What should we do with our cars?

[ditothegreat]

Hi there, I’m a long time lurker and first time poster looking for some advice on our situation.

My wife and I purchased a used 2016 Scion iA last October, paying ~$4,000 out of pocket in addition to trading in a 5 year old Jeep Compass. The Compass had an open air bag recall issue that Chrysler was taking their sweet time fixing (over a year) and was chugging gas, so it was easy for us to justify in our minds.

The Scion is a great car and has been very reliable and fun to drive. It’s now up around 27,000 on the odometer (purchased with just over 17,000). It gets 40mpg consistently too.

However, I can’t help but feel like we bought more car than we need…or a newer / lower mileage car than we really needed for our situation. We both work from home and use the car for errands in the immediate area around the house. We drive to my in-law’s house which is about 30 minutes away several times a month and I drive to music gigs as far as an hour away once or twice a month. Other than that - we’re not driving much at all.

In addition to the iA, we have my wife’s 2006 Scion tC with just over 103K on the odometer and no problems that we know of. We also have a 2005 Ford Escape with 173K on the odometer. It was the car I drove before I got the Jeep (that we traded in for the iA). I decided to keep it rather than trade it in for the $500 credit Jeep was going to give me for it. I know that was not the greatest idea, but alas… It has been sitting on my uncle’s property for over a year and a half being driven but not as a daily driver. It appears to be okay, except for needing an alignment. We have plans to have it looked over closely in the near future. One thing to keep in mind is that it has been in an accident over a decade ago, my brother rear-ended someone in it and the air bags deployed. The transmission was also replaced at 112k.

We are trying to best weigh our options. Keep 3 cars? Get rid of the Ford, which is worth ~ $300? Sell the iA for ~$10K and keep the two older cars? We did recently get a second dog. Two 70lb pups riding in the iA is not really plausible, though they may be able to fit in the tC, and can obviously ride in the Ford.

Our average age is 31 and our net worth is just over $200K liquid, $350K including home equity.  We’re not in desperate need of money, we’re just trying to make a reasonable, responsible and unwastefull decision.

The numbers are as follows:

2016 iA
Insurance (12/mos): $675 (full coverage since the car is still worth something)
Inspection/Registration: $100/Yr
MPG: 40+ / ~5,000 miles driven this year and $326 spent on gas.
Mileage: Just under 27,000

Pros: great mpg, many years of reliability ahead, fun to drive, additional safety features like backup camera, side curtain airbags, etc.

2006 tC
Insurance (12/mos): $373 liability only
Inspection/Registration: $100/Yr
MPG: 28ish / maybe a few hundred miles driven this year and $55.86 spent on gas.
Mileage: Just over 103,000

Pros: Allows our family to have a second car, my wife is in love with this car, nothing noticeably wrong.

2005 Ford Escape:
Insurance (12/mo Quote): $375 liability only (This is if the car replaces the iA on the insurance policy) OR $312 To add it as a third car to the policy
Inspection/Registration: $100/Yr
MPG: 25/26ish
Mileage: Just over 173,000

Pros: Extra space for dogs and hauling (don’t do much of this, honestly). Car is older so I am much less concerned about keeping it pristine.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and a “what would you do” synopsis.

Thanks!

[chasesfish]

Why can't the entire family sit in the iA?

I'd be tempted to just rock the 2005 Escape for now since you both work from home and don't really need a car.  Save $1100/year, invest the $10,000 (which you're currently giving up $1,000/year that could be made invested in an index fund), then rent a car if/when you're going to take a long car trip instead of taking the Escape.  Use your credit card reward points for the rental

[zolotiyeruki]

Sell the Escape. You don't need it, and it's just costing you money to insure and register.

You might consider selling the tC. How often do you both need to drive at the same time?  If it's rare and avoidable, it may be a good idea to sell one of the two scions.

[ditothegreat]

Thanks for the input y'all. To answer a few questions, all 3 are paid for. We hardly ever drive at the same time but aren't really ready to give up the option to do that. So I guess the question becomes "which 2 should we keep?".

Edited to add that after looking it up, we could potentially get as much as $12,500 for the iA.

[magnet18]

Ditch the escape, as someone who has owned 2 and helped maintain a 3rd, it'll start to give you more issues than you care to deal with

Both of the 2 my wife drove, at one point or another, actually shut off while driving down the road, and neither was super high mileage

Not a low maintenance vehicle, keep the Toyotas

[zolotiyeruki]

Thanks for the input y'all. To answer a few questions, all 3 are paid for. We hardly ever drive at the same time but aren't really ready to give up the option to do that. So I guess the question becomes "which 2 should we keep?".

Thanks for clarifying.  I still say sell the Escape for whatever you can get, and drive your other two forever.

[ditothegreat]

Thanks guys, there seems to be a pretty general consensus here. Just needed to hear if from the mouths of mustachians!