I’ve been doing a car-free experiment for over a year, though never thought it’d end up being a permanent lifestyle. I live near downtown in a largish city that I moved to for its combination of urban life and proximity to nature. I used to bike or take the bus to work, but under Covid conditions both modes of transport have become less appealing (biking means showering and changing in a cramped locker room upon arrival, the bus was often infuriating before the health concerns). In recent years, I also spent much of my vacation time overseas or visiting friends/family in other parts of the US by plane, neglecting the nature in my backyard, but current conditions look like most vacations will need to be road trips for a while. I also changed jobs right before the pandemic, from being 1 mile from home, which was a pleasant walk, to 4 miles--which requires wheels of some sort.
Although I'm WFH currently and there's no telling exactly when we’ll be going back to the office, at some point I’m going to want a car that can get me to work (4 mile commute currently) and which can facilitate outdoor activities on the weekends and longer road trips (higher clearance for forest service type roads, decent cargo space for car camping, bringing a mountain bike/paddleboard, etc.) It would also be nice to have something that’s comfortable enough for 6-10 hour drives.
I used to have a Honda Fit which is a great city car, but it was not good for the mountains and could have done better with snow. I’ve narrowed down to the Subaru Crosstrek. Ideally I’d like to buy a 2 to 4 year old, low mileage used Crosstrek, however it seems that depreciation for Subarus is very mild (and this is especially true of the base Crosstrek). I’m not sure I see much advantage to saving 4k when it means 60,000 miles. The base model is around 23k new. I have enough cash to buy it without touching my one year emergency fund. I wouldn’t finance any portion unless the interest rate was less than my HY savings account rate. I am a little uncomfortable buying something so expensive when the economic conditions are so uncertain, but frankly unless I were to be walking distance to work again, a car seems like a necessity (moving closer isn't appealing as I have crazy cheap rent).
I wanted to get a reality check from Mustachians though to see if I’m making a big mistake or if there are other cars I should consider. I’m not great mechanically so I worry about buying a higher mileage car due to the likelihood of needing costly repairs from a professional. Ideally I’d plan to drive this car into the ground or until ICEs are banned, whichever comes first.
