Taking out a loan to buy a car can be worth it, if you get an extremely low interest rate. However, for that to happen, you need to be buying a new car with a

Taking out a loan to buy a car can be worth it, if you get an extremely low interest rate. However, for that to happen, you need to be buying a new car with a top credit score. In that case, you're probably still better off paying cash, but taking a loan can smooth out cash flow a bit. But, if that's the reason you're taking the loan, you should already be able to buy the car in cash. That's in a perfect world. In the real world, where people aren't perfectly rational agents, people take out car loans all the time. One can argue that the major US automakers are essentially finance companies these days.