Author Topic: Sell car? Buy car?  (Read 2781 times)

Ellsie Equanimity

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Sell car? Buy car?
« on: October 22, 2016, 05:51:12 PM »
My husband and I have two cars.

He drives a 2005 Ford Focus Stationwagon, 140k miles, minor cosmetic rusting, replaced the alternator this summer. We love the ability to haul stuff this car gives us.

I primarily drive a 1998 Honda Civic, 166k miles, coupe, manual, looks nice but has lots of rust underneath, periodically needs patches to the exhaust system as holes rust through (if we can find someone who will do patches rather than say they can only replace whole parts which is more than we want to spend on it), a/c just quit this summer, also recently replaced brake lines, and all tires.

His might be more reliable overall but mine might have more value (we're talking somewhere around 2k each at the higher range).

With the low value, both cars are at that point where putting anything $1000+ into them isn't really worth it anymore, and unfortunately through the repairs this summer, we put about that much into each of them (each kind of at that point of well let's fix this and then decide what to do).

Parents are each starting to tell us we need at least one reliable vehicle. Also each car, or at least mine, at that point of if we want to get anything out of the car, we should probably sell now/soon. We were hoping our next vehicle purchase would be a minivan five years down the line when we might need that, but we won't need it for a while yet (talking about potentially trying for number one sometime in 2017, on hold for better evaluation once 2017 starts), and don't want to jump to the minivan before it's necessary.

So do we sell my car now while it has some value before more goes wrong with it? (We've talked about putting it on Craigslist for 2-3k just to see, unlikely to sell at that price we think but hey if someone wants it for that much, maybe it's worth it?)

If we sell it, do we buy a newer, "more reliable" car? Husband kind of likes the idea of Nissan Versa Hatchbacks as a potential. I wish I could get another manual but understand at some point (maybe now) that's not going to be practical (if not now, minivans don't come in manual that I know of :P).

Or do we keep both cars so we don't have to spend on a car now and then again later when we reach that time for a minivan point? (Who knows when a "reliable" car will have issues or an "unreliable" car will last forever.)

Or do we sell mine to get the value out of it but then do one car for a while? Husband bikes/walks to work some already, has talked about wanting to do one car possibly. Main concern is probably longer trips - we somewhat frequently visit family, especially in summer, 2-7 hours away - do we need that newer more reliable vehicle or even two vehicles if one of us wants to travel while the other stays? (Haven't done many not together trips yet, but I will have more vacation and would like to visit family, potentially at times when he isn't able to come with.)

Savings info: we'll have about 30k cash at the end of the year. We just bought a house, have a lot we can save at the moment while we're both working (I just started a month ago) but if/when we have kids I will probably stay home and we will go back down to just his income (which we budgeted off of knowing this, so my income is extra savings right now for whatever we choose between more toward retirement/paying off house early/getting a car/or whatever).

daverobev

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Re: Sell car? Buy car?
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2016, 06:24:47 PM »
My husband and I have two cars.

He drives a 2005 Ford Focus Stationwagon, 140k miles, minor cosmetic rusting, replaced the alternator this summer. We love the ability to haul stuff this car gives us.

I primarily drive a 1998 Honda Civic, 166k miles, coupe, manual, looks nice but has lots of rust underneath, periodically needs patches to the exhaust system as holes rust through (if we can find someone who will do patches rather than say they can only replace whole parts which is more than we want to spend on it), a/c just quit this summer, also recently replaced brake lines, and all tires.

His might be more reliable overall but mine might have more value (we're talking somewhere around 2k each at the higher range).

With the low value, both cars are at that point where putting anything $1000+ into them isn't really worth it anymore, and unfortunately through the repairs this summer, we put about that much into each of them (each kind of at that point of well let's fix this and then decide what to do).

Parents are each starting to tell us we need at least one reliable vehicle. Also each car, or at least mine, at that point of if we want to get anything out of the car, we should probably sell now/soon. We were hoping our next vehicle purchase would be a minivan five years down the line when we might need that, but we won't need it for a while yet (talking about potentially trying for number one sometime in 2017, on hold for better evaluation once 2017 starts), and don't want to jump to the minivan before it's necessary.

So do we sell my car now while it has some value before more goes wrong with it? (We've talked about putting it on Craigslist for 2-3k just to see, unlikely to sell at that price we think but hey if someone wants it for that much, maybe it's worth it?)

If we sell it, do we buy a newer, "more reliable" car? Husband kind of likes the idea of Nissan Versa Hatchbacks as a potential. I wish I could get another manual but understand at some point (maybe now) that's not going to be practical (if not now, minivans don't come in manual that I know of :P).

Or do we keep both cars so we don't have to spend on a car now and then again later when we reach that time for a minivan point? (Who knows when a "reliable" car will have issues or an "unreliable" car will last forever.)

Or do we sell mine to get the value out of it but then do one car for a while? Husband bikes/walks to work some already, has talked about wanting to do one car possibly. Main concern is probably longer trips - we somewhat frequently visit family, especially in summer, 2-7 hours away - do we need that newer more reliable vehicle or even two vehicles if one of us wants to travel while the other stays? (Haven't done many not together trips yet, but I will have more vacation and would like to visit family, potentially at times when he isn't able to come with.)

Savings info: we'll have about 30k cash at the end of the year. We just bought a house, have a lot we can save at the moment while we're both working (I just started a month ago) but if/when we have kids I will probably stay home and we will go back down to just his income (which we budgeted off of knowing this, so my income is extra savings right now for whatever we choose between more toward retirement/paying off house early/getting a car/or whatever).

It's always worth putting off spending.

That said, I'd ditch each car as significant repairs arise. Civics are generally reliable, but not 2006 + 2-3 years. We had an 04 and it was good.

Minivans in manual - the only one I know of is a Mazda 5, which actually might be the perfect vehicle for you.

Ellsie Equanimity

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Re: Sell car? Buy car?
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2016, 03:46:50 PM »

It's always worth putting off spending.

That said, I'd ditch each car as significant repairs arise.

The trick is it's easier to sell when it doesn't need a repair, but that's also when you figure you can hang onto it longer yourself, too.

daverobev

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Re: Sell car? Buy car?
« Reply #3 on: October 23, 2016, 04:42:15 PM »

It's always worth putting off spending.

That said, I'd ditch each car as significant repairs arise.

The trick is it's easier to sell when it doesn't need a repair, but that's also when you figure you can hang onto it longer yourself, too.

If the car's worth $2k, and the repair is $2k, and you scrap it, you've come out just fine, IMHO.

Metric Mouse

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Re: Sell car? Buy car?
« Reply #4 on: October 23, 2016, 11:31:24 PM »
My husband and I have two cars.

He drives a 2005 Ford Focus Stationwagon, 140k miles, minor cosmetic rusting, replaced the alternator this summer. We love the ability to haul stuff this car gives us.

I primarily drive a 1998 Honda Civic, 166k miles, coupe, manual, looks nice but has lots of rust underneath, periodically needs patches to the exhaust system as holes rust through (if we can find someone who will do patches rather than say they can only replace whole parts which is more than we want to spend on it), a/c just quit this summer, also recently replaced brake lines, and all tires.

His might be more reliable overall but mine might have more value (we're talking somewhere around 2k each at the higher range).

With the low value, both cars are at that point where putting anything $1000+ into them isn't really worth it anymore, and unfortunately through the repairs this summer, we put about that much into each of them (each kind of at that point of well let's fix this and then decide what to do).

Parents are each starting to tell us we need at least one reliable vehicle. Also each car, or at least mine, at that point of if we want to get anything out of the car, we should probably sell now/soon. We were hoping our next vehicle purchase would be a minivan five years down the line when we might need that, but we won't need it for a while yet (talking about potentially trying for number one sometime in 2017, on hold for better evaluation once 2017 starts), and don't want to jump to the minivan before it's necessary.

So do we sell my car now while it has some value before more goes wrong with it? (We've talked about putting it on Craigslist for 2-3k just to see, unlikely to sell at that price we think but hey if someone wants it for that much, maybe it's worth it?)

If we sell it, do we buy a newer, "more reliable" car? Husband kind of likes the idea of Nissan Versa Hatchbacks as a potential. I wish I could get another manual but understand at some point (maybe now) that's not going to be practical (if not now, minivans don't come in manual that I know of :P).

Or do we keep both cars so we don't have to spend on a car now and then again later when we reach that time for a minivan point? (Who knows when a "reliable" car will have issues or an "unreliable" car will last forever.)

Or do we sell mine to get the value out of it but then do one car for a while? Husband bikes/walks to work some already, has talked about wanting to do one car possibly. Main concern is probably longer trips - we somewhat frequently visit family, especially in summer, 2-7 hours away - do we need that newer more reliable vehicle or even two vehicles if one of us wants to travel while the other stays? (Haven't done many not together trips yet, but I will have more vacation and would like to visit family, potentially at times when he isn't able to come with.)

Savings info: we'll have about 30k cash at the end of the year. We just bought a house, have a lot we can save at the moment while we're both working (I just started a month ago) but if/when we have kids I will probably stay home and we will go back down to just his income (which we budgeted off of knowing this, so my income is extra savings right now for whatever we choose between more toward retirement/paying off house early/getting a car/or whatever).

I'd drop down to one car. Good way to spur more biking.  At that point, next year if you have a kid, you can start looking for that minivan that you think you need? for some reason.  And then probably stay one-car anyway.  A two hour trip is not really that taxing on a vehicle that hasn't had any serious problems before - I wouldn't worry about doing it in a car just because it's rusty. And by next summer you'll probably know if you're pregnant or not, and thus will be in a better position to decide to trade up the one car that's left, or keep rolling with what you have for one more year.

 

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