Hello,
I've been lurking this site for awhile. I'm currently 34 years old and live with my mom. Cheap rent and obviously no gf. I'm pretty sure I had the cheapness disease before I found mmm which sort of brings me to my problem.
I have a 2001 Hyundai Accent with 103k miles that was bought new for me by my parents in highschool. I think it cost a little over 8k. Manual transmission which I had replaced after it hit 10 years and 100k that was not covered because it just barely outlasted the warranty. I've also had two clutches changed. I sorta stopped driving it because I was afraid to drive it after I put like 2000 dollars into it. I should have just junked it then... It runs fine now, but has a lot of sun damage on the paint and a few dents and scrapes. I used it to commute to college and then to work. When I moved back in with my mom a few years ago and realized that I could get to work by biking and train. So I put my car into PNO status and start the engine once a week and make sure to move it a tad so its not sitting on the tires at the same spot. I also disconnect the battery when not in use to conserve charge.
I looked into Metromile and I could probably get a monthly rate of about 20ish dollars a month, but I don't think I would really drive it, but I may eventually need it if say I moved or got a new job or in the unlikely event I got a gf. I'm torn between selling it to maybe Carmaxx or maybe try to sell it privately or keeping it the way it is or insuring it... Right now my mom has a backup van that she lets me use once every other week to go shopping for us or if I need to run a quick errand. It basically sits most of the time too so I figure I'm actually cycling the fluids and charging her battery so...that's a good thing right? lol.
So my questions is...what would you do? I fear I'd maybe only get something like $500 MAYBE from Carmax, but that requires that i register and smog it before I bring it in which would probably be $150. Private seller...I'm not sure I could get more than $1000? Its a solid little car, but I'm afraid if I let it sit for another year or so it may just stop working altogether being constantly outside. I'm not sure my mom wants me to dump my car because she thinks I need to get out more and I don't want to use her van more than just occasionally. To be honest I'm totally fine just being a hermit that goes to work. My greatest fear is that I get rid of it and then need to drop a few thousand on another used car resulting in a net loss...