How big of a price jump would you need to make in order to agree on a car? What is the going rate on financing?
We're mostly fiscally conservative -- keep a budget, plan for big expenses, and pay cash for almost everything. Our emergency fund is 3 months income or about 5 months "needs" expenses. We also have a large investment portfolio that I avoid touching.
When we decided to replace DH's car, the cash we had budgeted was $7k short of what we needed for the car he really wanted. I didn't feel comfortable taking that much from the emergency fund and didn't want to sell any investment. The dealer was offering 1.9%, so we decided to take a 36 month loan for $7k. In the long run I figured it was better to use a loan to buy a car that DH would be happy with for 8-10 years than to force him to settle for something he would lobby to replace in 5 years. In the end I think we only paid something like $300 in interest charges, and the $227/mo payment was not a huge burden to us.
It sounds like you have your financial house in order, so if a $5-$10k loan would make the difference and the interest rate is acceptable, it might be worth considering.
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