New Car Smell from Hell! (And Charter Sucks!)

As I am still working on my 1st quarter numbers, my Internet went out and who knows how long it will be out...Charter Sucks! So I am knocking out this post as I eat a sandwich at my desk and dream of holding these Ninja Bills at bay!

Neat report on Yahoo today about new cars that lose their value the quickest. Nothing is a better feeling then driving home in that new car, neighbors saying, "Hey Bob...Nice Car!" no spilled Cheerios in the back...or dog hair (we don't even have a dog either). But all of this is balanced out by one little personal finance fact: Buying a new car is a horrible financial decision!

You take 10%+ of the value of the car and flush it for just driving off the lot. And to make it worse, most people finance them...and not great rates. So you are spending current dollars in the future for something that's always losing value.

Just buying a 2-3 year old car can save thousands of dollars and will probably still have most of its warrantee intact. As bad as this call can be you can make it worse by driving a car that depreciated even quicker!

Here are the Worst Offenders:

• Kia Sedona
• Lincoln Town Car
• Suzuki Reno
• Suzuki Forenza
• Suzuki Aerio
• Mercury Grand Marquis
• Dodge Durango
• Chevy Uplander

As a point of reference the KIA only retains 20% of it purchase price value after a typical five year ownership! Five years isn't uncommon of car loans anymore either, which makes the impact worse.

A new car is fun and feels good, but is it really worth this big of an economic impact on your personal finances and budget?

Personal Finance QuickTake: World's Cheapest Car

Today Tata Motors of India announced that they had developed the World's Cheapest (my word not theirs!) car. This is a real-life functioning car for $2500 for the base model.

The car is missing some of the finer things in life like: radio, A/C, Right-side mirror and only has one wiper blade. It also has 2-Cylinder, 33-HP engine, but has a top speed of 60MPH.

Now this car will probably not pass US safety laws at this price, but still I could see a US version for $4000. This really reminds me of the Yugo back in the 80's that was going to take over the world since they were so cheap, but never caught on here in a mass way. They just weren't of enough quality.

Tata is no Yugo though, they are the largest car builder in India and currently the leading bidder to take over Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford. With the SMART car from Mercedes also coming to the US, along with $3 per gallon gas, it may just be the beginning of a new era of tiny cars...