Freed by 50

I have done a great many stupid financial things in my past, but few were as embarrassing as the time I tried to buy an Audi A4.

File this on under “How much stupid can you do at once.” In 2004 at 24 years old I had gotten the misguided idea into my head that I had money to burn. I had debts, I had rent, I had a shitty commute, and I had a burning desire to drive a cool car. I made $40,000/year if I was lucky, so naturally when Acura released the all new TSX I figured I could afford it. I took my $5,000 that my parents had given me as my cut from some land they sold (a story for another time), and plunked it down on a brand new, black on black TSX lease with 15k miles per year to burn.

Three years later, I’d had all manner of things go wrong with that car. The manual transmission broke, probably from abuse. The front axle broke. The steering wheel once ripped when I slammed too hard on the horn. And one night I hydroplaned into one of those orange construction barrels causing an absurd amount of damage to 1/4 of the car. Needless to say, in my 20’s I was not the most responsible car owner. After paying to have the car fixed, I was $5k under water on the car and way over on my lease mileage, so I piled stupid on top of stupid and bought out the lease.

What does an enterprising 27 year old do when stuck with a car that costs too much and they no longer want? Naturally they try to trade up.

I had a new, higher paying job ($50k/year!) and by 2007 I was two years into owning a condo, so I wanted people to know I was doing well. I wanted an Audi A4, which at the time was slower but even cooler than an Infiniti G35. So I drove my Acura over to the Audi dealership where they had some gently used A4’s in stock. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a more painful or insulting sit down with a car salesman in my life.

After examining my Acura it didn’t take them long to decide they wouldn’t take it without $5k from me. What’s more, if I had any hope of keeping the new car payments under $500/month I would have to provide an additional $3k up front. I didn’t have any of this, and I’m fairly sure the salesman knew it, but I wasn’t backing down. I sat there as they berated my Acura and all of its faults. I realize in hindsight they didn’t even show me or let me drive the Audi I’d come there to buy. But I was stubborn and arrogant, so I offered to leave a $500 deposit for the car, which they gladly took.

I left that showroom knowing I’d been defeated. Audi cashed that check, and thinking back now I’m surprised it didn’t bounce. Two weeks later I was on the phone with them to say I no longer wanted the car and would like my deposit back. They told me it would take a month to refund. I didn’t have a month. I didn’t have the money to pay all my bills. To my own embarrassment I wound up harassing the sales manager until they gave the money back a week later.

It wasn’t long after this that the housing market, and the economy crashed. I was grateful not to have that Audi in my parking lot, but still driving the slowly deteriorating Acura which seemed to be compounding my losses. It was then that I realized I desperately needed to get my financial house in order. I wound up trading the Acura in and buying a Mitsubishi Lancer.

I did lose the $5k on the Acura, but the much lower price tag of the Lancer made it easier to swallow. It wound up being the first major debt I paid off in my debt avalanche. I also wound up paying off the whole Lancer.