I have about $16k in credit card debt atm. I drive about 600 miles a month(520 miles for work commute and about 80 miles for going out once each weekend). I'm working on getting a bicycle and biking to work, but haven't figured out logistics of dealing with being extremely sweaty yet for a corp environment, so for now I do need to drive.
I currently have a 2006 Scion tC that has never been in any major accidents, has no major problems, and drives extremely well. It was a gift from my parents new and the car is in my name owned fully. It's worth about $8k atm with 60k miles on it, it is a manual, I can get 30-31mpg when I drive 55 mph on the highway and accel lightly as well as cut the engine at lights. Fuel cost is about $67.5/month or $809/yr.
I'm considering selling it for something like a manual Civic with 150k miles on it in hopes of getting closer to 40 mpg(with same driving tactics) that I could get for around $3k hopefully leaving me with $5k left over from selling my tC. I would be able to use that $5k to pay off a credit card and a half. Fuel cost would be about $50.5/month or $607/yr. Savings from $5k in CCs @ 12% is $600 in interest/yr.
TLDR: In the end trading my tC for a Civic I'd save about $200/yr on gas costs while reducing my debt burden by about $5k saving me $600/yr in interest. On the downside, I'd have a less reliable car since it would likely be older and double the miles on it possibly requiring more maintenance eliminating the yearly savings. Is this risk worth it?
Thanks for reading, I value your input!
Edit: I can get a 2000 Civic for $3k, recalculated savings