We are on the hunt for a newer vehicle. We'd like to get a 1 year old Dodge Caravan with Stow-N-Go seating. The reason we're looking at a newer vehicle is because our car is likely now going to start costing us more to repair than it will be to purchase (read finance) another one. Hubby has less than 6 months of payments left on the car. I'm not so keen on getting into another car payment right away (my Ford Freestar is paid off) but we may have no real choice.
Prices fluctuate all over the place for the type of vehicle that we are looking for. There are so many variables to look at: price, financing term, interest rate, number of kilometres on the vehicle, etc. If we could get what we want for less than $100 bi-weekly, I'd be ecstatic. I'm not holding my breath though.
The prices between new and used are really not all that different in some cases. However, I know that a $20,000 vehicle new can quickly turn into a $26 k or $30 k vehicle with options and extras. If we buy used at $19,999 there are really no add-ons to make it more expensive.
My preference would be to fix up what we already have, pay off the remaining car loan, and start saving the car payments to put a substantial down payment on another vehicle in a years time. I'm not so sure I can hold back Hubby from buying as soon as possible though. I talked to him about it, and we devised a plan. Or so I thought. Somehow we haven't ended up on the same page. The good news is, Hubby hasn't actually gone out to test drive anything. Yet.
I've decided to tell him that once we've saved up $2000 toward the purchase of a newer vehicle, I won't give him any grief about buying. this way, we'll both be happy. He won't have to wait for an entire year, and I will have felt that we paid for part of the vehicle in cash. I'm hoping it's a compromise he's willing to go for.
We are both in the same boat. My car cannot be taken out of town and I just paid off Husband's truck. He is chomping at the bit for me to purchase a newer car. I want to get at least $4000.00 saved and this will be a while. I also love not having a car payment. In 33 years of marriage we have always had 1 or 2 car payments. I hate them.
ReplyDeleteI would look for something older. I recently (6 months ago) got a 5 year old car for a nicely reduced price because of depreciation. The best part is the maintenance we have done is nothing worse then the maintenance we'd have to do on a brand new car.
ReplyDeleteSnap judgment call here: Buy something older then 1 year. I'm personally planning to keep the car I have till it is at least 10 years old if not older.