Author Topic: Upgrading the Business Vehicle  (Read 1302 times)

calimom

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Upgrading the Business Vehicle
« on: July 26, 2018, 07:59:43 PM »
I own and operate a small interior plantscape business and also do real estate staging on the side. Gross net from both enterprises should be about $120 to $130K this year, but there are several projects in the pipeline which could go any way.

A few years back I purchased, for cash, a 2010 Transit Connect. It has about 90K miles on it now and at around 80K, it developed some transmission problems which were patched together in a quick fix. That seems to be running out, and a full repair, according to my (hopefully) trusted mechanic, would be about $3500. It is used primarily for plant maintenance routes, and small installations. One of my part time  employees doesn't like to drive it for the long day of route service she performs, about 100 miles and prefers to use her personal vehicle, which I pay the .54 mileage rate. It adds up.

Do I pay the for the transmission rebuild? Or…purchase a 2018 for approximately $24K? The business currently has available cash of about $15K. Monthly payments would be about $403, plus of course ramped up insurance and registration costs. I've never owned a new vehicle and never had a car payment, but this would of course be a business purchase. My personal vehicle is a Volvo wagon, which is regularly pressed into service for client visits, vendor pickups and the like. For the very few times per year we need a larger vehicle, a Ryder truck is rented by the day.

Bite the bullet and get a new vehicle with a warranty, a fresh image (new logo would be about $200)..or look for something newer used? There doesn't seem much available locally, people seem to hang on to well running small vans. I also like the small Nissan, but there is not a local dealer, which would make warranty service a challenge.

Any and all advice welcome, including facepunches.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!