hi folks,
I thought I'd reach out to those of you who enjoy giving advice- my husband and I are in the market for a "new to us" car and I'd like some different points of view on a few ideas I am kicking around. Here is some brief but essential back story-
1. We are planning on moving from Oregon to VT, where we are from. We've lived in Oregon for 3 years. In Oregon my husband has been commuting to work by bicycle, however in VT (at least for now) we'll be moving back into the house we own, which is (gasp!) 25 miles from either job. We both will have a 50 mile total commute/day each, and not to the same city. I know this is awful but hopefully it's a short term situation. When we finally figure out where our new jobs will be and can organize ourselves, we will likely be selling our house and moving to rememdy this situation. However, for right now, we are high mileage drivers. Of course, a top priority is fuel efficiency.
2. We've been living a pretty soundly mustacian lifestyle since moving to Eugene, partially inspired by this blog. We've always been frugal but dialed it up a notch. However, I have been dealing with excessive student debt due to going to physical therapy school. It is impossible to become a healthcare provider without amassing 100,000 in debt. This blog has inspired us to focus in our paying off this debt in a big way, and showed us how it is possible. We've whittled it down to 30,000 in 2.5 years, and currently pay 30-50% of our monthly income on the loans. The 30,000 is at 6.5% interest. This is the cornerstone of our financial plan right now.
3. we drive two sedans, one is a 2004 chevy cavalier with 129,000 miles and is in good shape. The car we will be replacing is a 1997 chevy malibu of 167,000 miles which will not pass inspection in VT due to rust, and is in poor shape anyways, so we need to sell that in Oregon and replace it before moving home.
There is a lot of information out there on good fuel efficient cars, so I won't ask those questions here. We're not too picky and will drive just about anything as long as it is reliable and we can stick our kayaks on it. Two questions for you I would like your thoughts on-
1. I've considered a Prius because of the mileage we'll be driving, however the Prius is significantly more expensive than other cars I've seen. Seems too fancy for us and our history of driving tan Chevy sedans. I've seen I can pick up a decent low mileage used sedan (around 30-70,000 miles) for between 6,000-9,000. The 9,000 prius I've seen has more like 120,000-150,000 miles on it. Doesn't seem like a good deal to me, but would any of you consider paying more money for a lower mileage prius ($15,000 or so?) because of the good gas mileage? Even if we move to one of the cities we work in, the other will still be driving 50 miles/day. I've seen some folks advocate for driving a Prius on this site, so I wonder in what context you think it would work. Again, seems excessively fancy to me, but maybe with the efficiency it makes up for the price.
2. What are you thoughts on getting a low interest loan (I've seen 2.5% from our credit union) for the car and continuing to pay heavy on our student loans, vs. saving up the large student loan payment and paying cash for the car? This is what I am inclined to do because we'd be paying extra 4% on our loan each month, but know many folks rail against getting a car loan on this site, curious to hear the alternate position. We'd be capable of saving enough for a $9,000 car in a few months (we do have some money in savings) but then would be paying less on the student loan.
thanks!