Opinions needed, clearing house, simplifying

I'll agree payments are not the devil. I don't like them but sometimes they are a necessary evil. But no I wont be keeping the car after the last coupon is gone either.

I look at it like the scenario with my last new car which at the time I didn't have a lot to put down on so I took a 5 year note and carried it for 3. At the end of that 3 years and 100,000 miles it was paid off and worth about 40-50% of what I paid for it. If I had kept the cycle going then I would have had that 40-50% as down payment on a similar car and much smaller/shorter term payments the next time around. But I gave that car to my daughter and bought the BMW instead.

We'll see what happens, on the day of my wedding (first go round) my old man told me, "keep in mind, unless you are very lucky you will always be a) house poor b) car poor or c) kid poor" Now he was just subtly trying to tell me he wanted to be a grandpa so don't wait until I can "afford" kids.

But at the same time my "kid poor" ends next year when my child support payments are over. I'll still be supporting my girl of course but in the monthly budget sheet that frees up a big payment so part of me thinks ride it out another year and have even more to spend, but I dont really want more to spend, I'd rather have a cheaper but somewhat fun car for the commute.

And thanks for all the other suggestions, I know there are some great options in the used market but it defeats the purpose, if I am going to stay with a used/no-warranty car then I'll stick with the devil I know and have wrenched on (and don't have payments on) :)

You make my 65 mile round-trip commute look like a joke, but I've slowly come to the conclusion that a newer car makes sense for my commute from a reliability/less stress perspective, but I'm not sure a new car does. I'd be out of the bumper to bumper new car warranty within the first 1.5 - 2 years, and any remaining powertrain warranty shortly after. For me, I think that a roughly 3 year old car seems to be the sweet spot. It gives the option of going with a CPO (which often gives a better warranty than new), and I could add an extended warranty onto that. That would keep me in the warranty period while I had payments, but without taking the depreciation hit for putting 20-25K per year on what started as a new vehicle. My logic is that if I'm going to kill the value of the car by putting a bunch of miles on it, I might as let someone else take the initial depreciation hit on the car. The other benefit of the used car vs. the new is the lower insurance costs and taxes. Now, this doesn't work for every model, as some used vehicles maintain their value so well that it makes more sense to buy new, especially when you factor in the difference in finance rates and terms.

We did this with our Honda Odyssey, we saved about $8K over what was a very good deal on the equivalent model when new. The cost difference included the HondaCare 7years/100K warranty, which took us from 36K when we bought it to the 74K mark where we are today (we hit the 4 years before the 100K). It worked well, as it gave us 4 years under a warranty, which was plenty of time to pay it off. I like the extended warranty to get you through the "no man's land" where you have a newer car, are out of the warranty, but are still making payments. Once I'm no longer making payments, I can put that money aside towards repairs.

I am going through much the same situation. I have 11 or 12 cars. Most of them are projects of some magnitude. My lady and I commute together ~50 miles/day. We were doing this in a 210k mile '94 Protegé. With trips and other driving, we are putting ~20k miles/year on our main vehicle. I decided to simplify. I've sold my '85 Toyota Pickup, '70 99, '70 96, '85 900T, scrapped a wrecked MX-3, and am going to sell my '91 Brougham. I bought a new Fiat 500 for $15.6k and put $5k down. $202/mo for 60 months at 0%. 4 year/50k warranty. 40+MPG on our commute. It is really nice to have something presentable, fun to drive and 100% not my problem if it breaks.

Go for it. I love knowing that I can play with the cars if I want... or not. It has totally changed my outlook on messing with the older stuff.

I agree with dj06482. You should look at a current year or one year old certified pre owned car. Depending on the brand you can get a warranty up to 100k and someone already took the biggest depreciation hit for you. Finance it for sixty months. The rates are so cheap it makes sense to keep cash in your account instead of rushing to pay off what you know is losing value by the minute.

You promised to call if you ever wanted to sell that Miata, but I didn't realize it could be so fast!

SVreX wrote: You promised to call if you ever wanted to sell that Miata, but I didn't realize it could be so fast!

I really want to keep it, its sorted so nicely right now. It will only go if I decide to get a new car, otherwise I'd rather keep it as the DD and let everything else go. A co-worker of mine has been hounding me for it which is the only reason I say I have a built-in buyer but if you really wanted it back I'd give you first dibs at what I have put into it.

Sigh, the Yugo threw everything off....tipped the scales on my project overload :)

Are those 3 series really that cheap? I didn't see any tourings for that money when I was looking.

Well for giggles I stopped on the way home and test drove a Fiat 500. Local dealer is offering some pretty decent deals on them. Sadly it just was not inspiring me to open up my wallet. Although it's outside budget I'd like to drive an Abarth just to see if its any better. Not that the 500 was bad (sport model) it was just meh. Didn't feel like it wanted to be driven in anger. Might not have helped that I drove there in the Miata, which despite being over 20 years old and having 200,000 miles is just so much more fun to toss around. Also going from the miata with an ECM short shifter the 500 felt like stirring porrage, I hope someone makes a short shift kit for those.

Ah well, part of me was hoping to love it, part of me was hoping I wouldn't so part of me is happy and part of me is sad.

chandlerGTi wrote: Are those 3 series really that cheap? I didn't see any tourings for that money when I was looking.

I've got it priced a little low for a quick sale, already have a few buyers lined up if I decide on something else. But they aren't commanding terribly huge sums either.

Really wish I had a use for that Studebaker. What a beautiful truck.

I go through these same buying and purging phases, though it's been with smaller gear like bicycles and cameras. In my experience if you know you run that way, it's best to keep your daily expenses and your "buy/purge" expenses separate. I think you have a bit of overlap here, in the Miata.

The BMW is a sensible enough car for your use - it gets decent mpg, rides nice, is reliable. I would probably use that as a daily until you decide you can't trust it, then dump it in favor of something more economical and newer. But I think you're hanging on to the Miata as a "second daily" just to have an excuse to have both the wagon and Miata.

To be honest I love the Studebaker, and its going to be such a simple resto but time/money needs to go into the Yugo and the Wartburg after that. I'm not giving it away and if it doesn't sell I'll keep plugging away at it.

Not sure about where how the Miata signals overlap. Actually all my auto purchases except primary DD (currently BMW) come from a separate fund of car stuff paying for car stuff.

I hang onto the Miata because a) its a hell of a lot of fun b) when you have to reliably get to work 70 miles away every day and your DD is over 10 years old you'd better have a plan B. The miata is plan B.

ah, I see. Thought the Miata was outside that separate fund.

JThw8 wrote:

SVreX wrote: You promised to call if you ever wanted to sell that Miata, but I didn't realize it could be so fast!

I really want to keep it, its sorted so nicely right now. It will only go if I decide to get a new car, otherwise I'd rather keep it as the DD and let everything else go. A co-worker of mine has been hounding me for it which is the only reason I say I have a built-in buyer but if you really wanted it back I'd give you first dibs at what I have put into it. Sigh, the Yugo threw everything off....tipped the scales on my project overload :)

Sorry to tip your scales.

No I'm not! With the Yugo From Hell sitting in your garage, all is well again in the Yugo universe, and I can rest in peace. My mission is complete.

But call me if you decide to let the Miata go. I'm sure we can continue the cycle of endless enabling!

PM with link to BMW ad, please. Not really in the market but not really out of the market either, LOL.

AngryCorvair wrote: PM with link to BMW ad, please. Not really in the market but not really out of the market either, LOL.

PM sent. I don't want to run afoul of the rules and I certainly didn't mean for this to be an unofficial for sale thread but if someone has an interest in any of the vehicles shoot me an email at jim@misfittoysracing.com

We will consider an RV in partial trade for the Studebaker ;)

Like you, I tend to gather projects and rats that need constant care, until I'm totally overwhelmed and have no time for anything.

Then I chuck a whole bunch of it away....and start over. I've really got to quit that starting over bit.

Time for a small wrench to throw in the works.

140 miles per working day is 40,000 miles per year.

At 25 m.p.g that's 1600 gallons/year. At 45 m.p.g that's 950 gallons/year. At 70 m.p.g that's 600 gallons/year.

At $5/gallon, that's $8000, $4500, and $3000 per year respectively.

You should seriously consider a first-generation Honda Insight. It will save three times its weight in fuel per year, or $5000.

chaparral wrote: Time for a small wrench to throw in the works. 140 miles per working day is 40,000 miles per year. At 25 m.p.g that's 1600 gallons/year. At 45 m.p.g that's 950 gallons/year. At 70 m.p.g that's 600 gallons/year. At $5/gallon, that's $8000, $4500, and $3000 per year respectively. You should seriously consider a first-generation Honda Insight. It will save three times its weight in fuel per year, or $5000.

I am definitely not ruling out the significance of fuel savings in the equation. With no payments the milage on the BMW is not a killer, with payments I'd want something that was approaching if not exceeding 40mpg to offset costs.

There's also the added savings of insuring one car instead of 2 (BMW and Miata, the Stude is on collectors insurance so that's minimal) which is another $70 a month or so saved.