Suppose you take out a loan for $24,475 to purchase a 2016 Nissan Altima. Nissan offers $500 cash back (which you use as part of the down payment), and you also put $2,299 of your own money down (so a total down payment of $2,799). The loan is for six years at 3% interest with monthly payments, and monthly payments begin one month after purchasing the car.
After three years of payments (36 payments), what is the principle remaining on the loan? As always, do not round computations until reporting the final answer. Round the final answer to the nearest $0.01.