It could be worse... You could live in the Communist People's Republic of NJ. The wife & myself have a spotless driving records. Never a ticket for anything, EVER. We pay $2700/year for a 05 Lariat, 03 Jetta GLS, 00 Honda VFR800fi & 89 Honda Hawk GT650.

I have USAA, you must be in the military to be a client. The are generally regarded as the way to go in NJ. 99% of my co-workers use them. The $2700/year takes into consideration: multi car discount, defensive driving course, safe driver & high safety ratings for the Lariat & Jetta.

When I lived in SC I paid $1200/year for 3 Vehicles with max coverage/lowest deductable. When I moved to NJ the same 3 vehicle were $4000/year. I had to drop coverages and increase deductables to drop my rate to $2200.

Oh, by the way... As much as I hate spoiled little brats who live off their parents... I must say, if the kid makes his own money, and does not live off hand outs, then I say "Sky's The Limit". Buy that Lariat if you want it. I wished I made enought $$$$ to play the stocks. Alas, I'm an E6 in the USAF, I make $30000/year.

The differences between XLT & Lariat:
Lariat has standard:
leather
premium dash with message center
18" wheels
auto dimming rearview mirror
pwr seats
auto climate control
cd standard
chrome grill surround
pwr heated mirrors
I'm sure I missed something but most or all of those items are extra or not even available on the XLT.

KC-10 FE out...

 

Patrick-

I'm 21 yrs old, and a sophmore in college. At your age, I dreamed of having a nice truck, all my freinds had lowered or lifted trucks, 20" inch rims (back when those things were huge), nos, the whole nine yards....

I drove a 95 jeep grand cherokee...curtousy of the parents.

I drove that all through highschool and into the 1st semester of college. After that, I left the state for a 2 years to do service work. That takes me up to about 9 months ago.

I look at all my freinds trucks and vehicles... and they were trash due to the fact they were all old models, run down, high milage...and they are stuck with these through college. now i had saved my money during all this time and was able to basically buy my truck in cash...and my rims, grille, exahust, intake, system, chip...etc..etc...

My freinds are having to lease or have HUGE monthly payments to get into their new vehicles.... patience is a virtue and in hindsight, i'm glad i waited to buy my truck.

On the different note, if you can do it wihout hurting your finances, then drop it like it's hot and get that truck!!! Just make sure you have no regrets in doing it.

I STRONGLY dissagree with kelmvor..... The American dream is not getting into debt. But think... at 16 years old, PAtrick can establish a good line of credit if he co-signs, and by the time he's 21-22, he'll have great credit to basically do whatever he wants in America. This is a lengthy post, but coming from somewhat the same feeling you have Patrick.... Just think it through over and over, and if it's right, then go for it!!!!

 

Well percentage debt is higher now than it's ever been so in a sense Kelmvor has some valid points....... but really debt is all subjective, in alot of european familys it take more than one generation to pay off a house ie, 75 year mortgages........


so put that kinda debt in your pipe and smoke it.


IMO, buy or don't buy whatever you want, you're gonna die soon anyways ( but that kind of thinking gets you in alot of debt).

 

I could not agree more. Hypothetically speaking, lets say the draft is re-enacted (not likely) and this young lad goes off to war in 2 years and gets killed. I would be proud of him for working at such a young age, saving, attaining the things he wanted/worked for, and of course for dying for his country.

Kelmvor, you ask what kind of example are we setting for our children... I don't know. But I do know "warning9" seems to be setting a good example for his friends. Work, save, and enjoy. It's the American Dream.... I don't remember where it said you had to be 30+ years old to achieve the American Dream. Don't be so bitter.

Sieze the day, my friends. Life is short.

 

$20 in gas a week!? Where are you getting gas for near to cheap! I fill up at least once a week only driving to school and back and going out on the weekend. and even with that sometimes I have to throw a few more dollars in it!

 

Well... Most people's theory is to fill up there truck when they are riding on E. I have a different philosophy. Keep a full talk of gas in the truck and then when it get's below 3/4's a take then fill it the rest of the way up. Besides I live in the country... everybody is everybody elses neighbor... my school is the biggest building in this town... and is just around 4 blocks away from my home. When we go shopping the nearest wal-mart is 20 minutes away. On top of that I live in a county of a collage city. So I never really plan to go far far away from home... until I get a lot older...... Gas prices are $2.08 here what are they everywhere elsE?

 

NO NO NO

Don't start this topic again!!!!! It'll open up a whole can of worms again!!


Search for gas, gas prices, etc., and yo uwill get all the info needed.

 

lol... I take it there was some... drama about the gas prices.

 

Hey KC-10 FE,

My issurance is $2,400 a year.
I am 18 years old
No Violations of any kind(NEVER been pulled over)
Good student discount (4.0 GPA right now)
On parents issurance with mutli vehicles and policies
Discount for safe driving course
Don't forget, Male.
I drive a 03 reg cab f-150 XL 4.2L(with some modds of course!)
I'm stumped on why so much , then I realize I have State Farm


I don't understand the Male and Female thing were the females get the price break and we don't.

I have been driving for over 2 years(since I was 16) and have zero traffic violations and haven't even been pulled over. Yet, my girldfiend totaled her car 3 weeks after getting her license and had a fender bender in the parkinglot at her school. What cracks me up more is how fancy her drivers education training was. She took classes from AAA and drivers training through AAA. My drivers education consisted of me sitting in a room reading the drivers handbook and filling out worksheets. Mind you that there were no actual teachers, you taught yourself. Drivers Training consisted of driving the beach and doing errands for the teacher as he talked away on his phone. I completed drivers ed and training in 4 days flat. Three 8 hour days and one 6hour day of ed and 4 hours of training the next day.(supposed to be 6 hours but the teacher deamed that i was good enough)

 

WOW. i could barely keep up with all the responses. Anyway. My insurance like alot of your's...is cheap. BUT I remember back in the day....when, if you bought a truck, your costs went down. They were cheaper to fix or replace. Anyway. kudos to you for doing something other than "saving" your $$$$$$.

 

I tried this but I was at the gas station every other day.

 

KC-10...an E-6 earning $30,000/yr. Wow! When I was an E-6 (USN aviation), I earned $140.40/month plus $50 flight pay. But, now I only pay $481/yr for full-coverage ($500 deductible) insurance on the '04 XLT with AARP (Harford). Age has it's trade-off, eh?

 

I got my truck back in November 03, and before I did so I thought about what I wanted and how I could get there. Im currently 19 and am still loving the truck As far as insurance, I have had a few tickets since I started driving almost 4 years ago and my insurance is around $110 a month. I did oddjobs over my childhood years and always had a summerjob, albeit they were always minimum wage... but I saved every penny. One half I kept in the bank for a rainy day, and the other I put in investments.

Besides wanting an awesome new F150, I also wanted to establish a decent credit history so down the line I could get financing for a new home, etc. So I traded in the vehicle I was driving before the truck and took out as large of a loan as I could without a co-signer, and paid the rest out of my savings. Reason I wanted to get a loan without a co-signer was the fact I know alot of older friends of mine started off with getting things co-signed for and when they go to get more financing 5-10 years later the banks for some reason still want a co-sign.

Sure, some can argue that it is a lot of debt for a young person to have, and that it is. Paying off the loan, paying the insurance, paying almost $5 a gallon for fuel, it all adds up. But I knew the costs before I went in. Truth be told, I think its worth every penny when I get in it every morning, even though my drivers seat is falling apart

 

I am at the gas station every other day .

 

Don't forget I that I live in LA county in the neighboring city to Long Beach.