Use student loan to buy a car?

[Allons-y]

Would you buy a car with your dental student loan? How much money would you spend? And brand/model I should look into?

I’m starting dental school fall 2017. Have no car and it’s driving me nuts. Busing and hitching rides from friends just for groceries is time consuming and tiring. My plan is to live frugally for the next 4 years and save what I can from the school’s loan budget until I have enough for a used car. I don’t have any credit and my family can’t help me financially.

Realistically, I could* live without a car for another 4 years since my new apartment is only 8 mins walk from the dental school. I’ll still have to ask for rides from friends and going out will be a pain but who have time to go out in dental school anyways right? T.T

I just crave a little more independence. :/ Help….

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[oralcare123]

Uber and grocery delivery would be much cheaper, but it is your decision just consider gas and maintenance. Older cars brake more often

 

[charlestweed]

I bought a $1500 Honda Civic with a credit card convenience check. I paid Geico $400/year for insurance. The financial aid office at my ortho program didn’t give me enough loan to live since I already maxed out the student loan for my DDS degree. It only took me 20 minutes to walk to school but it was tough walking during the cold winter months (the school is in a midwest state and I grew up in CA). Besides school, off-campus lectures, and grocery shopping, I also needed the car for church and other weekend activities. It’s one reliable Japanese car. I didn’t even change the oil at the recommended intervals. When I completed my residency 2 years later, I sold it for $400. I returned to CA to work and bought myself a first "dentist" car for $38k.....a 3-year-old BMW 740i.

 

[lmkappo4]

A bike might be another option.

 

[periopocket]

Get the car, at some point you need to live your life, just get a real cheap used Honda or Toyota.


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[distressstudent]

If you're only doing grocery shopping once a week (hell...even twice a week if you're willing to use the freezer), then I would just uber everywhere.

Sure you can buy a used car, but you gotta think about insurance. And the cheaper the car is, the more cash you need to sit aside for maintenance. So the value of your car depreciates and you have an annual fee of just running the car in the hundreds approaching the thousands.

Now consider the loan you have to take out with grad plus loans. To get the car you need to take out $2000 then you need to. Origination fee itself will be 80. Interest itself is 7% and will cost you $140 annually until you can pay it off. That's just on the car itself and not considering how much more you gotta take out for aforementioned fees.

That's what you are weighing against a bimonthly $10 uber trip.

 

[Hannah Banana]

I agreed with some above. Get a cheap car but reliable so you don't have to fix too much. Test it throughly. Can your family help with car insurance?

 

[KillaCam]

If you feel like you need a car and without it it's a hindrance just get it. Nobody else is living your life, do what you need to do. An extra 5 grand is not going to break you in loans.

 

[Faefly]

I think it's better to have a car, you are already gonna pay for the loan, the car will help you a lot in multiple situations, you are an adult, you are not going to spend your life begging others for a ride!
The car is very necessary for some places!
Buy a reliable old car, does not have to be fancy.

If you depend on what SDN tells you here.

You will join the army, do loan forgiveness for 10 years, never marry, never have kids, never goes on a trip, just to pay debts and live happily ever after when you are 90!

 

[schmoob]

You will join the army, do loan forgiveness for 10 years, never marry, never have kids, never goes on a trip, just to pay debts and live happily ever after when you are 90!

What are you talking about???

 

[Allons-y]

Can your family help with car insurance?

Haha unfortunately no. I'm now considering getting the car at the end of my 2nd year... This way, I can delay the insurance payment and interest on the loans but still have a reliable vehical once off-campus rotations starts.

I bought a $1500 Honda Civic with a credit card convenience check. I paid Geico $400/year for insurance.

Congrats on making it though all that!!! $400 is really cheap for insurance! Just wondering, how many miles was on your Civic when you bought it? I'm trying to figure out a reasonable range.

 

[icareforyou]

Would you buy a car with your dental student loan? How much money would you spend? And brand/model I should look into?

I’m starting dental school fall 2017. Have no car and it’s driving me nuts. Busing and hitching rides from friends just for groceries is time consuming and tiring. My plan is to live frugally for the next 4 years and save what I can from the school’s loan budget until I have enough for a used car. I don’t have any credit and my family can’t help me financially.

Realistically, I could* live without a car for another 4 years since my new apartment is only 8 mins walk from the dental school. I’ll still have to ask for rides from friends and going out will be a pain but who have time to go out in dental school anyways right? T.T

I just crave a little more independence. :/ Help….

I would not use my student loan to buy a car. When you are in school you have to do the best you can with the little you have. Years ago when I started college, the church gave me a used car and I drove that car until I was done with college.

 

[Greyangel6]

I think a car will require a significant amount of money/saving to account for 1) the car purchase itself 2) maintenance 3) insurance 4) possible parking decal on campus. I would look into a moped, it can be cheaper than a car for all of the things I mentioned.

 

[distressstudent]

you are already gonna pay for the loan

I can't even...

You know you can decide how much loans you take out, right?

 

[Faefly]

I can't even...

You know you can decide how much loans you take out, right?

He did not specify the details. I am only concerned with the car. He can add the car price to the loan to make his life easier.

Some of you prefer to make life way harder to save some money. I don't share the same belief, we all here to give advice based on our personal beliefs.

Did you not read his comments about not having a car is driving him nuts? I say with all the stress of school, something that is an easy fix like buying a reliable but cheap car is attainable.

 

[distressstudent]

He did not specify the details. I am only concerned with the car. He can add the car price to the loan to make his life easier.

Some of you prefer to make life way harder to save some money. I don't share the same belief, we all here to give advice based on our personal beliefs.

Did you not read his comments about not having a car is driving him nuts? I say with all the stress of school, something that is an easy fix like buying a reliable but cheap car is attainable.

Okay then can you clarify what you mean by "you are already gonna pay for the loan"

What do you mean "already". I am trying to gauge if you understand how loans work

 

[Faefly]

Okay then can you clarify what you mean by "you are already gonna pay for the loan"

What do you mean "already". I am trying to gauge if you understand how loans work

What I meant was, in the end, he is gonna pay for the loans when he graduates and starts working, it's not like he is loan free and decided to take a loan just so he can buy a car.
When he graduates assuming it's a state school he is about to pay 230,000 without interest, so what the 230,000 turned into 233,500 (again without interest). Of course, he might have other student loans from his undergrad.
That's what I meant.

 

[Faefly]

There are an infinite amount of things we want to have in life, but can do without. Yes, it is convenient and nice to have a car, but there are some sacrifices that won't kill you. Given that the OP lives 8 min from school, not having a car is one of them. Is it really worth it for OP to pay for gas, maintenance, insurance, and parking? I don't know, but I know that for every $1 you take out in dental school, you could roughly pay back 2-3$.

I understand what you are saying, but isn't working hard 12 hours a day a sacrifice enough? I mean students gives their time, health, relationships, friendships, family visits, having a fun time just so they can study and succeed.

It depends on the person. Personally, I just want to live in a city where I don't have to drive; driving is stressful and annoying, but he said not having a car is "driving him nuts" that why I recommended he gets a cheap car.

 

[charlestweed]

Congrats on making it though all that!!! $400 is really cheap for insurance! Just wondering, how many miles was on your Civic when you bought it? I'm trying to figure out a reasonable range.

It was a 10-year-old Honda Civic with 140k miles on it. My previous car was a Dodge Colt (a car with a Mitsubishi engine and a flimsy American body) which I drove from 12th grade to the last year of dental school. I could no longer use it for my ortho residency because it couldn’t pass the smog test. The insurance was cheap because I only bought the liability coverage and it was more than 15 years ago. I also got a good discount for being a good driver and student.

Some students prefer to pay more in rent to have their own room. I shared an apartment with 4 other roommates, who were also my dental classmates. I’d rather lose some privacy and have a car than not having one. During my dental school years, I used the car to drive home every other weekend to visit my parents. My mom cooked and packed food for me. I saved a lot of time and money for not having to cook and eat out.

It actually costs a lot less to maintain the used reliable Japanese cars. I’ve paid many times more to maintain the German cars. The performance tires on these German cars are expensive and needed to be replaced every 15-20k miles. I spent $800 to change 8 spark plugs on my Mercedes CL550....way overpriced. And another $700 for changing a headlight bulb….they said they had to remove the entire front bumper to get access to the headlight housing. That’s crazy.

 

[stoopidmonkeycatdog]

Honestly man, I would consider leasing a car instead of renting.

Most people will say "I don't want to throw money away and not get any equity for the car" but honestly i think the pro's (Way less per month, much newer model, no giant loan) definitely outweigh the cons of no ownership.

My girlfriend drives a basic model 2017 car, her monthly payment is $180 a month. So she gets a nice car, without the heavy payment associated with it. Plus once you graduate and are established you could always switch to a newer car later.

 

[oralcare123]

Honestly man, I would consider leasing a car instead of renting.

Most people will say "I don't want to throw money away and not get any equity for the car" but honestly i think the pro's (Way less per month, much newer model, no giant loan) definitely outweigh the cons of no ownership.

My girlfriend drives a basic model 2017 car, her monthly payment is $180 a month. So she gets a nice car, without the heavy payment associated with it. Plus once you graduate and are established you could always switch to a newer car later.

I actually heard about Nissan Altima for $99 a month

 

[DOC YANKEM]

Foreign Asian cars are known to be very cheap. I would invest in a mid to late 2000 Toyota or Honda, these cars can be easily bought under $2500. Not only are they reliable, but also keep their value very well over the years (basically they depreciate significantly slower than other cars).

 

[wildzodiac]

Trust me, I am a firm believer in buying old, used cars, but it's not just buying the car, it's all that is associated with the car that can add up. Car, tags, titles, inspection, fixes in order to pass inspection, emissions, oil changes, filter changes, transmission fluid changes, gas, insurance. That $1,500 car may easily end up costing $8,000 by the time it is all said and done years down the road. Car debt is the absolute worst debt anyone can ever get into. Ever.

Your situation does not warrant the need for a car, even if it is an older, modest civic.

 

[Redtwogreen]

If you do decide to buy a car, I'd buy a cheap one (less than $5000) and use a car loan instead of student loans to buy it. A car loan (without knowing anything about your personal credit history or other debt issues) will likely have an insurance rate about half of what your student loan rate will be.