Well we have a new vehicle! We discussed it thoroughly and I think we made the best decision for our family. I really love it!
So we got this 2004 Jeep Liberty. Per Kelly Blue Book the value is $6460, the dealer had it priced at $5900, and we were able to get them to go down to $5200. We tried for $5000, but they couldn't go down that far, however they did through in a free car starter which is definitely a great bonus here in ND!
I really think we got a great deal. The biggest factor that pushed me towards the purchase was thinking about when one of our other vehicles does die, will I be willing to spend $15K-$20K for an SVU type vehicle? No I wouldn't. I just think that is way too much to spend, even if I can afford it and I already have the money saved up, I just can't spend that much on a vehicle for myself. So the fact that the type of vehicle I want is available for only $5200 is something I didn't want to pass up after I weighed the pros and cons.
We have a two stall garage, but each of the stalls is double depth, so we can fit 4 vehicles in there. So MO cleaned out the back corner and parked his Cavalier there, and cancelled the insurance on it. We won't be driving that car at all at this time. We then parked the new Liberty behind the Cavalier, and we will be driving that sparingly (trips, car pools, when we need 4WD etc.) We plan on mainly driving my Malibu to work for MO, softball, errands etc. Once that car dies then we will put the insurance back on the Cavalier and start using it again. (Yes we will make sure it still gets oil changes, tune-ups when needed). Cancelling the insurance on the Cavalier will save us $200 per year, which will cover about 1/2 of the insurance cost for the Liberty. We did discuss selling one of the cars, but the small amount we would get for them really wouldn't make sense. They are worth way more to us as drivable vehicles, then they would be to sell them for $1000 or less.
We will be taking the money out of savings to pay for the Liberty, so no new debt. We also discussed that we will not be going to the casino until we have our savings back to the $5K it was at before we purchased the new vehicle. We should be back to where we need to be by the mid/end of summer, and then full steam ahead on bulking up savings!
We bought the Jeep Liberty!
May 20th, 2016 at 07:47 pm
May 20th, 2016 at 09:20 pm 1463779239
May 20th, 2016 at 11:46 pm 1463787962
http://www.edmunds.com/car-care/how-to-prep-your-car-for-long-term-storage.html
May 21st, 2016 at 05:39 am 1463809140
May 21st, 2016 at 06:26 am 1463811984
May 21st, 2016 at 12:12 pm 1463832773
Hope you enjoy your new vehicle!
May 22nd, 2016 at 01:55 am 1463882121
May 22nd, 2016 at 10:51 pm 1463957507
FrugalTexan - I guess I assumed stored vehicles still need maintenance, but I will look at the list Joe listed and do some research. I just want to make sure the car is being kept up for when we are ready to use it again.
Mileage is 99K, about 20,000 less then a 2004 would normally have.
Thanks everyone!