My first car was an '84 Camaro which was given to me by my father. He got it for $500. After I wrecked that on a wet road within a year of having it I presonally wanted something FWD with a little less power.
Since my father worked at a Pontiac, Buick, GMC dealer I was planning on getting a new Sunfire but they had a used Cavalier on the lot with a few mods that any young kid would love so I picked that up with my father co-signing for me.
After having that for a few years I had a list of mods planned and I happened to come across another Cavalier with the mods I wanted and a better body for a good price so my father co-signed another loan for me that was large enough to pay off my old one and purchase this other car.
Then I wanted two wheels to join my dad on his rare joy rides on his Indian so he co-signed a loan for me on an '06 Ninja 250 which came out to less than $4k OTD with gear and all that good stuff.
So at this point I had two outstanding loans that I paid on for about two years building some credit.
Then I started having problems with my Cavalier, blew 3 motors in one year (all for different reasons) and decided to start looking for a different car when I happened across a 1990 Lotus Esprit SE for less than $16k so I jumped on it. I went to my bank by myself and was approved for a 3 year term used auto loan with a 9% interest rate. Then the car was unfortunately totalled within four days of me picking it up and I was still dead set on getting a different car and getting rid of my Cavalier.
After totalling my Esprit my insurance company, Progressive, hooked me up with a company called Auto Advocates who basically will ask you what kind of car you want and how much you want to pay and will find it for you. I set them out on a quest to find a black 300C for me and they quickly found an '06 with 31k miles for $26k. I decided to do a little search myself on AutoTrader and came across an '06 300C SRT-8 with 26k miles for $28k. I called them up and told them to investigate the SRT-8 and a few days later I was at the dealership signing the papers for the loan that I got by myself and have no problems paying. Then again, I still live at home... for now.
But yea, I'm not doing too bad for a 22 year old but the job is definitely a plus.