Car question?

A few months back I bought a hyundai tiburon gtv6 and now i feel like a pansy. how long do you own cars for (asking you, not saying how long should one own a car for), and have you ever sold back a car when you weren't done with the payments? not that it's a bad car, i just want a faster car like a mustang GT or maybe one of them new 08 (09?) camaros when they come out. what are your suggestions

Car question?
If you go in to get a different car and you haven't paid off the first one, sure they will buy it from you, but for way less than you owe, and you will still owe that amount plus the amount of the new car. They call it "negative equity".
Reply:hyundai tiburon is a good car....a GT v6 is a good car. all you need to do is put a little extra soemthing under the hood...maybe intake...maybe exhaust...lighter flywheel...your car can be fast. you just have to figure what you can do to add the extra horse power.
Reply:When you drive a new vehicle off the lot, you lose value. The car goes from a new car to a used car. Used are worth less than new. This amount of initial depreciation is different for each car. Hyundai vehicles do not hold their value as well as some. This has less to do with the car, and more to do with the used car market for the car. Hyundai is not as popular on a used car lot as, let's say, Honda.



The problem you are likely to run into is the amount that you owe is more than likely going to be more than the value of the vehicle, at least in the first few years of ownership. The depreciation in value occurs more quickly at the beginning of a vehicle's life, than at the end.



When you finance a vehicle, you are borrowing money from the finance company to buy the car. They charge interest on the money. Interest is nothing more than rent on the money. They more you owe, the more rent (interest) you pay.



The payments on a car loan are constant, but the amount that is applied to the loan balance and the amount of interest will vary each month.



Let's use some round figures (these are just for an example)



Say you have a 60-month loan with a payment of $300 per month. The first payment will be mostly for interest, with a very small amount going to pay of the loan itself. You may pay $275 in interest, and out of your $300 only $25 is actually paid on the balance of the loan. You are paying interest on the balance and with the balance being high; you have to pay more interest.



Your second payment will have a bit less applied to interest (because you have reduced the balance slightly, and more to pay off the loan. Each month, the amount of interest is reduced, and the amount that is applied to the loan increases. This is called amortization. You can find amortization calculators on the web.



You can trade or sell your car at any time you want. If the balance on the loan is less than you get for the vehicle the difference is your equity. You can use that for a down payment on your new vehicle, of do what you want with it! If the balance is more than the value of the vehicle, then you are in a negative equity position, (dealers call that upside down) and you will have to either pay that amount, or roll the balance into another loan!
Reply:Gas is really expensive. Hang on to the pansycar for a while, then when you're ready to pay for gas in a GT, go for it.