My husband has gotten a wild hair about getting a new (to us) vehicle. I don't even know where this came from..... I really want to continue to focus on getting things paid off.
We currently have 2 cars and 1 truck. All 3 are 2002s, 14 year old. All 3 have well over 150K miles (my car has 191K, not sure exactly what the other 2 have, but I know it's over 150K). And honestly that doesn't bother me at all. They get me where they need to go. As long as I have heat/AC and hopefully cruise control I am fine. They all have minor (and a some major) cosmetic issues, but otherwise fine. I don't mind spending a few $100 a year for tune up issues, you spend those on newer cars as well. Also we have no kids, so we don't have to worry about space issues for day to day or trips etc.
The vehicle he wants us to get is a 2004 Jeep Liberty. It is $5900 and 99K miles. He thinks they will go down on the price. As far as the miles, yes it is a lot, but it is also almost 100K miles LESS then what I am driving now. It looks super nice, we are going to test drive it tomorrow. I almost hope I hate it. MO wants me to have a nicer vehicle with 4 wheel drive (we live in ND and an hr away from the closest city) and also thinks it would be nice to have something bigger as whenever we carpool with anyone we always have to ride with others instead of driving since we have small cars (Malibu and Cavalier). Since we live an hr away from anything we do carpool frequently. We would not be trading in any of our current vehicles as we need a truck, and both of the cars are worth far more to us then they would be as a trade in.
Like anyone else, of course I would love to have a nice, new to me vehicle. But I want to get rid of all this dang debt! I told him IF we do like it and are considering it....#1 He needs to show me where we are fitting 4 vehicles in our garage. #2 Explain to me why 2 people (one of whom works from home!) need 4 vehicles #3 We will not take out more debt, so we would be draining savings. #4 How much will insurance be on the new vehicle #5 NO CASINO
Seeing it typed out makes it pretty darn clear to me that this doesn't make any sense. I will have to work on him. I feel bad saying no as he works so hard and doesn't ask for much, and our vehicles are soooooo old, but I really just think this is an unnecessary want right now.
I ran this by my WIR friends and they had a good suggestion to get him past this want of rather then getting this "moderate" upgrade now, save up and when one of the cars does die, get something we REALLY want and we can have for a long time. I like that idea. I guess we will see how the test drive goes, but definitely leaning towards waiting as long as possible.
My husband has the new car bug!
May 17th, 2016 at 08:35 pm
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We test drove it last night and I have to say I do love it. I told MO to check on the insurance costs and see if the dealership will go down to $5K. If they will go down to $5K we will talk about it some more. If not, we will let it go.
We have a two stall garage, but the stalls are double depth so we also discussed parking one of the cars in the back, and dropping the insurance (MO is also checking on the cost of the insurance for our other cars...he said he thinks the cost for his car is only like $7 a month ) on that car and "using up" one of our cars, using the Jeep only when weather advises, for carpooling, and for trips. That way we would still use the car when going to town for softball, errands, etc and still getting the better gas mileage.
I want to make the best decision for us, so I am taking in all of the info to make the best decision.
One other thing we discussed, is when it does become a "need" to buy a new vehicle, will I be able to mentally be ok with spending much more then this on a vehicle? I doubt it. I just don't like spending a lot. So we discussed how this is the type of vehicle I want, and if I am not willing to spend $10K+ (realistically more like $15K+), I may have a really hard time finding something I am happy with in the price range I am willing to spend. So MO is thinking it is best to purchase now while the vehicle style I like at the price I want is available......just something else to think about.
The thing is there won't really be a "right" answer right now without knowing the future. My car could die in two weeks and then I would be perfectly happy buying that vehicle for that price! And then I would be mad if I missed out. Or we could get buy the Jeep and it could need tons of repairs and then I will be mad that we got it.....you just never know with vehicles. I have heard lots of stories from friends that bought brand new vehicle and still had tons of problems. It's just a gamble either way.
I will let you know when I hear back on the insurance quote and if they were willing to go down to $5K!