The question at hand is not whether to acquire a car or not, it is whether to pay in cash or a loan. If the percentage rate is lower than what the person could gain in an investment then most of the time it makes sense to take the loan.

It is only a slippery slope if you are not financially responsible. I buy almost nothing with cash, and I pay very little in interest fees outside of my mortgage. You still need to look at monthly expenses and income to make sure you are being smart. But debt is only a slippery slope if you have no self control or…

Joule thief!

If you can’t pay cash, don’t buy it!

You can use credit reasonably, too.

It’s also worthwhile to look for financing deals on certified pre-owneds. I bought a 2-year old Mercedes and financed about 3/4 of the purchase because Mercedes was offering a 1.9% rate on a 48 month loan. That allowed me to move the unused cash to my investment account and put it to work (and earn more than 1.9%).

“If you can’t pay cash, don’t buy it” is still solid financial advice,

That’s technically not a used car though. I work for the automaker you mention, and those are the cars I always buy as well. When we sell those, we count them as a new car sale. Because of this, they are eligible for all of the manufacturer discounts, including promotions like 0% financing. You would not find this on…

That’s basically like having free money at that point. At zero percent, you’d be crazy not to take it. 

Great advice on paying in cash. If you can do it without making a huge dent in your savings, do it. Or, like you said, get a great APR and put a sizable down payment on it. Cash is not always king. Have a rainy day fund.

I just got a 0% loan on a used canyon (3k miles). It was being used as a dealer loaner. No question that I took the finance instead of buying it outright. Used the money to pay off my wife’s car instead that had 5% on it.

“They understand” isn’t legally binding. You can go through all those things, show up with a check, and still have the dealer try to ding you for something, up to and including “oh, we made a math error”. It is your decision to continue the deal or go elsewhere.

The deal isn’t done until the keys are in your hand, so the term still applies. 

Or a hot spot.

If you live in a cold spot you might not say this.

If it’s too much effort to stop your bicycle and then get it going again, you should find an alternate means of transportation.

Which is a really poor excuse for not obeying the laws. Especially if you’re criticizing drivers for not obeying the law. “Share the Road” goes both ways, my friend.

Still gotta obey the law. If you don’t like stopping, maybe try walking instead.

Or maybe suck it the fuck up and stop because you’re legally required to?

None of that is a valid excuse to not stop at a stop sign, especially when the intersection has a stop sign for only one direction and is a blind corner thanks to thick foliage.