What is good income to car price ratio?

[potzer25]

When are you being too cheap vs over spending? % of yearly income? I probably made ranges too wide but meh...

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

total car value = 1/2 annual income seems about right for a top end, maybe 1/3 annual for the low side

 

[ckhokie]

I'll be buying a new car this Spring, and it looks like I'll be spending about 50% of my yearly income

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

I mean, it plateaus. 200K a year is not that uncommon but I doubt mayb of those guys are driving 100K cars.

 

[potzer25]

It gets ridiculous but the price creep is too easy.

 

[rfjeff9]

There's a salesman somewhere on here, don't recall who.

 

[potzer25]

Rmillia ? He'd say 150%!

 

[JuiceTheGator]

.5% to AGI for the monthly cost. So, if you make 200k per year (and on the interwebs everybody makes at least that) you could pay up to 1k per month. If you make 50k, then $250 is the limit.

It's not the monthly payment that matters, it's how much it costs overall/year. If you buy a new Range Rover for $85k and sell it for 45k three years later, it cost you over $1k per month to own. The payment should be irrelevant if you're doing it right.