I don’t think I would finance a car paying interest for 6 years though. You would be paying quite a bit of interest then.

Why? A car depreciates irrespective of whether it’s financed for 36 or 72 months — or even if its just bought in cash from day 1. So unless it’s psychologically unpleasant to carry a long loan, if you can get one at a low rate (especially 0%…low enough for me) then I don’t see why anyone would balk at making the loan term as loonnnnnng as possible. If you find a buyer between purchase date/term complete then just pay off the loan in full — it’s amortized from day 1 with all taxes, fees and finance costs, so the car finance company would be only too happy to get their $ quicker.

Even though we’re talking compounded interest and not simple interest here, I’d still say if you’re going to finance and can ‘co-exist’ with the symbolic idea of a car loan for a few years, and if the rate is below 3%, go as long as possible.

Caramba! Anybody here notice the connection between what’s described in this article and the discussion of reasons for “The Great Auto Industry Crisis of 2008: History” (editorial section)?

Just after I got out of college I decided to buy a used Jaguar. (Talk about unreliability…) The bank told me they didn’t feel comfortable with the loan I wanted. GMAC, however, was happy to facilitate my foolishness.

It took me a while to honorably get out of the predicament, but I never repeated that mistake. GMAC seems to be slow learner.

Yeah, there’s a lot of that. I’ve contracted at places where Temps often have newer vehicles. And they’ll balk at paying $160/month for health insurance. They’ll just go naked and screw NY’s taxpayers go medicaid when hurt or sick… /rant

They still are, in Canada. I can get an Astra (not a bad car, pity about the legroom), Aura or Vue for 72@0 now; I haven’t checked their other offers, but I imagine that, aside from the Sky and Aura GL, they’re all like this. They have to be, after leasing became a no-go.

None of these are bad cars, really, but you’d have to be unhinged to sign up for a six-year finance deal, especially with GM on the ropes. I thought about it, but it’s a really, really hard sell, even with family discount pricing.

They are now a welfare queen, who makes money neither by selling cars nor financial products. They make money by accepting free welfare from taxpayers.

If you have the cash and can invest it in something and get a decent rate of return. Otherwise, depreciation is still your enemy.

Not if the loan is at a subsidized rate of 0-2.99 percent. Then it can be quite smart.

The 72 month notes were GMs way of cramming people into new cars that were unfit to own a new car but wanted one anyways. As simple as that. Before this all hit the fan, I believe they were up to occasionally doing 80+ month notes. I’d imagine most v6 mustang sales were 60+ month loans.

A sizable chunk of GMs customer base was image conscious, $12/hour, not to smart with money people, because GM & Ford & Chrysler were the only ones willing to lend them.