Get the RCF and keep the Camry for bad weather.

 

Keep the Camry and drive it through the winter. Pay extra on it every month and save every dime that you can. Revisit this in the spring. IMO having a car payment that is equivalent to a small mortgage is not smart

 

If you want something fun for the weekend also consider a used low mileage GTR in the price range of the RCF and with AWD and better tires they can be used all year. I picked up a '15 GTR and it is quieter and softer than my '13 GTR.

 

I think I'm going to wait and I've been paying extra on my camry. I will revisit this in the spring.

 

wise decision!

 

Good choice. It may feel like your missing out but there will always be deals in the spring. Heck you may find something better than what you were considering now. For the record I just bought a 2015 gtr(saved up until the time was right) as well and it's amazing! The winter will go by quick!

 

What people "should and should not do" when it comes to finances is highly personal. One persons idea of what is "smart" and what is "not smart" doesn't translate automatically to someone else's situation.

I for instance spend $1,500 a month in lease payments for my cars. Is that "smart"? Impossible for anybody to say when they have no idea how much money I make or what the rest of my situation looks like. Then it comes down to focus, what's your focus in life? How do you want to allocate your money? Some people have boats, some people belong to country clubs, some people have second homes, some people have ginormous first homes that take up a huge percentage of their income. I choose to lease nice cars. It's all relative.

 

you make a really good point. i spend $1,300 dollars a month on car payments. some may initially say that's totally not prudent having absolutely no knowledge of my financial situation nor my priorities in life.

 

Is leasing, then, something relatively new in your automotive life? You've made numerous posts, here in Car Chat, in various threads, about how you negotiate hard-edged deals for the lowest possible price when buying...and remark about how when somebody else pays too much (or what you consider to be too much) you always pay less. Were you, then, referring to negotiating deals for leases or purchases? Dealing on one, of course, is not necessarily the same as dealing on the other.

 

i believe he's been leasing a long time, which is entirely his prerogative of course. but leasing or buying, negotiating is still necessary and not much different, although imo leasing terminology is needlessly different and designed to be confusing. and you can just as easily 'pay too much' when leasing as buying.

 

True, but with leasing, the manufacturer (or dealer) usually determines the lease-price (or at least the asking lease-price), based on what the car's (projected) residual value is going to be, and probably doesn't have very much room to negotiate. On a private sale/purchase, the manufacturer probably doesn't care with the residual value is going to be....that's the buyers's problem when he or she goes for a trade-in or re-sale, which may not even be at that dealership (or manufacturer) to start with.

And I agree with it being his (and anyone else's) prerogative..........I wasn't questioning that.

 

yes, although i'm no leasing expert, i believe you're right that the residual value isn't negotiable, but the interest rate on the rest is, the money down, your trade-in if you have one, maybe the mileage allowance, etc. it's still a negotiation with lots of room for the dealer to rip you off, so just like buying, someone leasing must be on their toes.

 

I've been leasing for a long time.

Negotiating on a lease is no different than negotiating a person. Leasing is just a method of financing. You still negotiate the purchase price, the residuals are set by the lender but the money factors (interest rates) are often marked up by the dealer and thus are negotiable. Trade ins are negotiable etc.

In fact the sales price has a bigger impact on the lease payment than a finance payment because the lease is calculated off the difference between the purchase price and the residual.

 

Yes that's true...interest rates can make a significant difference. Right now, of course, they are very low...virtually at record lows.

 

Some of the earlier GT-R's had big trouble with the clutches and transmissions. I think, though, that by the '13-'15 range, Nissan had worked that out.