After a lot of back and forth, my wife and I are officially a ONE CAR FAMILY. I never thought I would say that, but man, was it the right choice. We have had a 2009 Corolla and a 1996 Tacoma for a long, long time. She got the car new and vowed that we would have it until it died. I loved my Tacoma and always found ways to justify having it. It carries a lot, it has a manual transmission, it is cheap on insurance, etc. It seemed smart to keep because I kayak, bike, camp, fish, go into the woods, and carry building materials on a fairly consistent basis. A few months ago my wife got a job working from home, so all of my justifications went out the window. Fast forward to this week.
Old 4x4 trucks hold their value pretty well because the newer ones are so unrealistically gigantic. Having a small, usable pickup that isn't covered in fresh paint, chrome, and leather is something that is getting harder and harder to find because almost no one builds them anymore and the older ones are getting higher and higher mileage. Knowing this, I decided to list it for $1,000 more than I paid for it over 50,000 miles ago. In only 36 MINUTES I got a call, a guy stopped by, and took it off my hands. As quickly as I decided to finally list it, it was gone. Freak-out commenced.
So what about all of the things I carry?! What about the hobbies I love?! What about all the dirty, wet, muddy stuff I throw in the bed of the truck!?
Well, my wife and I knew that we still needed to find ways to haul our gear and building equipment. The compromise that we made was that since we knew we would be keeping the Corolla until the wheels fall off we would take a small part of that money from the sale of my truck and purchase racks to go on the car so that we could still move stuff. I also took the time to build some stuff in the trunk to haul my dirty stuff without wrecking the interior.
Man, it has made all the difference! In the picture I attached you can see that I can carry both kayaks, two bikes, a trunk full of camping gear and food, two dogs in the backseat (they couldn't fit in my truck), and still get over 30+ MPG!! Not only that, but we made thousands of dollars selling the truck that is now sitting in investments. And that is not all! We shopped around for insurance on the same weekend and are now saving nearly $80 a month on insurance and gasoline that we put in the truck. That is $80 a month, forever!
If you can't tell, I am happy. I even find pride in showing up to the trail or river with my small car hauling more gear than the full size pickups filling the trail head. I never thought I would be this guy, but in hindsight having a truck is completely overrated. The racks and hitches available on any model car out today makes trucks completely unnecessary. I am a little car convert.
