I'm originally from Virginia. Virginians love their trucks. I love my truck. But, I just moved to a city where a pickup really isn't practical--Pasadena, CA. Of course, having read through the Mustache Manifesto, I now realize that it was never practical to begin with. As I begin my mustached-journey, here's what I'm thinking:
The truck (Ford Ranger) is worth $7,150. The outstanding loan is $3,500. Now that I'm pretty much done with the cross-country moving expenses, I was planning on paying off my loan with my remaining $5,000 savings. However, I also have student loans that I would like to put that money into. So, my thought is to pay the loan to get the pink slip, sell my beloved truck for $7,000, netting $3,500 off of the equity. Then using that $3,500 to buy a cheap, fuel-efficient car (I currently get 18 MPG city--d'oh.)
Doing that, I'd have a paid-off car without touching any of my savings. Then I could plunk $3,000 of my savings on my student loans instead.
I'm okay with this, and I think it's the right financial move. However, I'm not mechanically-saavy, and I'm worried about buying a cheap car that will immediately break down. By contrast, the Ranger is practically guaranteed to last forever (they're legendary in reliability, and I have a stick shift). Any advice on avoiding a clunker?