Hello all, I appreciate any help and advice you can give me.
I have been reading the blog for several months and have put many 'best-practices' into action. I'm doing a lot more home/auto maintenance and repairs on my own and have upped my 401k saving to speed up my FI date. My problem is that I made a mistake in 2013 by purchasing a brand new Chevy Cruze for $16,000 AND bought a 100,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty for an additional $2,000. Looking back I wish I hadn't done this, but all I can do is make smart decisions moving forward.
I found a 2006 Chevy Cobalt for sale, 140,000 miles and listed at $2,500. On the one hand, it would be nice to sell my Cruze for roughly $12,500 and use the proceeds to pay off my remaining $8,000 car loan AND purchase the Cobalt in cash AND have roughly $2,000 in my pocket. However, I worry that this is actually just a short term way of thinking and that the necessary repairs/maintenance on the Cobalt over the full time frame will actually trump the remaining balance on my auto loan.
Since my Cruze has a full btb warranty, there will be no repairs for roughly the next 5 years. Also the loan is at 1.59%, which is below the rate of inflation. While it would nice to be debt free, I feel like I might be doing myself a disservice by selling off a 3 year old car just so I can stop making monthly car payments. As long as I continue to maintain the car, I can conceivably drive this for the next 15 years, if not longer. Over that full time-frame, I'd most certainly spend more by purchasing several older cars and maintaining them.
Again, I appreciate any help or advice!