Hello, fellow Mustachians,
I have a burgeoning first-world dilemma which I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on.
My wonderful in-laws are getting a little older and have realized that they don’t drive as much as they used to, and when they do drive, they’re nearly always together. So they’ve made the decision to get rid of one of their cars. Being extremely generous, they have offered us the car as a gift. The car in question is a 2013 (possibly 2014) Ford Edge, very nicely appointed, very low mileage, and well maintained with no issues.
We currently have two cars, a 2009 Honda Accord and a 2012 Subaru Impreza hatchback (yup, facepunch away). If we took my in-laws up on their extremely generous offer, we would sell the Accord and use the Subaru for our daily driving (we carpool 90% of the time) since it would get better mileage than the Edge.
My question to you, dear reader, is would you take the Edge? They are offering it as a complete gift; we would only pay the $10 gift vehicle registration fee. The Edge and the Accord (which the Edge would be replacing) have very similar fuel efficiencies (22 city, 31 highway). Insurance will be slightly more per year for the Edge, but the increase will be nominal.
My big problem, though, is that I feel strongly (and perhaps irrationally?) that we shouldn’t own an SUV. I was all set to say that we shouldn’t take the Edge because its MPG is worse, but then I checked, and it’s really not. I wanted to say that insurance and registration fees would be much higher for the Edge, but they’re not. I wanted to say that the car was so HUGE, but it’s actually shorter than our Accord.
To be clear, neither of us would consider purchasing an Edge (or an Accord or such a new Subaru, for that matter, but those are holdovers from our pre-mustachian days). Before this offer came up, our plan was to own both our current vehicles for several more years (5+), and then perhaps trade in the Accord for a small electric for commuting. However, I think the calculus changes a little when the vehicle being offered is free and the additional ongoing cost increases are minimal. We’d end up with a great vehicle, and we’d add at least 4 years to the date before we need to get a new vehicle (The Edge is 4 years newer than the Accord), and we’d pocket the proceeds from the sale of the Accord.
Our current Subaru fits our very limited outdoorsy needs, and also does a pretty darn respectable job as a cargo vehicle too. The Edge is certainly bigger than the Subaru, but I’m not sure the difference between them is big enough that the Edge would solve a cargo transportation issue we currently have. (E.g. it won’t be able to fit 8” boards in it, so we’ll have to tie them to the top, same as we currently do with the Subaru.)
I recently got an Edge as a rental car on a business trip, and really liked the way it drove and handled, particularly in relation to the Accord. (Gah, that thing’s a BOAT and it doesn’t even have any useful cargo space. But I digress.) We’re hoping for little ones in the very near future, so the Edge would probably be easier with car seats, but we would have made it work (and work fine, I’m sure) with our current cars.
I can’t even say why I don’t really want this car; when I look at what I’ve typed above, the case seems pretty clearly in favor of accepting their gift. Maybe I’m afraid having another newer model car will spoil us, and get us used to newer, flashier, larger cars. Mostly I think I’ve just been so anti SUV for so long that I really dislike the idea of having one even when the things I dislike about them are no worse than my current vehicles. In this case, it seems my dislike is irrational.
So, what do you guys think?