Fascinating to me how much people are willing to spend on a car, whether measured as income percentage, debt duration, etc. It goes far beyond the need for transportation.
In their book, "The Millionaire next door", the authors note that most millionaires spend little on cars, that they tend to buy domestic, tend to pay cash, and tend to keep the car for a long time.
I am a car guy, but the preponderance of my cars meet a basic transportation need and fit in our budget at a level far below the guidelines in this article. We generally paid cash for a used car, and have put over 100,000 miles on each of them.
The point isn't used vs. new (an interesting discussion), the point is % of budget/resources applied to cars. Lowering that % allows for support of other budget priorities (in my present case, 4 kids in college next year), that might include things like: investing, building a business, vacations/travel, a nicer house.
The opportunity cost of spending that much of your budget on a car is truly staggering...great for the salesman that sold you the car, but not so great for preserving your options or enjoying the other aspects of your life...
