I paid cash, and I have definitely run over budget. I'd say $80k is a decent budget. But if you want all the bells and whistles, it goes north quickly.

EAA's financing partner, NAFCO will finance your build. The value of your kit crashes when you take delivery, and doesn't really recover until you finish building. Only about 25% of new kit builders (all types, not necessarily Kitfox) finish an airplane kit. Because of this, it's a risky loan for the lender and the terms aren't great. For the kit, I was quoted 20% down, and 7.6% for 10 years, with a balloon at 3 years. When you're ready to buy firewall forward, they would have refinanced the loan into 5.73 to 6.07% for 5-15 years. This structure really reflects the risk profile of the loan. Given these terms, I elected not to finance.