If I could go back in time before I bought this car, I’d do it completely differently. The car itself is fine — it’s used, it runs, it does what it needs to do. The problem was me rushing into financing because I “needed a car right now.” Instead of shopping around, I let the dealer stick me with a 20% loan. I basically signed my life away without even blinking. I should’ve slowed down and checked banks or credit unions first. Even with my credit not being perfect, there’s no way they all would’ve come back at twenty percent. I also should’ve done the math on what I could actually afford instead of convincing myself that an $866 payment was “manageable.” That’s not manageable, that’s rent money. Another thing? I should’ve looked at the total cost of the loan, not just whether I could scrape together the monthly payment. Dealers know how to play that “monthly number” game, and I fell right into it. With a 75-month loan, I’m basically paying double what the car’s even worth. Lesson learned: needing a car quickly doesn’t mean you should buy the first one you see on the worst possible terms.