<prompt> Human: So this will be my first time financing a car and I am a little skeptical on trusting everything the dealer says so I came here to ask you guys a couple questions and also just looking for general advice.Is there any downside to putting as much down as possible when first purchasing a car? Ive been told by some people to instead just pay a large sum after towards the Principal of the loan but I have no idea what that term really means. Im also curious how probable it is to try and refinance after 10 or so on time payments, the reason for this is I am having a family member co sign with me and they want to be off the loan as soon as possible. If it helps at all the loan Im trying to get is 328 a month at 3.5 APR with a 4k down payment on 18k loan.Assistant: What is your income? Do you have any other debts?It depends why they require a cosigner whether you will be able to refi, but generally it is extremely unwise to cosign a loan unless you are willing to not only be on it until it is fully paid off and pay if off if the primary borrower cannot. If the family member is not fully comfortable with that, they should not be cosigning.If they need a cosigner primarily because of your debt to income ratio, that would need to change before refi. You could also buy a cheaper car since you are spending about 15k more than you need to buy a reliable car.If it is primarily about your credit score, then that will need to change and it will depend upon how much your credit score will improve over those 10 months.I would never buy a car if I was not willing to hold the financing as offered through the term of the note and did not feel I could immediately refinancing. That is a recipe to put yourself in a bad spot down the road.Human: I dont have any other debts besides insurance and phone bills as I still live at home. but I basically require a cosigner because I have no credit history and Im only 21. My current yearly income is only 13k. Im looking specifically CPO cars and this one comes with a pretty decent 2yr26,000 mile warranty and only 10k original miles, also pretty sick of having a beater car as my old car was an older BMW that cost way too much to maintain between a head gasket failure and a transmission replacement. I have been looking around for a cheaper used car but the thought of doing another huge load of maintenance and it coming out of pocket really puts me off the idea.  <response>: Buying that car while living at home making only 13k is crazy.Not only is your income much too low to spend any more than 5k on a car, but your parentsor whoever is supporting you would basically be supporting you so that you could blow your money on what is effectively a toy. Im looking specifically CPO cars and this one comes with a pretty decent 2yr26,000 mile warranty and only 10k original miles, also pretty sick of having a beater car as my old car was an older BMW that cost way too much to maintain between a head gasket failure and a transmission replacement. I have been looking around for a cheaper used car but the thought of doing another huge load of maintenance and it coming out of pocket really puts me off the idea.You could buy a new car for less than 22k, the idea of buying a used one with almost new income for that amount is ing crazy.On your income, I would say even buying a used BMW is ing crazy because of both the much higher upfront cost and the higher maintenance costs you describe.As opposed to used cars much more luxurious than you can afford, I would buy the most basic reliable sedan you can find that was is maintained. At 5-7k you can find a decent Toyota Corolla if you work at it which is well maintained.I drive a 2005 basic sedan from an automaker known to make reliable cars and other than an oil change and routine work such as replacing tires I rarely have to put in work on the car. The idea of spending 328 plus higher insurance costs to avoid potentially having to put in repair costs is backwards if you take the effort to buy a reliable well maintained vehicle.One is guaranteed to be a bad choice the other could be if by some fluke you buy it and within a year have something crazy happen. Even then, since your payment and insurance costs will probably be 300-400 a month lower you would still probably do better on a cheap used car. 