Now that more information has been made available, I will step forward and offer that this purchase doesn't look like as much of a clusterfuck as it did initially based on the blog description.

I'm not as concerned with the credit scores and interest rate as other people are -- Christian laid that all on the table himself, so it is what it is. He agreed to it knowing it wasn't exactly a gift.

Having said that, I really need to agree with CJ about the business write-off possibilities that were missed out on here. You have mentioned on your blog having switched to handling your accounting as a small business, etc. Did you know that banks sometimes offer small business loans at prime or below-prime interest rate? Yeah, even to one-man "consultants" like yourself. They don't care that it gets used for a car. There are obvious write-off advantages there alone, and the interest rate is obviously better, but also because it is not a standard auto loan, you can do tricks like yank the insurance if you were going to park the vehicle in longterm storage (that you usually can't do when someone else still owns the asset).

I'd also like to point out that Christian could have also almost paid for the vehicle itself in CASH using the money from his CD and the money from selling his existing ride in a private sale. This would have almost covered the cost of a reasonably equipped vehicle like the eBay one I posted above. Yeah, taxes + fees would have been extra, and yeah you may not have gotten to choose the exact color, but at the end of the day it would have been (nearly) paid for upfront.

The private sale thing really hurts -- especially since within a week, the dealer will likely have the car detailed and on the lot for $9975 (MINIMUM).

The extra options Christian has described as adding on are mostly personal preference odds and ends, but nothing critical -- it's not like the old days where air conditioning was an "option". Lojack on a Honda is kinda comical, and Magellan has a nice nav unit with a big screen and internet updates for no more than $399 at Costco right now. All these options are a personal taste thing, so it's hard to knock someone for making their own decisions, but financially they can really hurt.

I only ever brought this topic up because I have seen others around me make the same mistakes, or have made some of them myself, and just cringe when I see someone else get bit.

Required reading for everyone should be Don't Get Taken Every Time by Remar Sutton.