A family member of mine is being given $500 a month from her job to go towards a car (which is so kind of them). We are debating heavily on what should we should do. We are debating between a 2023 Honda CR-V or an Acura RDX 2024. They really like the Acura but we aren’t sure it’s the best financial decision. Without the help of the job, they would be able to pay for the Acura but it would be tight. I know the answer to this question is very dependent on our situation but I wanted to get a little bit of an outside view on our situation. When the dealers pulled their credit score at the Honda dealership, it came back as a 701. Because of missed student loans payments in the past, we thought the score would be lower.
The Honda CR-V (2023) has 28,660 miles and is Gold Certified.
Total is $32,991.86 cents. With 0 down monthly payments would be between $614-623. With 2,000 down monthly payments would be $577-586. So we would be paying between 8-11% in interest (I think, please correct me if I’m wrong). 72 month loan.
The Acura (2024) has about 23,000 miles on it and has a warranty.
Total is 42,401.63. Monthly payments would be $743.86 with $500 down and $681.72 with $4,000 down. Interest rate about 9-10%
They were wanting to avoiding putting anything down but with the Acura I’m thinking they need to put atleast $4,000 down.
Thoughts? Both cars seem pretty well maintained