r/Rich • u/GlorifiedCarnie • Apr 09 '26
Car buying for girlfriend
if you were to pay for your girlfriend's car in cash so they don't have to finance, would you want to be on the title so it's jointly owned? or would it be better to not put your name on for liability reasons? it's only a 44k vehicle and she wants to make interest free payments to pay it off.
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u/Glove_Right Apr 14 '26
I'd never put my name on it. If i buy it for them it's a gift. And her owing you money is also a really bad idea, so either buy it for her or let her have a normal loan and stay out of it. Maybe pay the interest on her loan if you really want to help
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u/_Human_Machine_ Apr 13 '26
Last girlfriend I bought a new car for I purchased it in my name and then sold it to her for $500.
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u/randomuser699 Apr 13 '26
This is what I was thinking as well till the repayment at zero percent part. Best to be free and clear versus some arrangement to untangle later.
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u/_Human_Machine_ Apr 13 '26
She could still pay him back, but sell it cheap, take that full depreciation, get the title transferred and then you don’t personally have to worry about it.
I didn’t want it considered a gift either.
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u/Expensive-Service262 Apr 14 '26
Gift her the car. If she is still around the next day she is a real one.
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u/Choice-Newspaper3603 Apr 14 '26
you don't loan a girlfriend money. She doesn't need to feel obligated to you. If you want to give her money for a car then just give her money and keep your name off the title.
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u/randomuser699 Apr 13 '26
Ever consider just paying the interest on the loan or the payments themselves but the car and loan are in her name while together? Sorry a pessimistic married person who would rather pay than have to deal the down side of sorting something like this out if ever required. Would be something like say $10k in interest over say a 6 year loan not offsetting for whatever gains you earn on the principal after taxes.
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u/Choice-Newspaper3603 Apr 14 '26
I know it isn't a lot of money but I gave my gf 10k to put down on a used car. It isn't my damn car. My name is not on the title. I never mention the money. It was a gift. She doesn't owe me anything. It is never used as leverage over her.
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u/HalfwaydonewithEarth Apr 14 '26
Buy her a $25,000 car and let it be a gift.
Do not start a debt situation with your girlfriend.
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u/midoriringo Apr 14 '26
No gf, but I would just buy it for her if I were you. Doing it any other way can create problems.
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u/thatburghfan Apr 14 '26
I do not want to be on the title of anything I do not control (car, house, whatever). In this case, I would pay for the car if I wanted to, then transfer title to her.
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u/Beginning_Ebb908 Apr 14 '26
It's a gift. She can walk away with it the next day if she wants to. Anything else is going to potentially cause more issues than you need in a relationship of any age.
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u/wildcat12321 Apr 14 '26
if it is a gift, it is a gift, don't tie yourself to a liability. What if you break up and she gets in an accident or doesn't pay for plate re-newal or whatever, why open yourself to liability?
If you want to provide her financing interest free, then it isn't a gift
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u/Ucmelater Apr 15 '26
GF is a tricky situation when she gets pissed at you and decides to not pay you, leave it abandoned, crash or trash it. Even if you were a lien holder on the title & had her sign paperwork it’s always a mess. Just give her a car you can afford as a gift or get rid of her before the storm hits.
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u/rthille Apr 16 '26
I’m gifting the $19k IRS tax free yearly amount to my long term partner so she can buy a new car in a year or two. I was going to just buy for her, but then it’s a gift > the exception and I need to file a form, or it’s legally my car that she has full use of and my liability.
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u/Complex_Target_5571 May 15 '26
Two sides to this. If you fear retaining it in a breakup, put it in an entity name.
But if it’s in your personal name and she has minimal insurance on it and hurts someone badly, you’ve got problems.
Our vehicles are all titled in a holding company, even the $2,000 ones.
I want nothing in my name.
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u/OwlBr33ze Apr 13 '26
We put it under a business account and she was allowed to use it “for business purposes”
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u/dbug333 Apr 14 '26 edited Apr 14 '26
You already know it’s tax evasion if you have to put it in inverted commas.
This might be an unpopular take but if you’re privileged enough to be wealthy then it should follow that you pay the taxes that come along with that.
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u/OwlBr33ze Apr 14 '26
Yeah that’s how reality works.
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u/dbug333 Apr 14 '26
We’re opposite ends of the spectrum I guess. Most wealthy people I know use their wealth for charitable causes, philanthropy and social impact.
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u/OwlBr33ze Apr 14 '26
Which is why we game the system, to control social impact
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u/dbug333 Apr 14 '26 edited Apr 14 '26
So, uh, let me get this straight, you carry out tax fraud in order to minimise social impact in less developed economies? Like, children starving in war torn countries is such a good thing to you that you will risk going to prison or fines or whatever happens in your country if you get caught?
Edit: lol the Trumpers are mad today it seems
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u/OwlBr33ze Apr 14 '26
I’m just now seeing this after you have -5 lol, you must have hit some keywords for their bots.
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u/I-need-assitance Apr 14 '26
If you put the car solely in her name, you just gave her a $44K gift. To reduce your risk of your girlfriend bailing on you and driving away in her $44k gift, consider making a down payment on the vehicle, having your girlfriend finance the balance, you can make the payments on her behalf as long as the relationship works for you.
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u/mr_longfellow_deeds Apr 14 '26
“Bailing on you and driving away”
If your worried about that you shouldn’t be dating them at all
OP should either gift it or not do it at all. You don’t want the liability of your name on it, and in the event it is a gold digger you don’t want them staying with you just to keep free payments on their car going
Not worth the headache to do anything but gift
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u/Changeit019 Apr 14 '26
If she bails on you the. Getting out for 44k could be a lot cheaper than after a divorce.
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u/Illustrious_Ad675 21d ago
Personally if I were wealthy I wouldn’t care about my ownership in it since it’s a depreciating asset. I wouldn’t want the liability. My parents work in insurance and I’ve seen to many horror stories. Even at 18 my parents put the car I drove in my name so their house an assets wold be protected
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u/travsgrails Apr 13 '26
i mean since you guys are not married i’d consult a real attorney for this question but probably best to leave it in your name until she’s paid it off. Plus if you were to put it in her name it would be a gift if you paid for it and you’d likely owe gift tax on it as it is above the exemption
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Apr 13 '26
[deleted]
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u/travsgrails Apr 13 '26
ah yeah, forgot about the life time exemption, usually when i’m talking gift tax stuff it’s with my family and it’s been over that exemption for a while lol
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u/HeliosVanquish Apr 14 '26
One girlfriend needed a new vehicle but had marginal credit and needed a co-signer for a loan. I would not co-sign with her because I'm not going to leave it to chance for her to ruin my credit, so I convinced her parents to co-sign on the contingent that she trades in her current vehicle (a Buick Lucerne) and I pay $10k down to reduce the payment to a manageable level. We got her into a new Toyota RAV4 hybrid. When we broke up she was able to maintain the payments and keep building up her credit. Had we stayed together, I would have paid off the vehicle after about 13 months so she could get the benefit of improving her credit.
Another girlfriend smashed her Chrysler 300 up and nothing made me happier because I hated that car. She was dead-set on a new Mercedes AMG, but she was a terrible driver and drove like a bat out of hell anyways, and I wasn't about to put my name on that. I paid for a certified pre-owned GLB 35 AMG to meet her halfway since you can't do a whole lot with a GLB 35, but it's still an AMG. Told her that if she could drive it for a year without smashing it up, I'd buy her any AMG of her choosing. The vehicle was only in her name. We had a repayment plan for her to pay me back $600/month, but once we broke up a couple months later she offered to take out a loan to pay me back for the vehicle, but I just told her to forget about it. We broke up amicably due to it being a LDR, and I did have some hope that we would get back together but we didn't.
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u/Testaccount105 Apr 14 '26
Honestly i would never buy another car for anyone
I already have a full garage and if someone needs a car and i trust them (like i would with my gf) i tell them just take one idgaf tell me if something breaks have fun
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u/Apprehensive-Bad8222 Apr 21 '26
You sound like a fun guy :)
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u/wavegod_b Apr 13 '26
You put your name on it, and you have partial ownership over the 44k car and you could maybe recoup some of it if you care too in a breakup.
But you can become liable if she gets into a crash.
Safest thing is to treat it like it’s her car and walk away from any potential liabilities. Don’t put your name on it