, just do your research and try to get the most bang for your buck.  You will be glad you did.