Zwoobah

I work in the car business, here's my view:

Buy new only if you plan to keep the car forever, or plan to flip in 3yrs or less. If you plan to flip before you will have the car paid off, never finance - lease instead. Let the bank deal with the negative equity. If you plan to keep it forever, make sure you have a warranty that covers at least the full length of your finance term.

If you don't have enough cash to buy the used car you want, finance a CPO car. NEVER finance a car without a warranty. You will end up making two payments - one to fix the car, and one to pay the bank. If you don't want to spend the extra money for CPO, buy something cheap and pay cash.

The current body Rabbit came out in '06. Why do you need a brand new one? For $20k, you can buy an '04-'05 CPO A4 - a $35k car with a warranty to 100k miles. Or buy an '06 Rabbit for $12k.

I paid cash for my S6 during my senior year of college, at 21yrs old. It was a stretch to maintain it properly, but it was still cheaper than any car payment. I also had my parents' garage 20mi away when I needed to spin wrenches.

The financially responsible decision would be for you to sell the S4, stop pouring money into a depreciating asset, and drive a cheap corolla. Wait for the right deal, and you could flip the Toyota and break even after 2yrs. Put the money you have in the S4 toward tuition, and buy a nicer one once you have some real income after graduation. You never know where opportunity could take you after school, and you don't need to be held back because you owe money on your car.

If you really like the S4, write down every dollar of maintenance you anticipate it needing, multiply by 1.5, and divide that by 12. Set aside that much money every month and you won't have a problem - and it'll be cheaper than any payment.

12vA90

Maybe something more simple to maintain is a step in the right direction. I just cant see myself going out and spending a chunk of cash (5-6k) on a souless car I will hate in < 2 weeks and probably not care to maintain. Id much rather spend 3-4k on a nice clean 90q (for example)and spend the rest on parts and a big battery powered spot-light for that dark parking lot

Also, point definitly taken on the car payment thing, and I had no Idea base rabbits were pushing 3000 pounds!

TabulaRasa

Where is the Rabbit TDI?

SilberUrS6

90q20V is good fun. And the AW forum dedicated to those cars is a great place.

quattro5.v.2

Chris is 100% on the mark - to optimize your depreciation either stay on the short side or keep forever (this is also why old solid cars are good deals - the curve is very flat for a $10K german car). Also since the lease has a low down payment, there's also the interest opportunity cost that you recoup by sitting on your own money.

The other good thing about a hondoyotazda is that it won't tempt you into 'upgrades' and sweet-but-expensive over-repair rationalizations (aka "well it needed a brake job anyway so I should probably do a monobloc conversion... <i>really it only makes economic sense you see</i>")

The big factor only you can put a price on is piece of mind no-hassles (not worrying that the CPS goes out on the way to an exam for instance...) vs. financial options - being locked into a cash payment that you have to meet every month.

Assuming you put $10K down and finance over 3 years at 6%, at the end of that period you have paid out $22k, and are left with an asset worth maybe $10-12K. For $10-12k you've gotten 3 years of new-car piece of mind, with virtually no stops at the mechanics and no wrenching (another advantage of the lease is it hopefully keeps you away from tempting upgrades since you don't own the car).

Then, how much maintenance and piece of mind would you need to pay for out of the $10-12K with the S4? Sounds like a lot of cash but it gets draining after a while and remember with the new car you will have virtually NO maintenance costs - with the S4 have to plan brakes/suspension/engine/whatever you think you'll need. You can see a few guys selling S-cars lately have shown signs of being fed-up and fatigued by the years of spending and fixing. The positive piece of mind in this option that you get back is not having to worry about making a car payment if the world economy implodes and none of us have jobs.

I've fallen on both sides of the equation over the years. We short-leased the last A4. I could have paid cash for a new A4/S4/whatever this year, but right now my beater DD S6 is the lowest-guaranteed-cashflow-burden route in times of high economic uncertainty. Plus I kind of have a soft spot for having a cheap but fast and luxurious Audi beater in the driveway. ("Intangibles...")

AudiSport4000

Well actually Im renting it, its a lease. The car is just something to get me through 3 years then I'll dump it and actually buy a car.

Put around 8k miles on it already, love it so far, no issues. Contrary to what has been said the fuel economy is fantastic. I get around 25-27 city and 30-35 highway. I dont think thats too shabby at all for the 5cyl.

I would recommend them, but of course Id rather have an Audi. This rental is a bandaid for 3 years while I get my career going and focus on that rather than DD'ing a project car.

I did the project car thing in college when I lived at home. When I moved out I realized I lost access to a garage and my parents cars as backup vehicles. So, rather than risk losing my job IF something bad happened, I decided to lease the car for 3 years. I really cant beat paying 250 a month for the peace of mind. I sold my 4ktq and have been pretty happy with my decision.

Patience pays off, I'll get back into the Audi game when I can afford it and have the proper lodgings for a project car.

4Driver4

What made you buy it over the competition? What else did you look at?

AudiSport4000

I liked the driving experience and ammenities over both of the cars. The Honda interior really turned me off to be honest. The Mazda really gave the Rabbit a run for the money, seriously.

Just felt more "at home" in the Rabbit, if that makes sense. I still love the lines of the Civic, but the main thing was the interior

Type44QShip

Respectfully, of course. But I wrench on Audis daily (indy tech) and picked the urS for a reason.

I think it is considerably cheaper to run than an A4. I'm talking B5/B6. Ask a good customer of mine. At 85k miles, he came in for two window regs, four upper control arms, timing belt, cam tensioner gasket, and 3 CV boots. That was well into a four-figure invoice. My 90k mile '93 has cost about $100 in parts in the past year. The A4 is a good car but it has, IMHO, more built-in stuff that fails than a C4 of either 5 or 6 cyls.