Should I get the Fiesta ST

If you are going to college, wait. You don't want obligations that could get in the way of your education. After you get a degree and a job, look at your debt and income, then decide if you can afford it.

If you are skipping college, don't slave away at minimum wage with only a Fiesta to show for it.

I've got a good job and while I could get financing for a car that costs twice as much, that's not the smart move. Some people would say buying a car for Fiesta ST money isn't a smart move either, there are cheaper cars and used cars, etc.

You should want to have disposable income and some cash reserves before buying a big ticket item. It might seem like a long way off but the best financial move includes starting retirement savings as early as possible.

Our economy is very shaky right now. I spent most of 2012 unemployed, unemployment checks helped for a while but only because my salary history gave me the maximum amount. If I didn't have money in the bank I would have had to take any crap job that came along instead of holding out for a good job.

Be prepared for the worst case scenario, you don't want to take the car's initial depreciation hit, then wind up broke and lose the car. Its better to have the money and no car at that point.

I would say have at least $15,000 in the bank before you buy and budget $500/month for retirement savings and enough discretionary money to enjoy your life. If you have all that and enough to make the car payment, you can truly afford the car.

Someone could correct me on this, but from what I've heard the insurance costs the same for the regular Fiesta as it does the Fiesta ST since ST is just a trim level, not a performance model to insurance companies. That would make the insurance cost fairly low. Still high since you're under 25, but lower than a BMW, Merc, etc... Unless you decide to get a bunch of traffic tickets with it, then that's another story...

As for me, I really hope I can budget the car payments in a couple years. I can't imagine the Fiesta ST will stick around for more than a couple years before they either update it or drop it and I really want a new one of this generation. I just hope I start out in a new job making a decent amount of money so I can really start saving for the down payment. My car won't be worth crap on trade so I need to sell private party. At this point I really am living beyond my means while attempting to actually save money. I had failed so far until last semester when I actually started seeing some gains until I had to pull out a bit to be able to afford bills. Being a college student working about 26-28 hours a week doesn't net you a lot of money. But working more than that while keeping up in school means no free time. You gotta be really good at budgeting, but I always tend to find that one "thing" I must have every so often which costs me that much more money. For a long time I kept spending more and more money modding my car. That really does eat your money away. Having not spent all the money I have on my car I likely would have a decent down payment saved for a new car if not have one mostly paid off. I'm actually looking at slowly selling off some of my car's parts to see if I can regain a little of that money to put towards my savings. I may not enjoy my car as much without those parts, but I know I'll enjoy the car I'm saving for. And I know mods don't up a car's value when selling it, it actually makes it harder to sell so selling off the mods now will make me a bit more in the long run.

Personally, I have only bought all my vehicles in cash. Or cash + trade. I don't like owing money. Student loans taught me to hate that.. So I paid them off ASAP and I avoid owing money as much as possible. I also don't like the idea of paying more for something because I'm paying for it over time.

I wouldn't have bought a Fiesta ST if I didn't have the means to do so without owing a cent.. But that's me personally.

And I am sure a lot of people would say going the 100% down route is silly... But I don't care, because it's what works for me and it's my dough and my car.. And I don't have to think about payments.

Ultimately, you do what you think is best for you.

If I was in your exact position. I would not have even gone for a test-drive to be honest. Because nothing is worse than temptation. I try not to "taste" the forbidden fruits. Because then you just drive yourself mental or make less than ideal decisions.. hehe

In your shoes I'd make my hard earned money count for something more than an upgrade in transportation.. Especially since you have reliable transportation already... which you've admitted to having a good time in.

If it's going to tie up such a big portion of your money... I'd say continue working hard, save smart. And wait it out a bit. They are not going to cancel the ST after the first model year. They'll be around for a few at least.

Position yourself better financially to come at this from a smarter direction, and by the time you are ready the ST's will likely have better features & updates available... I can already guess at some of the things that will be coming on future model years. Things that many early buyers are maybe going to wish they held out for maybe.

I have made some less than ideal automotive purchase decisions... And if I could go back in time, I would advise myself to be patient and wait until the timing was right.

Soooo, personally I'm going to throw in a vote to encourage you to also be patient. Being a young person in debt is a horrible feeling. (Actually it doesn't feel any better with age either.. lol..) Do everything in your power to reduce the level of stress you have to endure financially.

Use it as motivation. And pull the trigger when things fall into place and maybe get one with new updates & features.

Ultimately, it's up to you though! And I'd say, take the advice of random people on the internet with a grain of salt.

Best of luck with your decision though!

My car has a few years left, but it's age is showing as an 11 year old car. I think I have a good enough head about it to know if I'm not financially able to make the purchase I'm not going to and it wasn't meant to be if they do decide to discontinue it before I am able to buy. I know they won't cancel after the first year, but if it takes me more than say two years they may be a complete update or drop it by the time I have the cash. If I do get a reasonable job and can save some decent money on a down payment in a fairly short time frame I'll then figure if I can make the monthly payments on the rest. Buying outright would be amazing. I bought my first two cars outright, of course both being used and being $500 and $6200 respectively, that was a bit more attainable, especially back when I wasn't paying for bills.

As for not taking it on test drive, definitely had to do that. I've been wanting a Fiesta since I heard about them coming to the states, though at that time I was planning on keeping my current car and dailying a regular Fiesta. I'm a person that does research upon research of something before making a big purchase. Being a new car will be my biggest purchase to date (besides college, which I'm really only in debt maybe $20K or so), so I've been doing my homework while waiting. If anything, taking the test drives feeds my need to drive it for a little while.

For my student loans, and maybe a jumpstart in the way of helping me out with my saving, my parent's do have a savings deal setup (I can't recall what it is) that has quite a few thousands of dollars. Can't pull it out for a bit, but my dad said we could probably pull part of it early so it can be used to help pay for my student loans so I'll owe less on that immediately. And to be honest, the amount I owe is substantially less than most people that go to big name universities. I'll have to ask them about that again later.

I'm doing my best to make smart money decisions this semester, being my last one. Ideally I'd land a job in town so I wouldn't have to waste money on moving, paying all the stupid move in fees for a new apartment and be broke again (pet fees are ridiculous). Gotta be smart about buying or not buying those things that come up that I just have to have. Stop eating out so much is a pretty big one (with a second positive of healthier).

My goal is over $5000 down payment, as close to $10000 as I can get. That would ease the pain of interest a bit. And if I'm financially stable, then making the payments should be easy. As much as I'd love to save the full ~$26K by that time I think my current car would well be on it's last legs and be costing me more money than it'd be worth keeping it and I really don't see Ford keeping the Fiesta ST around for that long really. Looking at the past of other performance model economy cars...Focus SVT 2002-2004, Escort ZX2 S/R limited run 1999-2000 (only 2100 built), Contour SVT 1998-2000...2 or 3 years and they're gone. Maybe that will change now, no telling really. I kinda wish it were to have come out next year so I might have a slightly better chance at it, I'd still be looking at the Fiesta as my next car anyway.

I do intend to get my money's worth out of the Fiesta. Unless it gets totaled beforehand or some unforeseen circumstance, I plan to keep it no less than 10 years.

I appreciate the advice by the way. It makes me stand back and look at the situation a little better. I really do want the car so I'll do everything I can to make it a reality while staying within my limits.

A note on interest and debt.

If you take an introductory economics class you will learn the concept of opportunity cost. Buying something reduces your available purchasing power. Financing does the same stretched out over time (and also eats in to your available credit).

If you can afford something and interest is low, like the 2.74% interest rate on my auto loan, the amount spent on interest is not that bad. You could say that inflation makes that future money more affordable even.

Paying cash is great because you will always know that you can afford it if you have the cash. Financing is not so bad as long as you can truly afford the car.

Credit is something you can use to your advantage if you are careful. Home loans are a good example of this if you buy the right house. Auto loans are trickier because cars rarely appreciate in value, most commonly they immediately drop a considerable amount. This means on a car purchase, buy and hold, don't go for a new car every couple years.