What to drive after selling vehicle and before purchasing another?

[incamustache]

 So this may be a very easy problem to solve, but I was just wondering exactly what I should do. So I have a gas guzzling, bullet proof early model tundra with 94,000 miles that I am thinking about selling. It will fetch me about $6000 dollars for a private sell. The tundra get's about 16mpg city and 21mpg highway and I drive around 13000 miles a year. Anyhow, I have calculated it out and getting a vehicle that gets 30 mpg will save me around an extra $1,000 a year in gas only, I will have to purchase a vehicle with same insurance and maintenance cost (maintenance for the tundra is basically $0). After I sell the vehicle to get the funds to purchase a better mpg vehicle (for the same price), what should I drive between the time I sell the truck and purchase the better mpg vehicle ? I have family and friends but all are so busy with there lives they can not take me and drop me off at work. I live in the suburbs of Atlanta so there is no such thing as public transportation. Work is a little too far to bike too in this summer heat and rednecks here like to play "hit the biker". I was thinking I would just rent the cheapest vehicle for a week and drive that and try to find a vehicle as fast as I can. Or I could just delay the purchase for a year and purchase the vehicle with the money saved and then after the truck is sold put the money I got for the truck right back into savings.

   Another thing too, is that after doing the research, this tundra is pretty much as bullet proof as they come for any vehicle, pretty close to a diesel in reliability. A lot get up to 350,000 miles with no problems. I have changed the timing belt and water pump, and apparently that's all this things needs to go another 150,000 miles easy. I know the truck is in excellent condition and its paid for, so it almost seems to me that this vehicle is worth keeping for the next four years just due to the fact that the likely hood of something going wrong is highly unlikely (previous tacoma got 250,000 miles with no major work done, just maintanance). If another vehicle was to have a transmission blow, head gasket blow, yadda yadda, then that is a minimum of $2000 out of my pocket, which would offset the gas guzzling tendencies of my tacoma for about two years. Let me hear your opinions on this. Plus I do like to go camping with my kids quite a bit off in some rugged areas where it is almost necessary to have a vehicle that has at least some better clearance then your typical high mpg sedan, and all these small crossover suv's that are good on gas (rav4, crv, etc..) are quite a bit more then sedans or hatchbacks for the same mileage and year. I'm not trying to justify keeping the truck, but these are real facts and it's good to hear the opinions of others to help me see all aspects of this. Decisions, decisions....

  Thanks

[frugaliknowit]

Start looking at vehicles for purchase now to get a feel for how available they are.  If you feel you can find one within a week or two, put the beast on the market first.

Once the beast is sold, rent a car by the week until you find one.

If during your initial search, you are not finding much inventory, do the purchase first and hold both vehicles until you get the beast sold.

[TrMama]

So, you have no cash or investments that could be used to buy a new car first?

I'm also in the process of switching cars, however I rustled up some cash ($1K from checking, $1200 from a savings account I keep to insulate me from cash flow problems and $4K from selling some index funds). I'll buy the "new" car using that money and when I sell my old car I'll rebuy the index funds.

[incamustache]

 No, unfortunately I don't. I have a 401k but I don't want to nor can I touch that. I have a 3 month emergency fund but it's only for emergencies.  I'm at the beginning stages of investing and recently paid off the tundra.

[TrMama]

Given that your potential savings will only be $1K/year, there is always some risk you'll inadvertently pick a lemon, you don't have cash on hand for the switch, AND you enjoy using the truck for camping trips I'd be inclined to look for savings in other areas of your life before switching cars. Have you posted a case study?

Hang on to the truck for now while you build your stash using other saving methods. Revisit in a year, or when you have the means to buy a new car and then sell the truck.

[incamustache]

Given that your potential savings will only be $1K/year, there is always some risk you'll inadvertently pick a lemon, you don't have cash on hand for the switch, AND you enjoy using the truck for camping trips I'd be inclined to look for savings in other areas of your life before switching cars. Have you posted a case study?

Hang on to the truck for now while you build your stash using other saving methods. Revisit in a year, or when you have the means to buy a new car and then sell the truck.

  This was my train of thought too. By the end of the year this time next year I should have about $10,000 saved. But I still would only purchase a vehicle the same cost or only 1 or 2 grand worth more then my truck, that way the money I saved will still be there or else there would be no point of doing this since the higher price of a newer vehicle would far cancel out any savings in gas with the higher insurance cost and the cost of the car itself.