I wanted to throw this out to my fellow Mustachians to get their opinion on my situation. General google searches of "How To Know When To Replace A Car" provide advice from people who don't necessarily share the same financial mindset as those of us on this forum.
My wife drives a 2002 Saturn SL. We've owned it since new and it has been paid off for nearly 8 years. It currently has 90k miles on it. The car never has been overly reliable. It seems like something has always been broken on this heap, but because it's generally cheaper to fix a car than replace it I've always just repaired the thing. I hate this car, and have since shortly after we bought it. My wife isn't fond of it, but doesn't have the level of annoyance with it that I do (mainly because she'd not laying underneath the thing when it breaks.)
This Saturn started burning oil at 20k miles and runs through a quart every 300-500 miles. Apparently this is a common problem with these Saturn engines due to a design flaw. It never has held an alignment for more than a few hundred miles, which means it eats tires. We're on our 4th set. The gas mileage has been less than stellar averaging around 20 mpg in the city, which is where this car logs 95% of its miles. Over the years I've probably sunk at least $5k into repairs on this car above the initial purchase price.
Knowing that cars don't last forever, for the last few years I've been making monthly "car payments" to myself into a fund that would allow me to purchase a replacement in cash whenever the time comes. I figured we would drive the Saturn until it finally gives up the ghost and has a mechanical failure so extreme it would be obvious it's not worth fixing it. In preparation for this inevitable day, I was thinking that a Toyota Prius would be a good fit as a replacement for my wife's car. She mainly drives to work and back, transports our son to his various activities and runs errands. I ride my bicycle to work year-round. My wife does not and will not ride her bike, and after 22 years of marriage I realize she's not going to budge on this one, so the option of "no car" isn't going to happen. :)
Yesterday I ran into a friend of mine who is a mechanic. His brother recently passed away and my friend is working on settling the estate. His brother had a 2014 Prius Five with 8k miles on it. My friend has gone through the car and said it's in excellent shape. He said he's not interested in making any money on the car and just to quickly be done with dealing with it he would be willing to sell it to me for the balance due on the loan, which is $16k. Looking up the book values and other Priuses for sale leads me to believe this is a pretty good deal as the car is worth between 20-22k.
So, I'm now in a pickle. Our Saturn is still running and I hadn't yet intended to replace it, however I don't know how much longer this car is going to last before something major goes out. This Prius seems like a really good deal, but I'm not sure I want to spend $16k on a car. That seems like a lot of money (never spent over $10k on one before.) I do have the cash so there wouldn't be any financing. My intentions would be to drive the Prius until the wheels fall off like we did the Saturn, so maybe $16k isn't that bad for a vehicle we should be able to drive for at least 15 years?
Sorry for the novel, but I wanted to communicate as much relevant information as possible. What do you think? Should I go ahead and jump on this Prius now, or should I wait until the Saturn completely dies knowing the odds are low I'll be able to find a comparable deal down the road? Thanks in advance for any thoughts or ideas you may have!