Do I go get a new car or stick with my current ride which is paid off?

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I'd drive into the ground, but that's me. Ymmv, quite literally.

Tis cheaper to drive, whats already paid for.

Keep older car. Wait until you are out of school and have a job and then you can look at your budget and see what you can realistically afford. Start saving now for a really good down payment.

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So you plan on having maybe 3 different vehicles in your entire lifetime?

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my first couple were used, so I have already had 3....but that would be ideal....

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Start saving now for a really good down payment.

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down payment? Buy with cash. If you can't buy what you want with cash, buy something cheaper.

Yes they can. If they plan, save and buy a cheap car.

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Yes they can. If they plan, save and buy a cheap car.

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you also have to balance cheap with reliable. below a certain threshold it makes sense to borrow a bit and get something that will hold up for several years with a low probability of mechanical failure.

also worth considering that most people don't really know how to fix much of what goes wrong with a car, so everything that goes wrong is either going to cost them at the mechanic, or be ignored until it leads to a failure that can't be ignored.

the way i see it, if you have to borrow 15 grand to buy a car that won't be in the shop three times a year, make higher than minimum payments at a reasonably low interest rate, and keep the car for at least a couple years after paying it off, you're doing better than if you buy a 5k piece of crap that runs you 2k in annual maintenance and repairs, then has no value when you have to replace it five years later.

in the op's case, much better to keep what he has through college. crv's are pretty reliable and car payment money sitting in my bank account would've been a big deal while i was in college. keeping yourself from overextending is way more significant to me than the perils of borrowing. when budgeting, "probably" is a quick way to find yourself urging the calendar towards your next paycheck.