About to pay off the R

[JC_451]

Having the cash on hand is the advantage in and of itself.

If you can get the best price by taking a higher financing rate you can then use your cash to just buy out the loan. Assuming no severe prepayment penalty.

 

[Gray_Panther]

Having the cash on hand is the advantage in and of itself.

If you can get the best price by taking a higher financing rate you can then use your cash to just buy out the loan. Assuming no severe prepayment penalty.

That’s what I did. If dealers want to take advantage to maximize profit then I have no issue buying out the loan ASAP.

 

[anotero]

The motor is really a beast.

My lady friend has a stock Jetta 1.8t and it blew the doors off the Tacoma lol. It's slow.

If that jetta has the same engine as a 15 Beetle, it will blow the doors off of a Tesla. In the first 15 meters.

 

[SnailPower]

I tuned my 2016 Gti before it’s first oil change, and it’s is38 with 112k miles on it issue free.

Never been back to the dealership for anything since the day I picked it up in December 2015. I paid it off a while ago, but always had the means to cover anything the warranty wouldn’t have covered.

Our 2021 GLI has 9k miles on it, and it’s still stock since the wife doesn’t care to mod it. We owe on it still, but again not a factor in the mod/don’t mod decision.

That's what I like to hear. These are success stories. These are the stories that nobody joins the forum to tell the world, lol.

 

[aloha_from_bradley]

Unless you're literally spending the money you would have otherwise spent on car payments on mods (aka you're unable to keep up on payments because of your sweet mods), financing shouldn't make a difference IMO. Especially if you essentially are financing for free (0% APR loan), it doesn't make sense to pay it off faster, unless you just want the title to make selling private party easier in the future.

The warranty is always the bigger concern. I just paid off my car too but am still undecided if I want a turbo + tune (mainly because turbo and tune are expensive and gas prices are stupid high right now and I'm not even driving the car).

It would also affect his ability to get future loans; in case he wants a more balling house. Having paid off cars is cool. I haven't had a car payment since I was 27 - pretty proud of that. When you show up to buy a car in cash, you also get a better deal. When I got my GTI, I literally brought $21K in cash - the car was selling for $22.5L; they gave it to me for the cash amount.

To answer a few of these:

With the current market, I'd like to free up the cash rather than have a payment every month. The R is worth more than I paid for it 2 years ago, so I can essentially sell the car whenever I want title in hand. Just peace of mind more than anything. It's also being financed @ 2.9%, so I'm recouping some of that money.

I'm also refinancing my home right now, so I'll be in a better position there as well. A combination of the two will free up a huge chunk of funds each month for investments and other. This frees up money to mod the car some more if I choose to do so.

I have a 2020 Tiguan SEL Prem R-Line, and that is still being financed @ 0%. I have good credit and a lengthy history, so I'm not necessarily worried about the credit aspect of this. My insurance on the R should also go down a bit, and I can choose to lower my coverage if I wanted to, though I don't plan on it.

Really enjoying the thought of not having two car payments. The Tiguan is less of a worry considering the financing, and my wife drives it most of the time anyway. I'm still on the fence of what direction I want to take the R. Might do the BFI motor mounts and a nice set of coilovers. It's going to be a street car, so I don't want to go too wild with it. A tune is likely in the near future, but I'm also going round and round with that thought as well.

 

[Raguvian]

To answer a few of these:

With the current market, I'd like to free up the cash rather than have a payment every month. The R is worth more than I paid for it 2 years ago, so I can essentially sell the car whenever I want title in hand. Just peace of mind more than anything. It's also being financed @ 2.9%, so I'm recouping some of that money.

I'm also refinancing my home right now, so I'll be in a better position there as well. A combination of the two will free up a huge chunk of funds each month for investments and other. This frees up money to mod the car some more if I choose to do so.

I have a 2020 Tiguan SEL Prem R-Line, and that is still being financed @ 0%. I have good credit and a lengthy history, so I'm not necessarily worried about the credit aspect of this. My insurance on the R should also go down a bit, and I can choose to lower my coverage if I wanted to, though I don't plan on it.

Really enjoying the thought of not having two car payments. The Tiguan is less of a worry considering the financing, and my wife drives it most of the time anyway. I'm still on the fence of what direction I want to take the R. Might do the BFI motor mounts and a nice set of coilovers. It's going to be a street car, so I don't want to go too wild with it. A tune is likely in the near future, but I'm also going round and round with that thought as well.

I was also tired of having two car payments so I decided to just throw a bunch of money at the loan and pay it off early, then ride out the next few months with less savings till I (hopefully) get a bonus at work.

I've also been kicking around the idea of selling the car so it will be nice to have the title in hand.

 

[Luva]

OP, do you want to have even more fun in your R, with relatively minimal risk? Get a stage 1 tune and don't look back. Life's too short. Don't overthink simple things.

In this rare instance, I practice what I preach. Broke the motor in at 1k, tuned her at 2k.

 

[sterkrazzy]

I had a hard time telling if my stage 2 mk6 pulled about the same as my R during the test drive. The awd made it pretty uneventful at least and that amount of hp isn't really that fast. Even just a stage 1 puts it in a whole different league. You can say you actually have a fast car. Passengers love it. 1st and 2nd gear pulls put people in the seat and gives them butterflies.

 

[SnailPower]

I had a hard time telling if my stage 2 mk6 pulled about the same as my R during the test drive. The awd made it pretty uneventful at least and that amount of hp isn't really that fast. Even just a stage 1 puts it in a whole different league. You can say you actually have a fast car. Passengers love it. 1st and 2nd gear pulls put people in the seat and gives them butterflies.

What do you mean the AWD made it uneventful?

 

[RudyH]

Take a look at the BMW forums and see what BMW does when the finance wing finds out you are running a M4 /w 700 hp and post it on youtube. I think most folks believe they own a car when they are making payments on it...the bank / cars financial wing thinks differently. Same goes for anything else you have that has a loan or even a mortgage.

Honestly, I didn't touch anything except JB1 (and downpipe) and suspension while I was leasing my R. The second I bought mine out last November, it went in for clutch, Wavetrac LSD, EQT Stage II, Haldex tune and a bunch of other fun stuff. My bumper to bumper expires next month, powertrain is still there but I am not super worried about that, intercooler in the spring (heat soak sucked this year lol).

Take your time doing it, and I am sure you will likely enjoy the car for years to come.

 

[sterkrazzy]

What do you mean the AWD made it uneventful?

I guess just because I'm comparing it to my old GTI. Its pulls were a lot more dramatic. It had 19lb wheels with a lightweight flywheel, so you step on the gas and the power was pretty immediate and it'd break lose right away since FWD. Plus it had a full turboback, a loud intake, a pop tune. There was a lot going on that a stock car wouldn't do. A stock R pulls about the same, but since it's AWD you get none of the drama and it just goes. I was used to that level of power so a WOT pull in the R didn't really wow me. I wasn't wowed until someone launched me in a stage 2 R and it was like holy shit, this is what this thing is capable of?

 

[aloha_from_bradley]

Take a look at the BMW forums and see what BMW does when the finance wing finds out you are running a M4 /w 700 hp and post it on youtube. I think most folks believe they own a car when they are making payments on it...the bank / cars financial wing thinks differently. Same goes for anything else you have that has a loan or even a mortgage.

Honestly, I didn't touch anything except JB1 (and downpipe) and suspension while I was leasing my R. The second I bought mine out last November, it went in for clutch, Wavetrac LSD, EQT Stage II, Haldex tune and a bunch of other fun stuff. My bumper to bumper expires next month, powertrain is still there but I am not super worried about that, intercooler in the spring (heat soak sucked this year lol).

Take your time doing it, and I am sure you will likely enjoy the car for years to come.

I was going to say something similar to this, but decided not to.

If there is a lien on the car, the bank owns it. Period. If you mod it and blow the thing up, you have a brick in your driveway that you can't drive and have to continue making payments on. Then you have to pray it's covered under warranty.

At least you don't have to make payments on a broken car if it's paid off.

 

[sterkrazzy]

My payments are usually a few months ahead just so that if I do have some kind of expensive emergency I don't have to worry about the car for a while. Right now my next payment isn't until November and I'll probably send in the payment for Nov and Dec in a couple weeks.

I wouldn't tune a lease, but I'm pretty comfortable modding a car with a lien.

 

[Mike B.]

Bought my 2018 R outright. I waited until I was at 60K and off warranty before adding APR Stage 1. Totally love it.

 

[seanmcd1]

I still want this car to last a long time.

Just keep driving it as is!