Author Topic: Upgrade my high mileage car for newer model?  (Read 4408 times)

MVal

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Upgrade my high mileage car for newer model?
« on: November 28, 2015, 05:37:15 PM »
I have a 2003 Pontiac Vibe which now has 175,000 miles on it. From what I have heard, the Vibe is a great high mileage car and I should have no problem running it another few years. However I have an opportunity to purchase a 2005 Vibe for about $5600 with only 88,000 miles. I could probably get $2500 for my 03 right now, so I would be out about three grand if I purchase it. I had no plans to buy another car, but this seems like a good deal and chance to get car in better shape.

My current income is $40k a year and my liquid stache is about $10k now. This is all my dad's idea and while I told him I am not interested in upgrading my car right now, I wonder if it is worth considering. Since I told him I do not have any funds I wish to use on a car purchase right now, he wants to buy the car so I can pay him back over time with no interest.

Is this kosher mustachian behavior, or would this be deserving of a face Punch?
What do you think, is it worth it? I had planned to run my current car for as long as I could, but perhaps one with lower miles at such a low price could be an affordable way to extend my time. I actually only paid $4000 for my current, '03 model when it was seven years old and had 100,000 miles on it. So I have put about 75,000 miles on it in 5 years.

Mustachian or face punch?
« Last Edit: November 28, 2015, 06:24:18 PM by MVal »

brotatochip

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Re: Upgrade my high mileage car for newer model?
« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2015, 07:28:26 PM »
Here's your facepunch!  There's nothing wrong with your current car.  You WANT the newer, fewer milage Vibe but you don't NEED it.

Uturn

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Re: Upgrade my high mileage car for newer model?
« Reply #2 on: November 28, 2015, 08:11:12 PM »
If there is nothing wrong with your current car, and the newer one costs more than nothing, you are going backwards.  That is unless you are getting some feature that you NEED, but just don't have in the current car. 

BlueMR2

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Re: Upgrade my high mileage car for newer model?
« Reply #3 on: November 29, 2015, 06:06:50 AM »
There's always a slightly newer car that'll come along.  You can go broke chasing these incremental unnecessary upgrades.

MVal

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Re: Upgrade my high mileage car for newer model?
« Reply #4 on: November 29, 2015, 03:28:34 PM »
I just went to see the car and while it is somewhat nicer than my current car and there's no denying it has more than 85,000 fewer miles on it than my current car, I wasn't particularly inspired to buy it. This would be like eating when you're not hungry just because you think there won't be food later.

Cwadda

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Re: Upgrade my high mileage car for newer model?
« Reply #5 on: November 29, 2015, 09:15:00 PM »
How does the gas mileage compare?

Guesl982374

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Re: Upgrade my high mileage car for newer model?
« Reply #6 on: November 30, 2015, 06:43:48 AM »
I have a 2003 Pontiac Vibe which now has 175,000 miles on it. From what I have heard, the Vibe is a great high mileage car and I should have no problem running it another few years. However I have an opportunity to purchase a 2005 Vibe for about $5600 with only 88,000 miles. I could probably get $2500 for my 03 right now, so I would be out about three grand if I purchase it. I had no plans to buy another car, but this seems like a good deal and chance to get car in better shape.

My current income is $40k a year and my liquid stache is about $10k now. This is all my dad's idea and while I told him I am not interested in upgrading my car right now, I wonder if it is worth considering. Since I told him I do not have any funds I wish to use on a car purchase right now, he wants to buy the car so I can pay him back over time with no interest.

Is this kosher mustachian behavior, or would this be deserving of a face Punch?
What do you think, is it worth it? I had planned to run my current car for as long as I could, but perhaps one with lower miles at such a low price could be an affordable way to extend my time. I actually only paid $4000 for my current, '03 model when it was seven years old and had 100,000 miles on it. So I have put about 75,000 miles on it in 5 years.

Mustachian or face punch?

For 87K miles (175K-88K) for $2,600, I would probably do it as 3.5 cents/mile for "depreciation" is pretty cheap.

The bigger issue here that deserves a face punch is bolded above. 15K miles per year?!!? That's a huge amount. You have two choices, rationalize to yourself why you have to drive 15K miles a year or you can stop and figure out a better way to save some miles/optimize your life.

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Upgrade my high mileage car for newer model?
« Reply #7 on: November 30, 2015, 07:36:17 AM »
I don't think it's worth dismissing out of hand, but remember that lower miles but similar age might just mean more of those miles were "hard miles"- e.g.short trips, non freeway miles, etc.

With cars I personally stick to a "devil I know" philosophy and don't look to replace a car until it's in terminal condition.

bobertsen

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Re: Upgrade my high mileage car for newer model?
« Reply #8 on: November 30, 2015, 09:07:26 AM »
I don't think it's worth dismissing out of hand, but remember that lower miles but similar age might just mean more of those miles were "hard miles"- e.g.short trips, non freeway miles, etc.

With cars I personally stick to a "devil I know" philosophy and don't look to replace a car until it's in terminal condition.

QFT. Years ago I found a car with only 40k miles on it that seemed too good to be true. Turns out it was; those 40k miles were mostly from rural postal delivery.

MVal

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Re: Upgrade my high mileage car for newer model?
« Reply #9 on: November 30, 2015, 09:41:57 AM »
I have a 2003 Pontiac Vibe which now has 175,000 miles on it. From what I have heard, the Vibe is a great high mileage car and I should have no problem running it another few years. However I have an opportunity to purchase a 2005 Vibe for about $5600 with only 88,000 miles. I could probably get $2500 for my 03 right now, so I would be out about three grand if I purchase it. I had no plans to buy another car, but this seems like a good deal and chance to get car in better shape.

My current income is $40k a year and my liquid stache is about $10k now. This is all my dad's idea and while I told him I am not interested in upgrading my car right now, I wonder if it is worth considering. Since I told him I do not have any funds I wish to use on a car purchase right now, he wants to buy the car so I can pay him back over time with no interest.

Is this kosher mustachian behavior, or would this be deserving of a face Punch?
What do you think, is it worth it? I had planned to run my current car for as long as I could, but perhaps one with lower miles at such a low price could be an affordable way to extend my time. I actually only paid $4000 for my current, '03 model when it was seven years old and had 100,000 miles on it. So I have put about 75,000 miles on it in 5 years.

Mustachian or face punch?

For 87K miles (175K-88K) for $2,600, I would probably do it as 3.5 cents/mile for "depreciation" is pretty cheap.

The bigger issue here that deserves a face punch is bolded above. 15K miles per year?!!? That's a huge amount. You have two choices, rationalize to yourself why you have to drive 15K miles a year or you can stop and figure out a better way to save some miles/optimize your life.

I live in a major metropolitan area and sometimes have to drive long distances to various appointments and events. I drive 7.5 miles to work and back daily and usually put about 40 highway miles on it each weekend. Plus, I drive 2.5 hours every few months to visit family in another city. I've probably put more miles on it this year than any other due to a part time job I have about 10 miles from my full time job that I drive to two nights a week, plus once on the weekend.

The only thing I could really eliminate would be the commute to work by moving closer to my job, although this would inevitably mean higher housing cost because I currently live with a roommate and if I moved, I would not be doing that (I'm fairly over the whole roommate thing). Plus, my job is in a high rent area, so it's been a challenge so far to find an optimal living arrangement within my budget.

MVal

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Re: Upgrade my high mileage car for newer model?
« Reply #10 on: November 30, 2015, 09:48:26 AM »
I don't think it's worth dismissing out of hand, but remember that lower miles but similar age might just mean more of those miles were "hard miles"- e.g.short trips, non freeway miles, etc.

With cars I personally stick to a "devil I know" philosophy and don't look to replace a car until it's in terminal condition.

This has been my gut feeling on this issue. The car hasn't given me any reason to doubt its reliability yet, so I'm rather reluctant to change it until it gives me reason to worry. I'm thinking I would be better off saving the money I would have spent on this newer car in the meantime and then if/when my current car shoots craps, I will shell out to get another one. I'm willing to take a chance on my current car lasting another year or two in order to get the benefit of building my savings in that time.

Since I've expressed reluctance to get the car, my dad is now thinking of buying the car for himself and I told him I would perhaps buy the car from him in a couple of years if he still had it.