Persuasion...

[MokujinX5]

Ok. I want an EP badly. :p I've already test driven 3 of them and I absolutely love it. Here's my problem:

I'm having a hella hard time trying to talk my parents into letting me get one. It'll be my trade-in, and I'm paying for it, so... why not? But they still have their quips about me getting a new car because I'll be off at a university starting Fall 2003. It's not like I'm 16 or anything (no offense), I'm recently turned 21 (yeah, still living with the 'rents... it's sad) and they're like "Your not a child anymore" but yet still say no to the new car idea. I'm fixing to just do it anyway... but wanted to know if there were any suggestions you could give to a fellow Civic owner...

Thanks
-Allen

[Zerostatic]

I don't want to sound like a a-hole but you're 21 and you need permission to get a car that you're going to paying for. Damn, I'm only 19 and I can do whatever I want.

[IceD out N CALI]

what are their main reasons for u not getting it?

[Suk02Si]

what'll be your trade-in?

wait, your name is Allen and you live in Allen,Tx?:D

[zensuit]

I agree with some of the other posters. Hell, I was 16 and working on the road as a musician with my own ride almost 30 years ago. You are 21...change cars, forget about the Parental chatter!

Z

[Gibhunter]

You're going off to college. They want you to worry with your studies and not car payments. Between school, studies and work, you'll have very little time for social life. Keep the old car through colllege and you'll have more $$, more time and more fun. I think you might want to listen to your parents on this one.

[nickw252]

It all comes down to your priorities... If you dont mind working and studying all the time and not having a social life then go for it. I for one just started college and love the social life and am glad my car is paid off. Also, on a side note, there is nothing wrong with still living at home at 21, but having to ask to buy a car... thats bad. I am 18 and bought and paid for my 00 Si all on my own with no intervention from my parents. Just help with taking care of insurance and the title and crap.

[silver ep]

Heres some reasons you could give them for getting the ep:

New car= reliable transportation

No lemon factor

Good resale (hopefully :o )

Good gas mileage

Also home at 21...no biggie Im 23, still live at home and dont care, its free! :D

[IceD out N CALI]

if you can get the si for 14k that might help your case out

[MokujinX5]

Some of you make me feel kinda stupid asking my parents to get a car... no biggie though. It

[IceD out N CALI]

i'm doing a lease for 3 years, i'd suggest the same-you might be able to get a low monthly payment with the way prices are on the si it might not be that much more than what you're paying now. Think long and hard on it though, your current car is all you really need in reality, but if u can get the payment and lease term 3yrs, then i'd say go for it. :)

[Gibhunter]

So the civic is almost paid off? How about you keep it till it's paid off, sell it privately and then get the new Si for around $15,000 (that's how much they go for). That way you'll only end up financing about $7-8,000 for a car that you know will hold its value well.

If you trade it in, you'll loose lots of $$ and end up with about as large a payment as you have right now. Plus the dealers are not as willing to haggle over the price if they know that you have to get rid of your car and if they are willing to haggle it's only because they know that they will make up the difference by raping you on the trade in value for your car.

Just my 2 cents.

[natesi]

Few things I haven't seen mentioned here....

At most universities (even small ones):
1--Theft and car break in is high
2--Parking on campus is EXTREMELY expensive, if you can even get a pass. You probably don't want to park a new car off campus unless you don't have a choice.
3--Random acts of vandalism and stupid stuff is not unusual. Someone was smashing out windows at my old university for the hell of it.
4--Hit and runs not uncommon in crowded parking lots.
5--Unless you live off campus, you won't be driving your car much. You should not have too hard a time getting an on-campus job, which is much more convenient.
6--No one really cares if you drive a nice car (unless maybe you join a frat). This is college, not high school (frats are stuck with high school mentality--no offense).


Some other points I'd like to make:
Community college is child's play compared to university classes. I'm sure you've heard it's harder, but never understood why. Well, it's harder for many different reasons, simply depending on where you go (some schools are dog-eat-dog and set classes up to achieve failure by default). For the most part though, they take your community college classes and add (maybe) about three chapters to it and an extra essay or two, but in the same amount of time you would have to complete your same community college class.

That might not be a big deal on an individual level, but when all your classes are like that, the time slips away fast.

Once you get into your junior and senior level classes at the university, it will definitely get harder, unless you have an "easy major" (won't mention these, as I'm sure I've already offended the frat people).

In community college, I worked 20 hours a week, had a decent amount of free time, and got a 3.7 GPA with at least 6 hours of sleep a night.

At the University, I didn't work much, if at all (15 hours or less), got maybe 6 hours of sleep if I was lucky, and worked my ass off for my 3.26 GPA. The whole university experience was awesome--there's no way I would have wanted to

[!@#$%]

MokujinX5, were you at the last dfw macarthur meet?

If so....just go ahead and finance it. It wont be much more, and you plan on paying that much money for a car you might as well keep the car after its paid for. :D

hell i have a 3.7 gpa at eastfield and i work 40 hours every week. If you were at the meet you saw my silver ep. Ive been able to pay for all of that on 9.65 an hour....to me that seems kinda measely but its certainly enough to get me by.:p

They say you only live once....and well if you really want the car get it. if you can afford it and it wont disrupt school, why not? Its nice waking up, walking into the garage and just smiling knowing my ep is smiling back ;)

[MokujinX5]

Damn, natesi, you bring a very good point. college is the place to experience things. When you said "you have to ask yourself, do you own the car, or does it own you?" Most people believe they own the car, but in fact it's the other way around. That's the main point my parents brought up. They don't want me struggling to pay for the car and school stuff. I already have one degree (only an associate's, in a field that I'm not using) and I want something more.
Gibhunter... the car is almost paid off ($3700 left), and I would sell it privately but here's why I'm looking to rid myself of it. Structurally the car is sound... no motor problems and it's a blast to drive. The problem... the A/C. I took it to the dealership to get the A/C checked. It was making this horrible metal grinding/clanking sound. Seriously you cringed when you heard it... the sound alone could peel the enamal off your teeth. so the dealership tells me that the compressor internally shattered/imploded (whetever you want to call it) so it'll cost $1500 to fix it (labor and parts). I don't have $1500 to fix it, let alone $1000 I could drop at one time.
My parents know about the problem but don't want to help me to pay to fix it (the car used to belong to my dad, they called me selfish, so I let him get the new car... my mistake).
My car payment is $235 a month ($233 and some shange). I was hoping I could get the dealer to get somewhere close to that (give or take $20-30). Last time I went to the dealer they gave me $265 (18K after TTL and $1000 --recently had previous car totaled). I was hoping the dealer would overlook a down payment with a good trade-in.
Oh, yeah, that was me at the last Si Meet!