So when I was 19 years old I financed a car for the first time. It was my second car. I was DETERMINED that I would get something cool, sleek, fast, andmost importantly manual. So what did I buy? A 1999 Honda Civic EX Sedan obviously.
It replaced my 92 Camry, and yes it had obligatory hideous Altezza style tailights. thankfully the previous owner had the stocks and the Altezza saw a garbage can by the end of the week. I basically learned to drive stick while driving this home from Fon Du Lac wi, a 3 hour trip. I think.
Being a 19 year old McDonald’s employee I had no money, so my girlfriend’s Dad came with me to buy it, he agreed to front the cash to make negotiations much easier, with the plan being that I would go to the bank the next day to pay him back. Not a bad deal.
So this is when things got not so good. I went to my credit union, and basically the loan officer didn’t want to give me a loan, but My parents were friends with the branch manager so she told them to approve it anyway. Buuuuuuuut the cost of that approval was a 17% interest rate! I didn’t know or care what that meant. I would have signed anything to get my cool black manual Civic.
In the 9 months I owned the car I paid 130/ month and only paid off like 650 bucks!
I ended up buying a 91 Hatch because I love 4 gens and selling the 99. This was widely regarded as a horrible decision by my friends and family. But I justified by telling them I couldn’t afford the payments and the full coverage insurance. Which was true. But it has the added benefit of saving me from spending 700 bucks a year on intrest on what was at the time a 4000 dollar car.
The life less I learned is 1 intrest sucks, and 2 only finance a car if you can afford to pay considerably more than your minimum payment and insurance, so that you can pay off that loan ASAP.
What the confession?
For one, the fact that I once signed a loan agreement with a 17% interest rate.
But also I kinda want that 99 Civic back. It was such a fun little car. I actually found the exact same one for sale 5-6 years later, and was very tempted to buy it back, but I think I had just bought a car like a month before so I wasn’t happening