These Are The Most Expensive Car Payments You've Ever Had (2024)

Brand new and self specced $90k Porsche 718 Cayman S, financed $50k @ 3.9% 48 months with a credit union, $1125. Bought January 2024.Single, no kids. Overpaid and underworked.

How smart these decisions are really depend on your income level. I pay over $1,000 / month for my Palisade, but but that was because there was a great interest rate offer from Hyundai financing and $1,000 / month isn’t really enough to impact my budget one way or another.

Pretty much every new car I’ve bought for myself has had double the MSRP of my previous one. My last personal purchase was a 2018 Model 3 Long Range back when I was one of the first in my state to have one. It was $850/mo, all paid off now and no plans of re-selling. The key is to just not buy beyond your means.

$823 3 years, 0% on my Maverick XLT Lariat Hybrid. My retirement truck and I love it, payment be damned. You can’t go wrong with free money.

Up until 2016, I was able to keep my car payments under $350 per month and that includes a 2005 Legacy GT (purchased new) , a 2008 Legacy GT Spec.B (purchased CPO), and a 2014 IS350 F-Sport RWD (leased new). The auto loans were for 4 year terms with the lowest rates available at the time (0.9-2.9%, remember the good old days!). The IS lease was with about $3K down. Fortunately, I have the benefit of being taught how to be financially literate and also to be a skilled and educated car shopper.

When it finally came time to purchase a bigger, nicer car, I purchased a 2014 CPO x5 and the monthly payments were around $400. It wasn’t until my wife got a nice car allowance that we decided to splurge and commit to $750/month lease payments on a 2021 A7 PHEV but again with only $3K down at closing. Seeing that people are currently paying that much per month for $50K vehicles, I feel pretty good about the deal I got on an $80K luxury car (about 14% off of MSRP plus about $7K for the EV vehicle credit). And, fortunately, the other two cars in our fleet (2014 X5 and 2002 M5) are fully paid off so it is our only monthly payment.

When I was in my 20s and making bad decisions, I put a deposit down on the newly announced Lotus Elise - well before production (for the US model) began. Production delays were so long that I pulled my deposit and bought a house before the car I ordered arrived.

A couple years later, I needed to scratch that itch, so I found a used one - exact same spec as the one I ordered. Keep in mind, I was still dumb, and really could not afford a mortgage and large car payment; but I was used to living hand to mouth & ramen was still palatable, so I added a ~$600 car payment to my monthly outlay.

It was a dumb decision, but I still own & love that car - long since paid off.

2017 Camaro SS 1LE.

$594/mo. 60 months 4.1% APR

My most expensive payment was $560 a month on my brand new 2017 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off Road 6M.

I paid $140 a week on it to save on interest and pay it off early.

Currently I’m paying $550 a month in a covid car frenzy 2019 Chrysler Pacifica.

I’m trying to convert the 2017 Tacoma into a newer Camry Hybrid LE with as close to $0 out of pocket because the Camry hybrid would allow me to “make” about $200 per month more income as I get paid IRS mileage from work now… I’d give up 3 pedals but I’d get about $200-$300 more income per month.

Right now, $263 biweekly on a CX-5, which isn’t terrible, although it’s more than twice what I paid on the Mazda2 it replaced (that was about $190/mo, albeit 7 vs 5 years), although I’m also making more than twice what I did then.

Still, after spending over $2k a month on daycare for a couple years, the car payment doesn’t look so bad all of a sudden.

The one I paid off last year, my 2018 F-150. The payments were $483 with 0% interest- $37,500-ish in total. It’s the most expensive thing I’ve ever bought. I’m driving her until the wheels fall off, then replacing the wheels and keep going

My current car, a ‘23 Bronco 2-dr Badlands with a myriad of options. Currently running me $456/month (I pay $300 bi-weekly). 60 months @ 5.79%.

I luckily had the foresight to order through an out-of-state dealer who publicly committed to $1k under invoice prior to COVID/crazy delays on the bronco. So $45k out-the-door. I also had the sheer luck of buying a new Wrangler prior to insane COVID prices, but sold it when the bronco finally came in 3 years later for a good chunk more than I paid. So $25k down, and paying $45k for a truck going for $60k down the street, I’m still happy with my decision.

I never really calculated it. But probably the dumbest thing was leasing my 2014 Evo with the sight and sound package for 38K$ with 4K$ down, 440$/mo...and then buying it out with 500$ down, 520$ or so/mo because I didn’t fully understand leases. Should have just bought it outright, but she was paid off several years ago so it worked out.

Crazy part is in 2016 I bought my Outlander Sport manual new for 16K$, almost nothing down either and the price was like 250$/mo. So combined I was paying about 700$/mo for both cars, (interest rate went down mid payment cycle). Some people are over 700$/mo for 1 car.

Only ever owned three cars new, so only ever had three car payments.

1999 Nissan Frontier, don’t remember the interest rate (5 or 6 range?) or the loan total (maybe $13.5?), but was $265 for 60mo.

2016 Ford Fiesta, 1.99% interest rate,~$10k loan, $175 for 60mo.

2019 Ford Escape, 2.49% interest, ~23K loan, $415 for 60mo.

$290 for 60 months at 0% with a down payment of $500. 2016 was a fun time.

The car? The crown jewel of my fleet: A 2016 Smart Fortwo Edition #1 (a first edition third generation car) with nearly all of the bells and whistles.

Ha. Not much. Until I was 35, my most expensive car was $7k which I bought outright in 2011. A 2003 CR-V. A five speed! Was a great little trucklet. Put big Geolanders on it and did all kinds of dumb stuff.

I traded the CR-V in on my current car, the first one I ever financed, a 2015 Subaru Forester. That was in 2017, and I got a six-year loan on it at 2.9% and the payments were a whopping..... $265. Paid it off in four years and I still have it. Given the price of new cars and an apparent inability to keep even payments on a gently used car under $500 a month, it looks like I’ll be running the Subie into the ground. Have 90k on it now - it’s been good to me. And, like the CR-V, I abuse it pretty good. First big money spent on it beyond brakes and tires and routine maintenance will be coming up with the timing belt/water pump and I’ll probably have them do the clutch while it’s partly torn apart...

But, yeah. $265. Not much!