Okay, I'll try to keep it short. First, the disclaimer: I am a recovering financial idiot. Made plenty of mistakes. Only recently discovered MMM; making changes. Need help. Assume all the typical stupid financial mistakes have been made leading up to this scenario.
We have (had) two cars.
2002 Honda Accord (being stupid when I bought it, I of course opted for the v6). 140k; needs timing belt service; new tires; paint has worn off the metal above windshield right down to metal...weird.
2005 Honda Odyssey (yes, fell victim to the "we have two kids, we need a minivan!" trap). It's dead. Gone. It was in good shape with 150k miles on it, but we hit a large deer on a recent month-long tour visiting family in Montana. Insurance deemed it a total loss. (Mock me now, but only in your head please: we refinanced it at 1.99% shortly after paying it off to pay off a 14.99% debt). This means that the settlement from insurance paid the rest of that off leaving us with $1300.
Here are the questions:
1) Should we invest in the 2002 Accord, even though it only gets like 22 mpg on a good day because of the v6? Estimate that the timing belt service is around $1200; new tires $800; new paint....MAACO???? We live in Vancouver, Washington. Lots of rain. Matter of time before it starts to rust due to the weirdly exposed metal. I suppose I could just slap some primer on it....but...
or.....should we unload the 2002 Accord and "reset" our car reality?
2) Regardless of unloading the Accord or investing in keeping it alive, we will need a second vehicle. What should it be? (Yes, I've read MMM's articles).
As a Moustachian neophyte, I recognize that I am battling old thought patterns, beliefs founded in fallacy, and decades of bad habits. Here are some facts about our family and what we THINK we need....help me cut out the BS.
1. Family of 4. Kids are 8 and 10.
2. School is walking distance for kids.
3. Work is biking distance for me (7 miles), but this will be new for me! Ready to try it. Excited. Need a bike.
4. Wife does tech support from home, loves to bike, but sometimes has to drive 40-100 miles to work on-site.
5. Wife recently diagnosed with what is turning out to be a pretty aggressive auto-immune disease that, in the last year, has taken her from a marathoner, daily runner/biker, to hardly being able to navigate the stairs in our house. :(
6. Grocery shopping is within biking distance.
7. When we travel, we drive. I HATE flying. I LOVE driving. We travel fairly often. We have no family here. They are all spread out across Montana and Idaho. We visit them for 2-3 weeks every December and 3-4 weeks every summer, with long distance driving in-between families. In addition to visiting family, we like to take our family of four out to explore the Washington and Oregon coast, go wander around Mt. St. Helens, find mountain lakes to hike to, but you have to drive to the trail head first, etc....
8. We downhill ski and cross-country ski. We drive to Mt. Hood, Mt. Bachelor (Oregon), and various ski hills around Montana.
9. We hike, backpack, and campground/car-camp. With the wife's new reality, probably more campground/car-camping until we get her health under control.
10. Our relatives visit us often (3-4 times a year). They fly here, though, so show up with no car. We enjoyed the minivan because we could fit all of us into it when we all went exploring the area together (driving to the mountains to hike/ski, going into Portland, etc).
11. We enjoy being the parents who offer to drive "the group of kids" here and there, rather than let our kiddos climb into someone else's car (false sense of security, I know).
Okay....enough facts.
We have it in our heads that we need another people mover. The ability to chauffeur the grandparents and kids around in one rig when they visit FEELS important. Maybe it isn't. Maybe it's an easy way to cling to a fallacy-based belief. Not sure.
Since we are effectively down to one car right now (borrowing a 1991 Chevy extended cab pickup from a family member in Montana (15 mpg....ouch).....we are looking to replace the minivan.
My search started with the mindset of "okay...finally out of the minivan stage." Of course I am fighting the ideal that we NEED a 3 row SUV/Crossover. Do we? I have been looking at the Chevy Traverse, the Honda Pilot, the Mazda CX-9. But as I do, I feel like I am being a lemming.
So, what are your thoughts? We need a rig that will complement our desire to hit the slopes, drive to trail-heads that are "out-there"(but we really aren't "off-road" drivers), ferry the grandparents and kids and us around together....is that possible in a Moustachian way?
And what about the 2002 Accord? Dump around 3k into it and keep feeding the v6 for another 4-6 years, or replace it with a used high MPG 4 seater for running around when biking won't work?
Thanks. Take your best shot at challenging my perceived reality/needs. My momma always said, "with that one, it'll take a 2x4 upside the head."