Author Topic: Fix AC before Selling Car / Not Sell?  (Read 12367 times)

Megatron

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Fix AC before Selling Car / Not Sell?
« on: September 27, 2013, 08:57:53 AM »
My reliable dear old 2004 Honda Civic Ex coupe has taken me across the US on mutiple road trips and countless rock climbing / camping trips. But in the last 2 years, I rarely uses it other than the occasional grocery trips or going to visit my parents on sundays for dinner(5 miles away, ~4x a month). I take public transportation / bike to work (30 minutes). my insurance is about $40 per month. Edmunds has it at

True Market Value
Trade-in?   Dealer Retail
$3,591   $5,437

I'm thinking of selling it but don't know if it's even worth the trouble and it would be nice to have the option of driving when I can to somewhere in the crazy Chicago winter or when my fiancee is using her car. The thing is, the AC doesn't work and would cost about $700 to get it fix. So should I sell it? It still runs perfectly and I've never had to fix anything on it other than oil changes and filters and a battery change.

my fiancee has a car that we use for grocery but it's 2013 new and financed and she would lose a bunch of money if we sell it. she bought it before I found MMM and started doing MMM Jedi mind tricks to her. she's slowly converting over though.

 

« Last Edit: September 27, 2013, 09:00:42 AM by Megatron »

Mr.Macinstache

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Re: Fix AC before Selling Car / Not Sell?
« Reply #1 on: September 27, 2013, 09:23:06 AM »
Use KBB to value your car, it's more accurate IMO.

Selling it is a personal choice based on your finances, but if you do decide to sell, do it as-is. You will not recoup the $700 you put in to fix the A/C (which seems really high - get a second opinion on that repair.)

Also when you have such a trusty car and plenty of savings, its hard to give that up for a few grand.

Forcus

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Re: Fix AC before Selling Car / Not Sell?
« Reply #2 on: September 27, 2013, 09:46:47 AM »
Even KBB / NADA are sometimes not representative as a market (although you have to start somewhere). If you told me I could find a nice 2004 Honda coupe for $5400 at a dealer around here, I'd laugh. Not in a million years. On the flip side, I couldn't get $3k out of my reliable, paid for beater, so why get rid of it? I'd say for you, if you really don't need a car, and since you are in Chicago, it wouldn't hurt to get rid of it, but it also wouldn't lose much value if you had a true need for it and wanted to hold on to it (registration / insurance / etc. aside).

As far as the AC goes, if it is fall / winter in Chicago when/if you go to sell it, I wouldn't fix it. If it's spring / summer, it will be hard to unload at a decent price with busted AC.

But here's my main concern - you said your fiance will lose a bunch of money if she sells her car. That's true. But she'll lose even more if she holds on to it, makes every payment, rides it in to the ground or tries to sell it later, etc. Let's say if she was able to sell it now private party she would lose $4k. Ouch. But if she pays it off, we are talking 5 digits of loss. It sounds like, all things being equal, you guys should be sharing that nice, reliable, paid for Honda (making some assumptions here) and just eating the cost of a lesson. Now if that Honda has 300k miles and she has to drive 100 miles a day for work , etc etc, that might not be workable. But just food for thought. I did something similar in 2005. I bought a new Focus (~12,500), tax, title, license. Then I decided I needed a house. Well I got lucky and ended up selling it to someone for that same $12,500 after I put 5k on it. So my lesson only cost me 1-1.5k. It's possible you are selling yourself short and maybe could get more than you think.

Mr.Macinstache

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Re: Fix AC before Selling Car / Not Sell?
« Reply #3 on: September 27, 2013, 10:42:35 AM »
From my research, KBB is more accurate in and closer to market pricing. NADA value is a lot higher and is used by primarily by lenders.

dirbyVA

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Re: Fix AC before Selling Car / Not Sell?
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2013, 11:23:36 AM »
If you have a reliable/trustworthy mechanic I have had good luck recently buying AC repair pars from discountacparts.com and having my mechanic install for me (saved several hundred off the price that he would have paid for the parts).  I have fixed 2 cars and both are holding up fine (going on 3rd year for the first one).

madmax

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Re: Fix AC before Selling Car / Not Sell?
« Reply #5 on: September 27, 2013, 01:21:49 PM »
But here's my main concern - you said your fiance will lose a bunch of money if she sells her car. That's true. But she'll lose even more if she holds on to it, makes every payment, rides it in to the ground or tries to sell it later, etc. Let's say if she was able to sell it now private party she would lose $4k. Ouch. But if she pays it off, we are talking 5 digits of loss. It sounds like, all things being equal, you guys should be sharing that nice, reliable, paid for Honda (making some assumptions here) and just eating the cost of a lesson. Now if that Honda has 300k miles and she has to drive 100 miles a day for work , etc etc, that might not be workable. But just food for thought. I did something similar in 2005. I bought a new Focus (~12,500), tax, title, license. Then I decided I needed a house. Well I got lucky and ended up selling it to someone for that same $12,500 after I put 5k on it. So my lesson only cost me 1-1.5k. It's possible you are selling yourself short and maybe could get more than you think.

+1, agree with Forcus completely, the new car is a classic example of a sunk cost, I would sell the new car and keep the reliable Honda with little depreciation and low monthly insurance as well.

Megatron

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Re: Fix AC before Selling Car / Not Sell?
« Reply #6 on: September 27, 2013, 02:54:06 PM »
Thanks for the advice, I was leaning towards keeping the car since I won't get much monetary value for it but I wanted to check the oracle to confirm. I will talk to the SO about getting rid of that large car note.
thanks again.

 

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