Mustang Of Choice

[2005GTHOPEFUL]

Ever since i saw the 69-70 BOSS Mustangs I have favored those body styles. The fox body styles i like also, but when I saw the new 2005 body style I decided I must have it. Ok but I have a few concerns first. First I am 21 and have never bought a brand new car, Second I make about $1200 a month but plan on attending college this Janunary. I just read that the GT is $25,000 I am leaning towards the GT, but I am not quite sure if I will have enough money for it. Buy that I mean the car payments and insurance. I have taken basic defensive driving classes and in Febuary I will take the advanced class. I have never bought a vehicle so i have no idea how it works. My question is what options would you reccomend. Try for the GT, settle fot a 2000 model or something else?

 

[UVBNHAD]

I think you are going to need to settle for an older Stang at this point. Nothing against you but the credit companies won't be too kind. You are young, don't make too much, and they will have a hard time approving you for anything. If they do approve you it will probably be a pretty high interest rate. I think the only chance you are going to have at getting a new Mustang is to have a co-signee with excellent credit and then I don't think your chances are too high. I had to end up waiting a couple of years before I was able to be approved. It's not that I had bad credit but that I had little to no credit.

The best thing that you can do to help your credit is get a cell phone and a gas card and just keep up with bills and never be late. Those two things alone will really help your credit. Good luck.

 

[Reimann]

There is no real way anyone can tell you if you should or not with that information. Do this; Make a list of what all your monthly bills are or what they are going to be (if you are going to college), call your insurance company and find out how much they are going to charge and add that to the list. At 25 with a clean record my '02GT costs me $125 a month. Figure up what you think your trade in value is, if you have something to trade and subtract that off the price. Don't forget to add tax to the cost of the vehicle. If your tax rate is 6% like it is here in Indiana then $25,000 + 6% ($1,500) = $26,500. Rule of thumb, for every $1,000 you have to finance you have to pay $20 a month. Don't forget license plates! They will probably run you $300 to $400. So if you don't have anything of value to trade in your monthly payment is going to be $530 + another $200 or so for insurance. If you are making $1,200 a month you can plan that half or so of your income is going to your car.