Poll

Should I sell my Explorer

Sell Explorer
1 (33.3%)
Keep Explorer
2 (66.7%)
Other  
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 3

Voting closed: May 27, 2013, 06:16:40 PM

Author Topic: Should I sell my car to buy older car?  (Read 4790 times)

Koshka

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Should I sell my car to buy older car?
« on: May 17, 2013, 02:57:06 PM »
I am trying to decide whether to sell my car to buy an older, less expensive car. I don't see a lot of downside to doing this and see a lot of upside. DH sees mostly downside and hardly any upside.

Our personal situation - DH Is retired, I am semi-retired and probably will fully retire soon.  We are FI and our financial survival doesn't depend on any of this.  That is, we should be fine no matter the decision but I tend to think selling the car is more optimal.  We live in a semi-rural area where we are 20 minutes drive away from any shopping.  There is no public transportation of any type.  I never want to be without two vehicles.  We typically buy new, but keep our cars for a very long time.

I have a 2012 Ford Explorer that we could sell for $30k to $32k.  Right now I drive it to work twice a week, 120 mile round trip.  I really enjoy driving it and like the safety features (adaptive cruise, collision warning, blind spot indicator). 

The reason we have an SUV is that we have very large dogs and need a vehicle where we can put in a couple of full size dog crates.  We fairly often carry 5 people in it and use it when we buy things that can't fit in our other vehicle.

DH's vehicle is a 2013 Hyundai Veloster.  It will seat 4 and gets much better gas mileage than the Explorer.  Since buying it, we never use the Explorer except when I go to work or when we specifically need to do something that we can't do with the Veloster or both DH and I need to go somewhere separately.  Many weeks we actually never use the Explorer except when I go to work.

Basically except when I work we don't often need the Explorer but when we need it we really need it and the Veloster wouldn't work.

While I enjoy driving the Explorer while I am spending 3 hours in it on days that I work, I think it is way overkill when we will later be driving it 3000 to 6000 miles a year.

So I want to sell it, buy an older, less expensive vehicle that we can haul dogs in and seat at least 5 people. 

DH is opposed to it because he feels that we know the condition of the Explorer, we can afford to keep it and if we buy an older used car we have higher maintenance costs and you never know if a used car will be reliable.  I basically agree with all of his points but think we can net enough money doing this to make it worthwhile anyway.

Sell Explorer?  Keep Explorer?

Anyone?
« Last Edit: May 17, 2013, 06:15:38 PM by Koshka »

foobar

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Re: Should I sell my car to buy older car?
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2013, 08:58:27 PM »
Can you drive DH's car to work? That solves the fuel issue. Then the question would be would buying an older car save you money? Yes. The question is then is it worth it? You have paid the for most expensive years on your car (first one with sales tax and the huge depreciation). Without knowing how old you are willing to go (a 15 year old car with 150k miles might serve you for another 10 years but a lot of people are not comfortable with that) and how much savings matter (i.e. would you do this if it saved you 1k for example or would it need to be 10k).

Koshka

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Re: Should I sell my car to buy older car?
« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2013, 09:52:27 PM »
I will probably only be going to work for about another month so that isn't much of a consideration.

Explorer is paid for and will net about $32k or so from it.

Car I would buy would cost $15k to $20k so I would net about $10k to $15k.  That isn't a fortune but even if it is $10k it would be nice to have.  We plan to buy our daughter a vehicle next year for high school graduation so the $10k could pay for that.

DH would never agree to buy an older used car that is older than, say, a 2007.

Here is the way I look at it:

Imagine my Explorer got totaled tomorrow and insurance paid me $32,000 for it.  What would I buy?  Would I buy a $32,000 Explorer for the very limited driving the vehicle will be getting?  The answer is no (not even if I knew the person selling and knew that Explorer was a great vehicle in good condition).  I would say that a $32,000 for a vehicle that was going to be driven once or twice a month was insane and that I would be perfectly happy with a $15k to $20k vehicle and I could happily keep the balance of the insurance payoff for other uses.

foobar

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Re: Should I sell my car to buy older car?
« Reply #3 on: May 18, 2013, 08:24:11 AM »
The downside is that you will end up having go buy a new car 5 years earlier. Imagine you get 10 years out of your 20k car and 15 out of your 32k car.  Now the savings look a lot smaller. Granted this is ignoring things like being able to invest the money for 10 years, insurance, taxes, emissions, cost of running the car and so on. And guessing how long the car will run is pretty much luck. In the end you are very likely to save some money but depending on your assumptions the amount can change.

Driving 1-2/month with a back up car to me says buy some 5k car (a 10 year old minivan sounds like it would fit your needs) rather than buying an expensive used car but I know a lot of people don't feel comfortable with that.


I will probably only be going to work for about another month so that isn't much of a consideration.

Explorer is paid for and will net about $32k or so from it.

Car I would buy would cost $15k to $20k so I would net about $10k to $15k.  That isn't a fortune but even if it is $10k it would be nice to have.  We plan to buy our daughter a vehicle next year for high school graduation so the $10k could pay for that.



DH would never agree to buy an older used car that is older than, say, a 2007.

Here is the way I look at it:

Imagine my Explorer got totaled tomorrow and insurance paid me $32,000 for it.  What would I buy?  Would I buy a $32,000 Explorer for the very limited driving the vehicle will be getting?  The answer is no (not even if I knew the person selling and knew that Explorer was a great vehicle in good condition).  I would say that a $32,000 for a vehicle that was going to be driven once or twice a month was insane and that I would be perfectly happy with a $15k to $20k vehicle and I could happily keep the balance of the insurance payoff for other uses.

Koshka

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Re: Should I sell my car to buy older car?
« Reply #4 on: May 18, 2013, 10:36:25 AM »
That is a legitimate point about the Explorer lasting longer.  However, basically, our dogs won't last that long.  We don't plan to replace the dogs we have and the youngest is about 6 years old.  So - 10 years from now they are all gone and then we don't need to large car anyway.


Karl

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Re: Should I sell my car to buy older car?
« Reply #5 on: May 18, 2013, 12:10:02 PM »
By my estimate (based on AAA numbers), your are currently spending something in the neighborhood of $150 (or more), each week, going to work for the next month.  Does the last month of work, the pay for it at least, justify the $600+ price tag of traveling there?  If not, you might want to leave early or find a friend (friendly campgorund?) near work to hang out for the next couple of weeks.  Just a thought,

Karl

Koshka

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Re: Should I sell my car to buy older car?
« Reply #6 on: May 18, 2013, 11:10:06 PM »
Yes I am highly compensated and my net for work after deducting all expenses including driving time and gas and wear and tear makes my work very profitable.  I do often work from home and fairly often I can arrange it so that I work one day and go in only one day.  I haven't actually resigned yet and haven't decided on the exact timing.

I'm sure I'll keep this vehicle until I'm gone...just really thinking about after I no longer have to drive to work when the Explorer will be mostly sitting in my garage.

kikichewie

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Re: Should I sell my car to buy older car?
« Reply #7 on: May 19, 2013, 06:29:11 AM »
Since it's paid for, I'd personally keep it and drive it forever.  In 10 years it will still be like new.