Am i the retard here? Parents recently bought a new car (some honda crv for like 40-something grand) and decided to finance it, i was very confused and offered to front them the cash to buy outright, (we all got enough money, most of theirs is tied up in less liquid mediums that they need to time and sell etc..., years ago fronted em like 20 grand for some kitchen rennovation, they obviously paid me back in full a few weeks later and all is well) this time though, they were explaining something about the finance rate for the next X years or whatever is slightly ower than their average expected investment return rate for the next X years and therefore financing it is more profitable than buying outright and if the return rate is bad then they'll just pay it off on the spot.


So uh.... are they smart? Am I dumb? Im actually planning on getting a new car soon (current is 10+ y/o and starting to regularly have pricey issues) and was gonna just buy outright, should i actually finance?