vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
That's a really nice car, to have a curbside value of 50 grand; remember that most cars take an initial hit of up to 25% of their sticker value and a first year depreciation of up to 50%. That 50 grand would cover an $80k Porsche 911 or top-end Lexus ES, and the owner of that car, in the U.S. at least, cannot sue to recover replacement value; his damages are only the fair market value of the car (plus medical, lost wages, etc, which are covered under your two personal injury liability buckets). If that's a problem, it's the other guy's job to buy his own supplemental insurance, such as gap insurance which covers the remaining payoff balance of a loan or lease above total loss value. Beyond that level, up into the supercars like the Bentleys, Ferraris, A-Ms, Rollses, Bugattis etc, the drivers of these cars know full well that they will never get the blue book value of the car from you or your insurer, and take steps to protect their investment. The guys who sell these cars also know this, and so they don't sell these cars outright; they require buyers to sign ""ownership contracts"", and one of the stipulations of such a contract is that the buyer must maintain a gold-plated insurance policy on the car. That's usually not the only stipulation; The total yearly cost to own a Bugatti Veyron, according to some estimates, is around $300,000, of which insurance is only 10%; the other 90% is obligatory routine maintenance including a $50,000 tire replacement every 10,000 miles, obligatory yearly detailing at $10k, fuel costs (that's a 16.4-liter engine under that hood; the car requires high-octane and only gets 3 mpg city, 8 highway), and secure parking and storage (the moguls in Lower Manhattan who own one of these could expect to pay almost as much just for the parking space as for the car, with a monthly service contract payment to boot). You don't have a lot to lose - You can't get blood from a turnip.
This greatly depends on the local laws and the insurance contract terms. If I remember correctly, my own life insurance policy does also have special terms in case I die within a year of applying, so it doesn't sound totally bogus. For car loan insurance, the amount of coverage and premiums were probably low enough for the insurer not to want to spend the money upfront on the thorough investigation, but they probably do have a clause that covers them in case the insured passes away unreasonably quickly (unreasonably for a healthy person of the given age, that is).
"The two questions inherent in any decision to purchase an insurance plan is, ""how likely am I to need it?"", and ""what's the worst case scenario if I don't have it?"". The actuary that works for the insurance company is asking these same questions from the other end (with the second question thus being ""what would we be expected to have to pay out for a claim""), using a lot of data about you and people like you to arrive at an answer. It really boils down to little more than a bet between you and the insurance company, and like any casino, the insurer has a house edge. The question is whether you think you'll beat that edge; if you're more likely than the insurer thinks you are to have to file a claim, then additional insurance is a good bet. So, the reasons you might decide against getting umbrella insurance include: Your everyday liability is low - Most people don't live in an environment where the ""normal"" insurance they carry won't pay for their occasional mistakes or acts of God. The scariest one for most is a car accident, but when you think of all the mistakes that have to be made by both sides in order for you to burn through the average policy's liability limits and still be ruined for life, you start feeling better. For instance, in Texas, minimum insurance coverage levels are 50/100/50; assuming neither party is hurt but the car is a total loss, your insurer will pay the fair market value of the car up to $50,000. That's a really nice car, to have a curbside value of 50 grand; remember that most cars take an initial hit of up to 25% of their sticker value and a first year depreciation of up to 50%. That 50 grand would cover an $80k Porsche 911 or top-end Lexus ES, and the owner of that car, in the U.S. at least, cannot sue to recover replacement value; his damages are only the fair market value of the car (plus medical, lost wages, etc, which are covered under your two personal injury liability buckets).
I am new to the site and hope I can help! We just purchased a used car a few weeks ago and used dealer's finance again so that's not the issue here. I want to focus on what you can do to resolve your issue and not focus on the mistakes that were made.  1 - DO NOT PURCHASE A NEW CAR! Toyota Camrys are great cars that will last forever. I live in Rochester, NY and all you need is snow tires for the winter as ChrisInEdmonton suggested. This will make a world of difference. Also, when you get a car wash get an under-spray treatment for salt and rust (warm climate cars don't usually come with this treatment).   2 - Focus on paying this loan off. Pay extra to the monthly note, put any bonuses you get to the note. Take lunches to work to save money so you can pay extra. I'm not sure if you put any money down but your monthly note should be around $300? I would try putting $400+ down each month until it is paid off. Anything you can do. But, do not buy a new car until this one is fully paid off!  Let me know if this helps! Thanks!
Of course you do.  You can sell it, wreck it, do whatever you want with it.  Of course, some things may void warranty, or whatever, but since you do in fact own the vehicle, it is technically yours to do with as you please.    Did you know that you can bore the engine of a car to increase performance?  Not saying you should, there are lots of pros and cons there, and it requires an individual with specialized knowledge to do it, who you will have to pay for his service, but it is doable.  Should you be upset that this wasn't already done by the manufacturer?    Did you know that lots of vehicles are equipped with gps functionality?  If your car can display a compass, there is a decent chance that you already have the basics of what you need to set up gps in the vehicle.  Should you be upset that your vehicle doesn't have gps?  But you can't boil it down that far.  Well, I suppose you can, but it makes everything cost more for everyone.  When you buy a Tesla, you aren't just buying a car.  You are buying into the company.  They make updates, fix programming issues, etc. and this requires access.  They chose to market their vehicles differently, and so they sell them differently.  Alternatively, they could have 2 separate assembly lines, one for the 60 (discontinued) and one for the 75.  Now this will equate to both cars costing significantly more than they currently do, but hey, at least you have the right battery, right?
They'll refund your money (though maybe with a small service charge).  I'm sure they regularly deal with new car sales gone wrong.
I've read online that 20% is a reasonable amount to pay for a car each month - Don't believe everything you read on the internet.  But, let me ask, does your current car have zero expense? No fuel, no oil change, no repairs, no insurance? If the 20% is true, you are already spending a good chunk of it each month. My car just celebrated her 8th birthday. And at 125,000 miles, needed $3000 worth of maintenance repairs.  The issue isn't with buying the expensive car, you can buy whatever you can afford, that's a personal preference. It's how you propose to budget for it that seems to be bad math. Other members here have already pointed out that this financial decision might not be so wise.
I also paid the $5 for a ""no questions asked"" warranty on it because, knowing my kids, I knew there was a nearly 100% chance they would break it at least once. In this case, this warranty was well worth the $5, because they did break it! Presumably they make money on these warranties because most of the purchasers of the plan are more attentive (or too lazy to make the claim) than in this case. Edit note: I incorporated Scott's comment about likelihood of being able to utilize the warranty into a combined ""likelihood of using warranty"" term. This term could be broken up into likelihood of needing replacement x likelihood of actually getting company to replace it I didn't do this above because it makes it a little harder to understand, and may not be a major factor in all cases, but you can definitely add it after the fact (i.e. if there's only a 90% chance Applecare will pay out at all, then divide the 17.5% by 0.9 to get 19.4% likelihood of needing the replacement for it to be cost effective). More complete formulas can be derived also (including terms for full replacement costs vs repair costs and including terms for ""deductible"" type costs or shipping), but I'm trying to keep things relatively simple for those who aren't statistics nerds like I am."
"Convenience, and of course money. In case of an event, you'll have to spend the full worth of money to fix/replace, while if you're insured - you get the insurance to pay for it. It is up to you to decide, if the money saved on the lower premiums worth the risk of paying much more in case of an event. Of course, the cheaper the car the more it makes sense not to pay the premiums. Many people do that. Regarding the bargaining power, I actually think that you would pay less if it is not going through insurance than the bill the insurance pays. I fixed a nasty dent for like $300  at one shop, while at the other they said ""It's $1200, but what do you care, your insurance will cover it"" (I had $500 deductible, so in the end it was cheaper for me to pay $300 without the insurance at all)."
"Most of the consumer products that you buy at retail these days are commodity priced, and have been for a long time. Margins are thin, so if there are retail salespeople milling about, their compensation isn't coming from the TV or computer with a 6% gross margin. It comes from the extended warranty programs (which are not insurance and do not have regulated underwriting standards), which are typically sold at a 65-95% gross margin. So that $200 warranty most likely costs the retailer $50. The salesman gets $15-25. I paid for my college education working at a CompUSA selling these things, along with other high margin items that paid commission. In most cases, you aren't getting much coverage anyway. Most products carry a 1 year warranty, and using most ""gold"" or ""platinum"" credit cards doubles a manufacturer's warranty by up to 1 year. So with most transactions, you are already walking away with a 2 year warranty.  Warranties or service plans make sense for durable goods that cost alot and are expected to last a long time and/or require regular maintenance. I think they especially make sense if your budget is really tight -- a fixed maintenance cost can be an asset to some people because they can plan around it. Examples of this include: service plans for a furnace, boiler or water heater or a car if you're buying a manufacturer-endorsed service/maintenance plan from a dealer."
I would like to add that from my own research, a pro to leasing over buying a new vehicle would be that with the lease the entire 7,500 federal incentive is applied directly to the lease, or so they say. If you buy a new car you get a 7,500 federal tax incentive also but if you dont have 7,500 bucks in taxes this wont be as much value. It doesn't sense to me to buy used since you dont get the tax incentive and also if you're in california the 2,500 rebate only applies to buying new or leasing 30 month or longer.
"There's not a single answer here, as the premium you pay for car insurance depends on multiple factors, including (but not limited to): All these factors contribute to the likelihood of getting into an accident, and the expected damage from an accident.  So just having an accident and making a claim will likely raise your premium (all else being equal), but whether or not it will be cheaper in the long run depends (obviously) on how much your premium goes up, which cannot determined without all of the facts.  Your agent could tell you how much it would go up, but even making such an inquiry would likely be noted on your insurance record, and may cause your premium to go up (although probably not by as much). However, the point of insurance is to reduce the out-of-pocket expenses from future accidents, so the question to ask is: How likely am I to have another accident, and if I do, can I pay cash for it or will I need to offset some cost with an insurance claim.  Do you risk making a claim and having your rates go up by more than $700 over the next 3-4 years (the rough time it takes for a ""surcharge"" to expire)?  Or do you just pay for the repair out-of-pocket and keep your premiums lower?"
Its $5000 to add a feature that no car in that price range has. If it was $5000 to add something like AC that most cars include standard, that would be one thing. Charging $5000 for something only ultra luxury models offer is another.
My mother worked for one of the major American car rental companies. She talked about this topic with me and my answer will summarize the talk. Does the fact that they sell the car mean during this time suggest that they know the car's cost of further maintenance or other costs will be higher? Or is there another reason they sell at this time which, has a calculated advantage to them, but which is less than idea statistically for me, the purchaser? There is much more to the price equation. A premium rental car company (one that only rents fairly new, nice cars) has a certain image to maintain to protect their perceived value. A new-ist car also, besides the point of the image of the general company, commands a better rental price. Many Web sites and articles warn against buying former rental cars, because people renting these cars often mistreat them. This is a bad argument you've read. If former rental cars are in bad shape, the price will reflect that. If they are priced the same for the same miles ridden, they have equivalent wear and tear. In other words, the relative price of the car determines whether rental cars are more heavily worn not random people's opinions on the internet. People on the internet are mostly wrong. Irony intended. From the single company I have as reference, I also don't see that as relevant. There are company and governmental regulations to keep maintenance up. I clean my car once a year. Change the oil twice. Replace my wipers every eighteen months. And so forth. The maintenance cycles required for rental cars may (and this is just speculation) negate the gradual extra degradation that drivers may have on rental cars.
You're on the right track with buying clunkers, but letting your current cars get repossessed is a bad idea for the reasons you specified. First, find an insurance broker instead of an insurance agent. A broker works with dozens of companies, many of which you may not have heard of. He is in a better position to find you the best deal than you are because he is familiar with more insurance company products than you are. He doesn't charge you extra for this service. Second, ask your insurance broker if he can find any insurers offering discounts for persons who have passed a driver training course. Find an accredited course and determine pricing. If the savings exceed the cost of the course, take the course.  Third, if you have outstanding loans on your vehicles, pay them off and sell the cars. Replace them with vehicles you can purchase outright with cash. Make sure you have enough money to replace them again should another accident happen.   Once you have vehicles that are lein-free there is no longer a requirement by the lender for you to have insurance for the replacement value of the vehicle, which is what's killing your rates right now. Find out what the minimum legal requirement for auto insurance is in your state. In Canada, the minimum requirement is $100,000 liability. Anything else is either a sales job or a lender requirement. Getting your wife to insure her own vehicle may help, getting your insurance under her name may also be something to look into. Since you seem to have issues with people bumping into you and there have been no medical issues, $100,000 liability may be all you need. Note: Tactic #3 is not without risk. If you are in an at-fault accident, you will have to pay for any damages exceeding your insured limit out of your own pocket. Any damages to your own vehicle whether at-fault or not will have to be paid out of your own pocket. If you are sued for medical expenses incurred by other parties, you'll have to pay anything over and above your insured limit out of your own pocket.  If there is anything you are unclear about on your insurance policy, ask your agent/broker to explain until you do understand. Buying auto insurance without fully understanding what you are paying for is another risk.
"It wasn't new, though it may be unused. Contact the seller, and amazon, and complain. It should still be under manufacturer's warranty, and you do have the receipt to prove when you bought it... But if you want to register (makes getting service a bit easier, but mostly puts you on the company's mailing list) the seller owes you that and/or an unopened package. As far as ""why"" goes:  It may be as simple as someone having ordered, looked at it, decided they didn't want it after all, and returning it. Or it may be an attempt to claim a rebate, though generally those require part if the box to prevent that. Or maybe they swiped your paperwork to give to the previous person to complain. Or the manufacturer could have missed packing it. Or...  We can't tell you which."
It helped convince you to buy the $20,000 car. The gross margin on that car (price minus direct costs) is typically 20% for the dealer, plus another 20% for the manufacturer, so by giving up the $2,000 on the financing side, the dealer and manufacturer just earned themselves 4 times that much. On top of that, by buying that car, you're committing to buy the parts for the car, a side business with even higher margins, of which the car company gets a pretty big chunk. You may even be required to use dealer service while the car's under warranty in order to keep the warranty valid, another cha-ching. When you get right down to it, the loss from the incentive financing is drowned in the gross profits they make from selling the car to you. Now, in reality, it's a fine balance. The percentages I mentioned are gross margins (EBITDASG&A - Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, Amortization, Sales, General and Administrative costs; basically, just revenue minus direct cost of goods sold). Add in all these side costs and you get a net margin of only about 3.5% of revenue, so your $20k car purchase may only make the car company's stakeholders $700 on the sale, plus slightly higher net margins on parts and service over the life of the car. Because incentive financing is typically only offered through the company's own financing subsidiary, the loss isn't in the form of a cost paid, but simply a revenue not realized, but it can still move a car company from net positive to net negative earnings if the program is too successful. This is why not everyone does it, and not all at the same time; if you're selling enough cars without it, why give away money? Typically, these incentives are offered for two reasons; to clear out old cars or excess inventory, or to maintain ground against a competitor's stronger sales numbers. Keeping cars on a lot ready to sell is expensive, and so is not having your brand driving around on the street turning heads and imprinting their name on the minds of potential customers."
Keyless entry and stereo are the only items that come to mind on that list as having after-market potential. If you buy a used car, seat could be an option, but you would probably give up power controls and things like heating unless you are a real car guy. In general, if you're buying a new car, I think it makes sense to negotiate as much as possible during the sale. Accessories are always high margin, and you have leverage when you're buying the car. If you want fancy aftermarket stuff, you probably want to buy a nice, clean used car and fund your aftermarket stuff with the savings!
Not sure if it is the same in the States as it is here in the UK (or possibly even depends on the lender) but if you have any amount outstanding on the loan then you wouldn't own the vehicle, the loan company would. This often offers extra protection if something goes wrong with the vehicle - a loan company talking to the manufacturer to get it resolved carries more weight than an individual. The laon company will have an army of lawyers (should it get that far) and a lot more resources to deal with anything, they may also throw in a courtesy car etc.
I agree with Speedbird389 - I leased an economy car 10 years ago, paid the residual at the end of the lease because I knew the car would last a long time, but that cost me $5000 more than if I had bought it in the first place...
I just researched it a bit more and you are correct. It is essentially only a drive-reduction gear and a reverse gear. This means there is very, very little to be serviced on the entire drivetrain. The biggest service issue is the battery pack, and that has a lifetime that is accounted for in the 8 year warranty limit. So Tesla is not sweating the number of miles, honestly.
You are really showing some wisdom here, and congratulations on finishing college.   Its a lot about likelihoods.  If you buy a new car, there is something like a 99.5% chance you will get a car that will not need repairs.  If you buy a car for $1200 there is probably a 20% chance that the car will only need minimal repairs.  So the answer is there is no real guarantee that spending any amount of money you will end up with a car with no repairs. You also can't assume that with buying a car it will immediately need repairs.  Its possible, that you could spend 1200 on a car and it will need an oil change.  In three months it might need brakes and in 6 months tires.  If that is the case, you could save up the money for repairs. Have you looked for a car?  It will take some work, but you might be able to find something in good condition for your budget.   If you shop for a loan, go with a good credit union or local bank.  Mostly you are looking for a low rate.  However, I would advise against it.  You worked so hard on getting out of school without debt, why start now?   Be weird and buy a car for cash.  Heck someone may be able to loan you a car for a short time while you save some money.
Some doctors will give folks who are not covered by insurance a price break. If that describes you, you could ask. But if you didn't discuss the price in advance, that isn't the doctor's fault, any more than it would be the mechanic's fault if you asked for auto service without getting an estimate first. Consider it a cheap lesson in not making assumptions.
Don't buy the first model year of a new model unless the fuel economy is much better in the latest model.  Buying a car in later years just before the changeover will result in a slightly higher quality vehicle or in some cases dramatically higher quality. Find the best forum for your make/model/year of car.  Join the forum, check the FAQ, sticky threads and post questions when you have trouble.  Do NOT rely passively on the dealer or even private mechanics as they do not drive the car every day.  You are in the best position to identify problems but only if you have some help.   Preventive maintenance is the best if you intend to keep the car for a really long time.  Forums are a really good place to find the typical problems of a particular model and potentially head them off.