Well, I've been lurking around here for awhile, but it's time to finally register and get some advice on my car situation.
A little background: In 2010, I upgraded from my first car (a 1998 Ford Contour, got me back and forth from college for four years, but was getting to the point where it was going to cost more to fix needed issues than the car was worth). I bit the bullet, went car shopping, and found a great deal on a 2007 Hyundai Tucson. It was a good car but definitely still not a mustachian purchase. I was paying $206/mo on a 60 month term. Not a terrible monthly payment, but I could have found a fine car for less money... I was swayed by the lower miles, and yes, the sunroof. At the time, I was fresh out of college and making ~$950/mo working part time. Not awful overall, but definitely not mustachian.
But it gets worse... in 2012, I totaled the Tucson. Got a great payout from insurance (more than I actually bought the car for). The smart thing to do would have been to buy a car for the same or less and stay on track with my car payments. But no... I splurged on a low-mileage 2010 Toyota Venza. I really liked the car, and still do, but it was way more than I needed at the time and it still is now.
I justified it at the time with the fact that I play drum set occasionally and needed the space to haul my equipment to rehearsals/gigs. But I could have gotten by with a smaller vehicle for sure... even the Contour could fit everything with some creative maneuvering. I also figured the extra space would be good for when my wife and I eventually have kids... but that's still years off. I was also desperate to have a vehicle again and probably didn't think the purchase through as well as I normally would. Long story short, my monthly payment is now $351, and I started a new 60-month term.
Recently, I was re-evaluating our car situation. My wife started working at Ford, and just recently purchased a 2013 Ford Focus so that she could park in the employee parking lot. That's $329/mo for 48 months, far from mustachian but better than her 72 month (I know...) term for a similar monthly payment on her previous car, a Subaru Impreza (bought new). We did at least steer clear of a Ford Focus that would have been quite a bit more per month.
My wife mentioned that if we can fit everything into the Focus, we should take that car on our upcoming vacation to save money on gas. That got the wheels turning in my head. I realized:
- I travel frequently for work, and I sometimes work from home when I am not on travel. So I am not putting many miles on my car these days. I have put less than 5000 miles on the car since the end of November last year, and most of those were on a trip from Missouri to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving.
- I'm not playing the drums as much as I used to, so the space really isn't needed.
- It's not really an efficient or practical car for a 20-minute each way commute when I am actually in town, especially not for $351/mo.
- If we no longer even need it for long road trips, I'm starting to find it hard to justify having it.
So, in my continued pursuit of increased Mustachianism that I have begun to cultivate in the few months since discovering MMM, I started looking at cheaper, more efficient vehicles. However, my wife has some concerns. In general, we are never going to see 100% eye-to-eye on cars. Even in my pre-Mustache days, I for the most part thought of cars primarily as a method to get from point A to point B. Yes, I like cool cars as much as the next guy, but I never really got sucked in to the whole luxury car mindset, and I would never buy a brand new car. She, on the other hand, thinks of cars as freedom and likes some of the bells and whistles. Working for Ford, she's become even more tuned in to said bells and whistles.
We discussed my idea to look at swapping out the Venza, and while she agrees with the principle of it, she wants to keep a car with similar space (her reasoning: so that we have cargo space if we need it, and legroom for the - very rare - occasion we have more than just the two of us in the car). She also wants the car to have AWD, which the Venza does. We do get some snow here, but I grew up in Wisconsin and managed to make it through winters in high school with the Ford Contour. Finally, she'd also like for it to be a Ford, so that she has the option to drive either car to work. That's negotiable though.
The AWD requirement is obviously the big issue that limits my options, especially in the price range I was looking at. The Venza is worth about $16K, and there's roughly $14K (3.5 years) left on the loan. So I could definitely save a decent chunk of change. We'd lower our monthly payments and likely save on insurance and vehicle property tax as well. Gas is debatable if we're ruling out smaller vehicles.
With all this in mind, what are your thoughts? Should I not even bother, and just keep the Venza? Or are there any recommendations for what I could look for? I don't think I'm going to sway my wife on the AWD or space requirements, though if anyone could help me out on the AWD especially, that would be great. :) That being said, if anyone still thinks there are good options out there that'll save us a little more money each month, I'm more than willing to explore.
Thanks in advance!
TL;DR: I have a car that's more than I need. I'd like to replace it with something more Mustachian, but my wife insists on AWD and similar size. What are my options?