How do you college students afford an FD?
 

How do you do it? Do you make payments, or did you save up and pay cash? Do you have another daily driver, or is your FD your daily driver? Do you have full coverage or just liability? I'm starting college in 2 weeks and I'm not sure if I will be able to hold down a job and still make good grades. I'm taking 14 hours, not too much, maybe I'll get a weekend job. I'd appreciate any advice, I wanna make this happen. Thanks.

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...hreadid=229313
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...college+afford

being a college student myself, my advice:

i would suggest to save up a lot of money first. payments are a bitch and will be stressin. by saving up and having the majority of the car paid, payments won't be too bad. also get a good paying job with some security. fds aren't cheap to maintain. also educate yourself very well when purchasing an fd. if you are close to a knowledgeble rotary shop, bring it their to be inspected (compression, etc) BEFORE buying. and have a beater/commuter. put insurance under parents to keep costs down.

good luck,
chris

Agreed, Save up some cash. Payment's equal bad. If you can try not to drive at all during the semester. I don't know what you're situation is, but I didn't bring my car to college at all for this semester and I've been okay. If you're not driving it it can't break right? Have insuarance under parents and put yourself as second driver. If you don't use it in college much, also put it under a weekend car. Try to learn to work on the car yourself. Don't swamp yourself with school and a job if you can't handle it. Make sure your grades come first. If you have to sell the FD, then so be it. There will be plenty when you're ready again for one. You can always buy another rx-7 thats more reliable (see: NA).

Sell weed!

That is kiddy stuff, I sell pure Columbian cocaine.

Right now I have a very reliable Honda, nothing ever goes wrong. So that will be my DD. I've got a little more than 2 grand just sitting around right now, because my parents are paying for my insurance, so I keep all the money I make. So basically I have nothing to worry about except making good grades. I am going to wait at least until next school year to buy it. I need to test the waters and see what it is like. These are just pipe dreams right now, only time will tell I guess, but hopefully I'll be joining the community.

Thanks for the links diablone.

I work from 6 am to 2:30 pm...And most of my check goes into my car

I'm buying a daily driver in a couple of months because it makes no sense driving the FD every day...

$50 a week for gas...Fu%# that

I work 30 hours a week. Full time school in sfsu. about 60 to 70 % of the paycheck goes into my FD and FC; one more thing, the parts are not cheap >.<

I'm probably pretty lucky, but I have an arrangement worked out with my parents. I pay them an enormous amount of money twice-thrice a year. I used my old car, which my sister is buying, as a down payment. My sister keeps the honda, I keep the rx-7. With 4 cars in the household, I'll pretty much always have a backup to get me to work. As far as jobs go... get one with good benefits. The job I have at school pays for my dinner plan, which covers the rest of what I'd need to pay in terms of college costs. The hourly wage goes straight to me for paying off the car and other repairs/upgrade.

In summation, get a job with the right benefits and have understanding parents who will allow you to pay in odd allotments (for me, one payment at the end of summer, one at the end of the school year). Good luck with getting the rx7!!!

1) Drop back to part time and get a full time job
2) Get married so the insurance is cheap
3) Sell your soul to your company in exchange for a good salary
4) Find a place with a garage to park your broken RX-7
5) Bitch about never getting around to finishing your BS

Haha, how's that working out for you?

now for a college student.....i am 21 in school with my car paid off, you would think that having an rx7 paid off would be all good, but having to replace things such as the engine, turbos, tranny, and other small problems will add up to way more than half the price of what RX7s go for now. So unless you are made of money GO to school have fun wait till you get out of school. :bigthumb:

Buy it before you go, working for me.

im in college right now and taking 12 hours. im working full time 40 hrs weekly and i have full coverage. my car payments are $400 month an insurance is $400 a month. i pay only about 30 bucks a week for fuel. i live with my sister so i will be riding into school with her. i would say without a good paying job, save up a bunch of cash. i only put $1000 down payment and got 400 month car payments.
loren

I bought mine before school luckily and got it for 8k. I only work about 10-11 hrs a week tho so maintainance gets to be a pain. Luckily as well I got a full scholarship and am staying at home so all I really need to spend money on is the car.

Get extra financial aid from school and have my mom help me out. :)

Parents bought a 3000GT Vr4 for me when I was 16 and a half...

Sold it, and that's how I have my FD.

1) large downpayment from selling my Turbo II and saving up ($5000)
2) Payments arent too bad (under $200 a mo. for 4 years)
3) insurance is expensive, but its under parents name which makes it way less than it would be if it were under my name
4) Full time job
5) Part-time business on the side
6) Only put maybe 5000 miles a year on it, and many of those miles arent hard miles


Yea its expensive, but I love my RX-7 :D

Full time student during fall/winter semisters at 13 hours, working 20-25 hours a week, not driving the FD unless I really feel the urge (30 mpg daily driver 87 octane vs. 18 mpg FD 93 octane).

During the summers working two jobs totalling about 60 hours a week.

Its the insurance that really seems to take its toll for the most part (crossing fingers when it comes to major problems). Regular maitenence is no big deal, comes out of my "fun" budget, because, well, I enjoy changing the oil on the FD :)!

Dan

damn that sucks for you guys still making payments on ur cars. I bought my rx7 2 yrs ago, bought it cash. I was going to finance an e36 m3 at the time but my parents persuaded me into getting something with less financial burden. I really dont find it a big deal keeping my rx7 on the road during college. The car is under my parent's name for insurance so that's real cheap. Other than that ive only worked during the summer after graduating and as some stuff goes on my car i just replace it with modded items. As long as you keep up to date with your car an rx7 should not be a big deal

Im working part time, Im going to school, and making my payments. I live at home and I wont be driving the FD.

Let me guess... your rent is really cheap too because you still live with your parents.

Anyone bragging out one side of their mouth about buying their car for cash while mentioning in the same breath that they have to hide behind their parents to be able to afford the insurance is absolutely pathetic.

It was paid for while I was still in High School. This is my sixth summer of work, and 4th full time in a paint factory. I make good money (for a high school grad) and save my money to pay for repairs as the come. My first year of college the car stayed in storage while I was away because UCD has a policy of no parking passes for Freshmen and I lived on campus. My schooling is paid for, thanks to parents and the US Army, so, I can spend just about everything I make on cars, which I more or less do. I guess I'm not much help to you here since I just work all summer to pay for parts, repairs and maybe a second car, and I don't have to work during the school year, but, good luck anyway. I think it will be rather difficult to afford the car and keep up good grades (unless you're going to a really easy school, happen to be a brilliant student, or don't require sleep), so, maybe some student loans? A cheap daily driver so you can put off RX-7 repairs until the money is there? I don't know what would be best here, since selling your FD is just too painful to speak of. Josh

Putting insurance under one's parents name is entirely logical. It saves a ton of money. If you are under 25 and drive a sports car, you will be charged an arm and a leg for insurance. Its just one way of saving a lot of money with no real downside to doing this. I dont see what insurance costs has to do with bragging rights.

Just based on your age, I'm not at all surprised that you don't.

Paying for your own car with cash when you support yourself is one thing. Paying for your own car with cash because you have no rent, utilities, or food expenses to worry about and/or are hiding behind your parents to make insurance affordable is something totally different. I have no respect whatsoever for someone bragging about how easy they've got it and putting other people down ("damn that sucks for you guys still making payments on ur cars.") when they're not fully supporting themselves.

jim what are you talking about? jesus, give him a break... whats the harm in using your parents name to get cheaper insurance? i do it, and i dont plan on stopping untill it becomes the same price for me to put it in my name. how do you figure its "absolutely pathetic" to do this. from reading his post it doesnt sound like he is having problems AFFORDING his insurance, he can just save money if its in his parents name. are you saying that he should feel bad for "ripping off" AAA? insurance companies are a bunch of assholes who will screw you if you try to make a claim (not to mention they are evil huge corporations)... so basically my position is that tripple-A can suck my left one. fin!

I bought my car when i was 18 right out of high school.

The car is paid off now and I am graduating next semester, the only word of advice for college students owning an FD is to have another form of transportation. Im my case a beater car, and a motorcycle ;)

$3000 down + 280/mo payments :bigthumb:

Hmm.. will this become another FD/age debate? :rolleyes:

+1

couldnt agree with you more. Hmm... get totally ripped off for being under 25 and driving a twin turbo 2 seater, or save a ton of money because you are on your parent's plan and save a lot of money.

My advice:

1) Forget about the FD...for now
2) Work the minimum amount. Just enough to avoid creating a debt while in college
3) Put as much time and effort as possible into school
4) Graduate & get a rewarding, high paying job (sometimes this part can be tricky, depending on your major)
5) Buy a house with a nice 2 (or even 3) car garage (plenty of room for car, tools, etc)
6) Buy a nice, low mileage FD & enjoy

...at least, that's what I did, and it worked for me.

I'm 19 and I've been saving up for years now. My uncle gave me an old pathfinder when I was 17 and I was t-boned in it not 5months later. Insurance gave me 4,800 for the truck and 1,200 for bodily injuries. I put that $6k with the $2k my parents gave me to get a car and the $2,500 that I had saved up working. Bought an integra, put down 210whp, sold it. Now with what I made selling the integra and all the money I've been pooling up over the last year I have enough funds to afford to buy and maintane and RX7. My dream has finally come true, but I've worked my ass off to make it happen.

I was 18 when I bought mine. paid 6000 cash, took out a loan for 5000 over 2 years. Payments are 230/month. Insurance under my mom's name. Sweet Jesus. It would have been 5000 a year for full coverage, and for God sake, you need full coverage. I pay 176/month for full coverage on my fd, and liability on my olf pos truck.

Actually, under comprehensive (everything but collision) its cheaper for me to insure a 94 RX7 than a 99 Integra. WTF.

its because its technically a 1.3L "hatchback" under some insurance companies who dont know better....some insurancy companies just dont get it.

I don't know if it's been said but a good rule of thumb in finances is to keep your monthly bills payable with "1" Weeks paycheck.

This is *almost* true for me now, but I am only working part time because of full time college (local community college). For me it's like 1.5 weeks pay to pay off the car. Once I work full time (January) it'll be even easier to manage.

Oh and btw- My quote is $140 a month for Full Coverage on a 94 Rx7 *PLUS* liability on a 92 Integra.

;)

As well, I saved up for a long time, and took out a much smaller loan for the car :)

oooooohhh. thats so much!! (ironic)
i probably drive less than you and i pay aboute 100$ a week in gas.
you have it easy so stop complaining.
gas cost 1.3$ per liter over here,,,,
having an FD sucks when you fill her upp. (love it therwise)

Nothing. Save a buck that way if you want to, I don't care. But don't come in here bragging about how you paid cash for your car, putting everyone who makes payments down, talking about how easy it is to an afford an FD and mods, and then without pausing say "oh yeah, by the way, I dodge paying full insurance with my parents help".

Goddamn, some people are dense.

I gotta agree with Jim on this one :p:

What are your plans for the FD? Juggling the responsiblities of owning one, while trying to manage a dedicated effort to education and a job can be very tricky...especially as the FD starts running into problems.

Also too, if you have a daily driver in the civic while owning the FD, then you will most likely be paying insurance and cost of finance (at what interest rate?) for an FD that will not be a primary driver. Along with school and work, are you sure it won't negate the purpose of owning one? If you must have one, take the time you'll spend saving to also learn the car inside and out.

save save save :)

Thanks for all the feed back guys. It has given me a good idea of what I will be getting into financially. :bigthumb:

Full Time Job and Part Time School. Most of my pay check goes to the FD, Insurance and then the roof over my head. A good job is a must.

dude u took my post completely in the wrong way. I paid my for my fd in full 2 yrs ago with my hard earned money. I am a full time student now attending lafayette college 38k getting an international affairs and economics double major degree. Dont try to put me down acting as if I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Im just trying to be smart and using the money not paid on insurance to mod my car. My post was not intended as a put down, just telling how I afforded my fd as stated in the thread. There is no need to come in and start putting people down for trying to drive a great car. I mean seriously if u were in our position i bet u would be doing the same thing too. What type of car did u drive when u were 18,19,20

Not if you have a good driving record. I paid about $800 per year for insurance when I was 23.

I can't believe some of you guys pay $1000 per month to own an FD! There are sooo many better things to do with your money. Working 30 hrs per week just to pay for a car is idiotic.

If it takes you 30 hours to earn $1000 you shouldn't be spending $1000/mo on a car. The "on my parents insurance" thing is one of those grey area of the law like a lot of the "cheesy" tax deductions. Can you do it? Sure. Should you morally do it? Depends on who your judge is.

In college I drove a new bone stripped (not even rear bumper) model Tacoma truck. Nothing to break, reliable, good gas mileage, and a camper shell with a fouton pad in the back (instant camping or a place to sleep if you get too drunk at a party and saves on hotel charges on long trips).

I personally don't think you should own a FD unless you can afford to be without a car or you can afford to pay for an engine rebuild at any moment in time, if not you may end up without a car for an extended period of time. If you're using the car to "get chicks" you might want to look into some other "chicks" with a bit more substance.