First post!
I know the topic of cars is discussed here a lot, but I'm having trouble finding answers to my question, so I created a post.
I was in the process of looking for a new car when I started to have my "mustachian revelation". I ended up buying a new car in January 2017 before the enlightenment had fully sunk in. This morning I was reading over
this MMM article about being locked into sunk costs and it got me thinking about the idea of selling my car.
I bike a good amount and do my own car maintenance, so I've already incorporated some mustachian ideas into my life. The tough part about this is that the consequences of my options don't seem nearly as obvious as the examples that I read on the blog. In my case the car is a 2017 VW golf sportwagen.
So here's a list of pros for keeping the car:
- It's 2WD and gets great gas milage (I routinely get 40 mph on long highway drives)
- The size of the car is perfectly practical for the things I like to do, so I would be happy owning it until it dies beyond repair
- Selling it and buying a replacement could be a hassle since my current location is only moderately bike friendly and my wife's car is routinely unavailable.
On the cons list there's only one bullet point, which is that I owe $20.6k @ ~3% interest.
I don't know what I could get for it right now, but I'm sure there'd be a substantial sunk cost that I'm locked into.
So the question is, am I deceiving myself by thinking that my situation with an economical car is different from someone who just bought a new 4x4 truck?
Or is there a way to think about this that makes it obvious I should trade down to a cheaper used car?