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Why would you put a blog together based on random peoples opinions? There is so much information already out there with guidelines and rules of thumb. A Roth IRA really has no impact on how much car you should buy. General rule of thumb is no more than 20% of your take home pay should go towards a car payment + insurance. Or another rule of thumb is no more than 10% of your gross monthly income. So if you make $60K, then your monthly car payment + insurance should be no more than $500.
And your loan shouldn't be longer than 4 years or so. If you take a 84 month loan, you're going to upside down pretty quickly and stay there. These rules apply pretty much in all situations, even if you don't have a mortgage or rent payment and even if you have a large cash cushion. I'd argue that they're a little generous especially if you don't have much of a cash cushion.
FWIW, asking on any car enthusiast forum is going to get you a very skewed answer. Lots of guys here spend way over common sense limits on their car simply because they love cars. Lots of guys who can barely make their car payment are modding them. Just look at the classifieds and see how many ads are from people who need cash because something "came up". And then notice the stuff their selling is worth a few hundred dollars at the most.
So any car enthusiast site is probably not going to be great for actual financial advice on cars. You're going to get guys who make $30K with $0K in investments, no Roth IRA or any retirement account, a 3 day cash cushion willing to buy a $50K car with $0 down and an 84 month loan.
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