OK my frugal friends, I need a bit of advice.
The scenario:
A few years ago we bought my wife a 2001 Toyota Corolla. It's cosmetically a 18 year old car, but has good tires and is in excellent mechanical condition. Total cost @ 4k. 140k miles
My daily driver is a 2009 Honda CRV, also about 140k miles. We have a small payment on it that I pay extra when we can.
My Dad has a 2009 Infinity g37x, 85k miles. He's going to buy a new car at some point this year, and would like to offer us his for cheap. Cheap=$3k. He could sell it/trade it in for more, but he'd rather offer us a leg up if it makes sense for us.
The insurance if I do full coverage for a while on the infinity is $200 more per year. We carry liability only on the Corolla. Gas mileage is roughly the same. It would be a nicer car, but maintenance would be arguably higher. I'm pretty sure we could get $2k back out of the corolla with little effort, and have the savings to pay the rest to Dad. He's not concerned about 'when'.
I also try to commute on my paid off motorcycle when the weather is nice, cuz it gets 70mpg instead of 20. Sadly that's not a year round thing in CO, or I'd try to not even have a 2nd vehicle.
Is this a completely dumb idea? A decent price on a 8 year newer model?
Your sage advice is appreciated.