How much should you pay for your first car?

[Cocoballs]

How much should I be looking to pay for my first car?

Turn 16 in few weeks, been working everyday and got about $700 saved up just in the last few weeks, but wondering how much I should be expecting pay just for the car, not registration or anything.

[aztr0]

Depends what kind of car you want and how much you got to spend, obviously. The price is whatever you can afford. You should be able to get a good car with fair mileage for $5000 or less nowadays. A few years back I bought my first car it was about $8000 ($10000+ with tax, tune up and other jazz), I was 18. Now with the economy I could've probably gotten it for way less than that.

[Deleted]

Depends what you want or need it for. If you need it every day for work/college or something then get a decent reliable one. If not, go for a rust bucket and enjoy just driving into the ground, more fun that way

[mizeri]

your first car should be worth 1000, unless you got rich parents and they dont mind when you hit other cars.

[kkborang]

my first car was 10k after tune ups and tax etc

[Uwibami]

I paid less than 200 bucks for mine.
Drove it for 3 years, and then we sold it for a grand.
Profit? I think so! And no, it wasn't a pile of rust, it was in surprisingly good shape.


Though it should be noted that this happened in Denmark, I don't know how well old cars fare over there.

[Maharishi]

I dropped 700$ on my first car. You'll treat it like crap and probably run into a couple things while learning, so a beater is fine. figure another 10% for excise tax+registration+plates.

[MrWiggles]

under $1000, you will run into things, people in the school lot will hit it, and if your school is like mine was the nice cars often got keyed. save you money buy a cheap one for high school and get a nicer one for college.

[Thaz]

I got this for 800€ which should be about 1100$.



It has everything you'd want including a 2 litre engine, sports suspension and chip tuned to 170BHP. Even airconditioning!

[Deleted]

Its all up to you and the "luck" you have with finding a proper car for a good price..

You setup something you think must be in it..

Didnt do this with my first car actualy.. but on my 2nd car i wanted Airco.. was a must :P

But there is not really a set amount you should use.. it all depends on what you want you got saved and want to spend..

[Ovacor]

Bought my first car when I was 17 for $2,000 and no help from mommy or daddy. It all depends on if you know people or not.

[Deleted]

How much should I be looking to pay for my first car?

Turn 16 in few weeks, been working everyday and got about $700 saved up just in the last few weeks, but wondering how much I should be expecting pay just for the car, not registration or anything.

Well pretty obviously the answer is: as much as you can afford while still feeling you made a good deal on it!

Hell, my first (and only, atleast so far) car was 5000€ and I haven't regretted it a second.

[Bassnectar]

Well pretty obviously the answer is: as much as you can afford while still feeling you made a good deal on it!

Hell, my first (and only, atleast so far) car was 5000€ and I haven't regretted it a second.

your parents must of payed for that or you must of had a decent job as a kid.

[Deleted]

your parents must of payed for that or you must of had a decent job as a kid.

My point was just that he should know himself what he feels he is comfortable with. Obviously taking someone along who knows what to look for and knows how to check if there can be expected any expensive repairs in the near future is a good idea, too.

[Deleted]

As a Dutchman I would advise you not to buy a car immediately on your 16th/18th/whatever. But that's only because you pay like $70/month road tax here and gas is quite expensive as well(€1,50-1,70 /litre or 0.55-0.65 USD/gallon). Here in the Netherlands you would be cheaper off travelling with public transit, but I don't know about the USA.

[bigsandwich732]

My first car was $1,800. 93' Toyota Tercel with 190k miles. Had it for 6 months till I crashed it lol..

Toyotas are great cars though. 190k miles w/original motor, tranny, etc etc and I had ZERO problems with it while I had it.

[Cocoballs]

As a Dutchman I would advise you not to buy a car immediately on your 16th/18th/whatever. But that's only because you pay like $70/month road tax here and gas is quite expensive as well(€1,50-1,70 /litre or 0.55-0.65 USD/gallon). Here in the Netherlands you would be cheaper off travelling with public transit, but I don't know about the USA.

I live in Canada, its cheaper to take public transport but our citys transportation is terrible, and I have a Job that requires me to travel a bit.
Plus in -50 windchill weather Car > waiting for bus.
Also Gas isn't really a problem as I make, $15 an hour plus $15 for every free estimate I get people to sign up on. I usually get 1 - 2 a night.


Yeah thanks for info guys, had to clue as to what I should be paying.

I'll be taking my dad to look at cars when i buy one as he is into cars and knows how to fix them.

[Tziva]

I think my first car was around $6500, bought when I was 18 or 19. It was used and had a lot of miles on it, but was the car I really wanted, and I had enough in my savings to afford it.

I drove that thing for like eight years, commuting 4-5 days a week, probably putting 700 miles on it a week at the highest points. When I finally sold it, it had over 230,000 miles on it without any major issues.

I definitely got my money's worth.

(The first thing I ever drove was actually a truck that was given to me by my father, but that wasn't really mine since I hadn't bought it myself)

[Bunsie]

Just remember that you get what you pay for. My husband and I dropped 3k on a used car, only to have to spend another 2k within six months to rebuild the engine. Be careful, salesmen are going to say and do anything to make you think it's the BEST DEAL EVER! But if it sounds too good to be true, that's because it is.

[Solarshot]

Unless you absolutely need it, I'd advise you to just save your money. You probably intend to either start working/apprenticeship or go to college in a couple years anyways. Once you're there it would be much better to buy a used car when you're actually going to use it often. Rather than getting a used now which will constantly need repairs on a limited budget.