Question
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  1. Suppose that you decide to borrow for a new car, You can seled
    one of the following loans, each requiring regular monthly payments:
    Installment Loan A: three-year loan at
    Installment Loan B: five-year loan at .
    a. Find the monthly payments and the total interest for Loan A .
    b. Find the monthly payments and the total interest for Loan B .
    c. Compare the monthly payments and the total interest for the
    two loans.

Ask by Kelley Lawson. in the United States
Mar 23,2025

Upstudy AI Solution

Tutor-Verified Answer

Answer

a. Loan A (3-year loan at 1.9%)
  • Monthly Payment: Approximately $715
  • Total Interest: $740
b. Loan B (5-year loan at 2.4%)
  • Monthly Payment: Approximately $442
  • Total Interest: $1,490
c. Comparison
  • Monthly Payments: Loan A is higher ($715) than Loan B ($442).
  • Total Interest: Loan A has less interest ($740) compared to Loan B ($1,490).
Summary:
Loan A offers higher monthly payments but less total interest, while Loan B provides lower monthly payments with more total interest over the loan period.

Solution

a. Loan A (Three-year loan at )
We use the annuity formula for the monthly payment:
where
(the principal),
is the monthly interest rate, and
is the total number of monthly payments.
  1. Determine the monthly interest rate and number of payments.
    The annual rate is , so
    For a three‐year loan,
  2. Compute .
    Evaluating (using logarithms or a calculator) gives approximately:
  3. Substitute into the payment formula.
    Using the form
    first compute:
    Then the denominator is:
    Now, the numerator is:
    Thus, the monthly payment is:
    (Due to rounding at intermediate stages, one may also obtain a value near using an alternative form. Using a high‐precision calculation, a monthly payment of about is typical. For our purposes, we can state that the monthly payment is approximately .)
  4. Total Interest for Loan A.
    The total amount paid over 36 months is:
    The total interest paid is then:

b. Loan B (Five-year loan at )
  1. Determine the monthly interest rate and number of payments.
    The annual rate is , so
    For a five‐year loan,
  2. Compute .
    Evaluating gives approximately:
  3. Substitute into the payment formula.
    Again using
    first compute:
    The denominator is:
    The numerator is:
    Thus, the monthly payment is:
  4. Total Interest for Loan B.
    The total amount paid over 60 months is:
    The total interest paid is then:

c. Comparison
  • Monthly Payments:
    • Loan A (3-year): Approximately per month.
    • Loan B (5-year): Approximately per month.
  • Total Interest Paid:
    • Loan A: Approximately in interest.
    • Loan B: Approximately in interest.
Conclusion:
Loan A has a higher monthly payment but results in considerably less total interest paid compared to Loan B, which offers lower monthly payments but a higher overall cost in interest.

Answered by UpStudy AI and reviewed by a Professional Tutor

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Explain
Simplify this solution

Beyond the Answer

To solve this car loan dilemma, we’ll need to employ the formula for calculating monthly payments (M) on an installment loan, which is given by:
where:
  • = principal amount (the loan amount)
  • = monthly interest rate (annual rate divided by 12)
  • = total number of payments (loan term in months)
Let’s break it down.

For Loan A (3-year loan at 1.9%):

  1. Principal
  2. Monthly interest rate
  3. Number of payments
Plugging these values into the formula gives us:
Total payments over 36 months =
Total interest = Total payments - Principal =

For Loan B (5-year loan at 2.4%):

  1. Principal
  2. Monthly interest rate
  3. Number of payments
Plugging these values into the formula gives us:
Total payments over 60 months =
Total interest = Total payments - Principal =

Summary:

  • Loan A: Monthly payment ≈ $720.16; Total interest ≈ $965.76
  • Loan B: Monthly payment ≈ $440.62; Total interest ≈ $1437.20
In conclusion, while Loan A has a higher monthly payment, it ultimately results in lower total interest paid compared to Loan B!

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