You may want to pay in cash, but most likely you’ll be interested in financing a car. Whether you go to a Chrysler dealer, or anywhere else, they’ll offer you competitive financing so you can pay it off over time.
You’re not ready to buy a car until you can afford to put down 20% as a down payment. If you can put down that much, you’ll get the best rates from the bank too.
You should only be financing your car for up to 60 months. Stay away from 72 and 84-month loans, you do not want to be paying off your car for that long. 36 and 48-month loans are the best, in order to pay off your loan the quickest and save on interest.
Your total car payment should not be more than 10% of your net take-home pay. Include car maintenance and every associated cost.
The average car payment is around $535, whereas the average U.S. salary is only $45,000. Just about everyone spends way more on their car than they can really afford. Your average consumer will also pay around $5,300 in interest alone when buying a new car.
