My wife & I have been sharing a car. I never "need" the car so she gets priority. She is helping her mother who can no longer drive. Sharing is getting old now and soon I want to take a road trip and she won't be going with me. We were planning a trip next week but an emergency came up. Her mother now needs a tooth pulled on Monday. Trip cancelled but I would have still liked to go. My wife doesn't like to travel much so I often take trips without her. Anyway, it's time for a second vehicle.
I'm having a few thoughts so I'm looking for input. Here are the significant factors:
- Budget is 5-10k. Not a hard budget but not much reason to go over 10k nor less than 5k.
- Needs to look decent. We are not following all the rules in our HOA, so don't want to upset anyone even more by having a "beater" in the drive. Also, cops tend to hassle junk looking cars more and sleeping in the car on road trips can be more difficult.
- I can work on cars. I don't have the ability to do engine swaps, transmission swaps, etc. Association has 48hr limit on repairs and we don't have a garage. I see many good looking cars with over 200k miles and am thinking this may be an option because of this.
- A hauling vehicle would be nice. We are lacking a way to get things from Home Depot, such as pine straw which we need about 20 bales right now. We're rural living so taking 4 bales at a time in the Prius is hard. Also, it's not so cheap to rent a HD truck because we'd go over the 75 minutes. It's not impossible though so this is a "nice to have" not a "must have".
- A road tripper would be nice. We can switch vehicles though if second vehicle is an automatic. The Prius is great with it's excellent MPG and easy to sleep in between locations.
- MPG isn't critically important because we're not high-mileage drivers. It does still factor in for environmental reasons.
- First car it Toyota Prius. Serves its purpose wonderfully.
My ideas so far:
- A second Prius. We would never need to switch cars this way. However, we don't gain any more functionality. 10yo, 100k miles can be had for 5k-7500k.
- A Honda Fit. With the magic seat, I think this could haul reasonably well. We live in the mountains. Due to lack of power, I'd probably need a manual trans which means wife & I can't switch vehicles. It still gets pretty good mpg. Price is about 5k with 100k miles. Hard to find a stick though.
- A CR-V or RAV4. Better MPG than above with lower hauling ability. Not as interesting, but over 200k runs about 7500.
- A 2wd 4runner or Tacoma. Auto trans, over 200k can be had for under 10k. I use the Prius for road trips. 4wd are almost twice the price for the old ones. (in this area at least). There is also a new looking Chevy Tahoe with 325k miles for about 3,000.
This is sort of like a range between hauling capability and MPG. In many ways, the Prius makes the most sense because I already know that vehicle. It barely needs any maintenance & gets great MPG. However, for not much more money, I can get something that meets some of our needs/wants.
Thanks.