Help me! I just bought a Ford Explorer

[Moronic Money Monkey]

So I recently (before finding MMM) purchased a 2016 Ford Explorer XLE. I'm basically just using it to drive 16 miles round trip to work every day. I will get some use out of it to transport the family on the weekends - wife, kid and dog.

I have owned the car for 3 months and it has already depreciated about $5000. Value of the car is currently about $21,500 if I were to trade it in at a dealership. I have about $7000 in equity on the vehicle (owe about $14,500).

I now feel like I'm driving around in a giant inefficient douche mobile. Should I trade the car in for something more reasonable? What should I do?

[FIREby35]

I bought a used Lincoln Navigator a few months before I found MMM. I couldn't take driving around in a car I knew was so stupid. I sold it after a few months, accepted my sunk cost losses and bought a 4k Prius. I then saved a ton of cash.

Get what you can, cut your losses and move on.

[Louis XIV]

"I now feel like I'm driving around in a giant inefficient douche mobile. Should I trade the car in for something more reasonable? What should I do?"

Because you are. As to what you should do, that's up to you & the reasons why you initially bought it.

I'm sure others will post with the usual groupthink, buy a Japanese econo-box & use it sparingly. Rationally, they probably aren't wrong & I'm a member of the Japanese econo-box gang myself, but you bought this car, presumably because it's the one you wanted.

A world where every decision is purely rational is far too dystopian for my taste.


If you can afford it & it's the car you wanted, awesome. Don't be the richest guy in the cemetery, enjoy your inefficient douche mobile & consider offsetting the carbon.

if your finances are a dumpster fire, sell it & kick yourself hard for buying it in the first place.