<prompt> Human: I am currently living at home and have zero bills outside of phone and student loans which are less than a hundred a month and I can cut a little there too. My current car is absolutely trash, Ive put about 2k into a 500 car in the past year with me doing most of my own work so things need to change I actually doubt a dealer would take it on trade at this point. I do have a flexible down payment of between 3k and 4k that still leaves me a reserve of 1k. I am making 1900-2000 a month gross but its triple where I was at so it seems like a ton of extra money. I am a car guy so Im looking at used between 10-15k but am about to pull the trigger on something that with insurance and gas would cost me almost 400 a month for 4 years at 6.5 apr. Where should my budget be within reason? Im willing to pay more then most people seem to on here but dont want to get caught out on a payment I cant afford, this is all new to me.  <response>: Thats outside your budget with that down payment. It would rely on you continuing to live at home. 6.5 is kinda getting up there. 11K loan would cost you 1.5k in interest over those 4 years. Being a car girl that does a lot of driving events there are tons of fun and financially sound cars out there for less. What carcars are you considering? If you are dead set on spending 10-15K your better off saving up most of that prior to buying the car vs taking the loan. I would say 10k tops with a larger down payment. If it was me 6-8k in cash sounds pretty doable for you if you prioritize saving for a few more months. 