Most of the dealers told me that they had something I would be interested in, but they couldn’t go as low as $3,000. Some tried tempting me into their lairs with alternatives; others referred to my price ceiling as delusional. But I wasn’t bothered. My strategy was a knight’s sword and the phone, my trusty shield. I also practiced chivalry – knowing that I might end up calling on them again.
Because my first round of phone calls didn’t pan out, I called the dealers back when it got closer to the end of the month. I hoped the salespeople would be hungrier by then to meet their monthly quotas. As fortune would have it, at one dealership an elderly couple had traded in an older Toyota Tercel with 30,000 miles on it. The car hadn’t been cleaned or inspected, but the dealership was willing to do a quick turnaround sale for $3,000.
This strategy doesn’t have to be limited to a $3,000 purchase. The process makes sense for any make or model and it saves time. Over the past five years, I’ve become far less extreme. I no longer pinch pennies. But I still buy used cars. Typically, I now sell them for a little less than what I paid. But if I add up all the money that I’ve “lost” on cars over the past five years, it doesn’t amount to much. The typical new car buyer will lose more money in five months than I’ve lost in five years.
If you save more money on cars, you can invest more money in wealth-building assets.
My friend Nathan is a millionaire. But like most millionaires, he won’t ever lease a car. “Leasing a car, instead of buying used,” he says, “is a million-dollar decision.”14
According to The Millionaire Next Door author Thomas Stanley, 80 percent of millionaires have never leased a car. Finance author Dave Ramsey isn’t a fan of leasing either. He says, “Broke people think ‘how much down and how much a month.’ Rich people think ‘how much.’ If you can’t pay cash for a car, then ride a bicycle. But don’t lease a car.”
Nathan has never paid more than $6,000 for a car. Like me, he looks for cars with low mileage. The average American drives 12,000 miles a year. That means the typical 10-year-old car will have about 120,000 miles on it. Such cars may nickel-and-dime their owners as the cost of maintenance creeps up.
Nathan’s most recent car typifies what he likes. It’s a 2006 Honda Accord. He paid $5,500. When he bought it, the car had just 60,000 miles on it. That means it has as much wear and tear as the average five-year-old car. “A well- maintained car with 60,000 miles on it still has plenty of life left,” says Nathan.
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