When you are given a car that you just do not want...

My wife and I were given a 99 Camry when she was pregnant. At the time we had a 70 duster, billion mile Saturn, and the mazda that couldn't fit a rear facing car seat. We pounded another 100k on it, and dumped it when it was a little north of 300k with an unhappy trans. I hated that car with a passion. Would rather get kicked in the daddy bags than drive it. It wasffinancially and family the right plan. Thats when I instituted fun car Friday. Made me feel better about things, and gave me an appreciation of the appliance.

In reply to HappyAndy:

Yeah, good idea. I could not re-gift it to my parents; they live too close together. I already did that once with my brother and still regret giving him a great car almost 10 years ago. I definitely believe in paying it forward when given a chance, though. Probably just pass it to my girlfriend in a couple of years; she has the worst luck with cars and also makes pretty poor decisions despite the best advice she can get...

Again, money is not an issue on way or the other to me. SWMBO is very budget conscious but I think a clear case can be made that it affects our bottom line very little no matter what we do.

I already have some money earmarked for my next fun car just for me, but it will be about 3 years until I actually have the stars align well enough to justify the change from a practical point of view.

Sky_Render wrote: Driving a soulless appliance as a DD makes you appreciate your "fun" cars even more.

I appreciate the reminder. Just the thought of a less cool car has convinced me to keep my e30 for a long time, no matter what happens in life!

I think that I have my strategy for dealing with SWMBO and her family: A baby changes EVERYTHING and NOTHING is more important than a happy, healthy family. BIG thanks all around.

In reality we live in the city, use public transportation a lot and have the dough to either uber or hire a car for almost anything we need. Total miles driven are usually 4k a year in mostly sporadic errands or day trips. I am retired and will be doing the parenting so I want something easy but I only drive 2-3 times a week, probably a little more in the future though.

So ... how "free" is it under $2015 rules?

Dusterbd13 wrote: ... Would rather get kicked in the daddy bags than drive it...

That is what I fear the most, and not just for myself but also from the wife. She is one of us and moving to an appliance might trigger some existential crises for her.

The few times I have driven it or similar I did not hate it at all; I cannot recall any specific thoughts beyond the weird dash layout and that I did not adjust the seats much so that it was not out of shape for the owner to move back. They are not overly large for a big guy (6'2" 300lbs) nor for a rear facing seat in the back, but undeniably better suited to the task than my e30.

Can't anyone tell me that I can still be a cool Dad even if I drive around in rolling Bob Costas repellant? I guess this is growing up...

The fact that you seem to have enough income to make money a non-issue leaves me out of this conversion completely!

slantvaliant wrote: So ... how "free" is it under $2015 rules?

I wish! It would suck to compete in but be easy to make the trip there and back!

Sadly, this is an inside deal and would not pass the fair market value test. I will settle for another couple of fun runs in a rental for next year.

Late to the party but I'll join the chorus.

Same thing happened here back in the mid '90s, except for the baby part. Mrs. BDT bit the bullet and drove the Honduh (Accord in our case) for about 18 months until the opportunity presented itself to pass the car along to more needy relative. The car was a life-saver for its subsequent owner, who kept it for another 10+ years.

In reply to ebonyandivory:

Understood, but you are not actually correct!

I know that my particular circumstances are not average and therefore I do not always have a well rounded perspective of my own. I really welcome all input and I recognize that money is still an overwhelming important factor that keeps coming up and cannot be ignored completely. It is not the biggest factor to me but I am not missing the advice here that it does matter on several levels.

Trust me, I did not grow up with anything and constantly remind myself that making poor decisions could quickly land me right back where I started!

I've got an 8th Civic, and as much as I hate IMA (I have the hybrid), it's not bad to drive. I have an 18mm Si rear bar, it goes in with some new brackets and bolts and it made a huge difference. Made a huge difference driving in wind too. It got blown around a lot before. Get that or a 22mm Progress bar, and add some camber bolts maxed to about -1.75 and it's pretty fun to drive. Autocrosses pretty quickly too (have paxed 3rd locally). No tire wear from the camber (55k miles on the tires).

I was in the exact same situation several years ago. An overbearing relative "persuaded" me to take a free car. It unfortunately is a perfectly good vehicle that puts me to sleep while driving it. 99% of the population would love it because its soft, cushy and care free. I had the option to sell it (maybe I should have done so, though it was over 100k) but it costs me nearly nothing and basically its a DD/mileage pig.

In fact I may even start using it for one of the personal taxi apps (lyft/uber) as the car has a ton of back seat space which is never used. (also starting to see tons of these being used as actual taxi's downtown as the crown vics are fading out)

Yes, I hope I didn't come off as condescending in any way. Appogies if I did.

I was just responding to this comment: "FWIW, the money issue is a wash. We have plenty enough for whatever we want in life but we tend to be frugal and conservative with expenditures".

I guess what I'm saying is that the decision must be more difficult for you than me. I'd take that car in a heartbeat and it'd help our family out financially quite a bit.

In reply to ebonyandivory:

Not at all; it is all good. I just want to be clear that I value all opinions and am always looking to learn from people with a different perspective on the issues.

I agree with the responses above. I'd say take the car without hesitation, it's always nice to have a reliable DD. It makes working on projects easier and a thousand times less stressful. Having one appliance in the family won't remove you from your motoring roots.

It's free. As long as it's not occupying space that would be needed for something else, you have absolutely nothing to lose. Some day when your other vehicles are all either taken apart as projects or have an issue and you need a ride to Autozone, you'll be happy to have that appliance.

In reply to bigev007:

I would have to be very careful with any mods or competition abuse but I like the info, thanks!

I have been saying for a while that my next autocross car would be stock class (or whatever they have now, I am out of touch) but I was thinking more like SS or AS versus somewhere further down the alphabet. I never check PAX or compete seriously but always being beat up in SM due to some complicated rule can get old...

I know it is an auto, which works ok for us but probably sucks even more fun out of it. I can live without touching anything under the hood if I can easily make it handle well enough to be entertaining.

I have 3 cars, Mustang, Miata, and Impreza. Wife drives the Impreza, I found myself really considering a souless dirt cheap E36-pile to save the Miata from daily parking in a Metro garage and snow/salt exposure. (decided not to, because I really want to save my money to get a place with a garage)

Sometimes it is liberating to have an appliance type car that you just dont have to worry about at all. Something that, if it gets rusty, you just say fuggetaboutit and get another without any attachment.

In reply to Tmc22:

Good points here, I am listening to the advice!

It will live on a city street, luckily parking isn't too much of an issue around here.

We have been fortunate to not NEED a car right now but with a baby that can change. Wife either takes bus to work, calls a car service but most of the time only needs transport to the airport that gets billed to a client. It would be nice to have a dead reliable transport available at all times. If the bimmer is broken or something I just take a cab, bus, subway or town car right now or wait to fix it for errands because occasional downtime is ok for us; that will be exponentially harder with baby in tow...

Take the car. Not caring too much about it will bode well in your current parking situation where things get banged around on the city street. It will allow you to divert some more funds toward your fun car. You may learn to enjoy having an appliance around. Sure its boring and soul less, but sometimes you just need to get somewhere cheaply and efficiently and it beats the hell out of Patco ;)

If it doesn't grow on you in a year or two then as others noted "something went wrong" and you had to trade it in on something else because you needed safe and reliable. I know a mechanic who will back you up on that if the MIL needs to hear it from a 3rd party :)

Take it and do the following:

1. As others have said enjoy the free.
2. In a year or two buy what you want and:
   a) Keep it as a 2nd vehicle (and believe me once you have kids you will NEED a 2nd vehicle).
   b) Pass it on to another family member.
   c) Sell it and use the cash to buy something else.

A slightly different experience. I bought a car from a friend super-cheap, drove it for 3 years and then sold it for 4 times what I paid for it. He was happy for me. His wife, on the other hand, was not. Don't be surprised if selling it causes some reaction. YMMV.

In reply to tb: Those mods made it enjoyable on the street too. I don't auto-x it anymore, so I had taken them off. It was such a difference I put everything back on (well, except the RA-1's). I would say I enjoy it 90% as much as my e36 328. Sometimes I like it more. Everything I hate about it is related to IMA and the CVT, and you won't have that issue. It's also been almost unbelievably reliable. It's not the most fun car ever, but it beats the hell out of a Corolla or Camry (what I thought you were gonna say), and I like it better than a new Focus or Jetta. As far as appliance go, it's a pretty good choice.

I'm late to the discussion, but if the money aspect didn't matter, I would still take the car. It's rare to very rare that someone will give you a 6 year old car in good condition. I would trade it for something that was fun straight up or sell it to a needy person or family for real cheap to make a positive difference in someone's life. Many of the newer fun cars aren't automatically unsafe or unreliable like in the past. It's also more reasonable to have a fun car as a DD when you drive as sporadically as you do.

The hive has spoken and I appreciate and respect all advice given.

I cannot find a reasonable reason to refuse... it is just a car in the end and cannot change anything in my life drastically one way or the other. I think I will tell SWMBO that I have made my decision and she will accept it.

Of course, there is always a possibility of something derailing this deal and I will not absolutely commit to anything until after Thanksgiving. I always find it good to "sleep" on decisions and give myself time to make up my mind at whatever pace it may need.

FWIW I would probably prefer a Toyota, but am smart enough to not take a VW that is too much younger than I am!

NGTD wrote: Take it and do the following: 1. As others have said enjoy the free. 2. In a year or two buy what you want and: a) Keep it as a 2nd vehicle (and believe me once you have kids you will NEED a 2nd vehicle). b) Pass it on to another family member. c) Sell it and use the cash to buy something else. A lightly different experience. I bought a car from a friend super-cheap, drove it for 3 years and then sold it for 4 times what I paid for it. He was happy for me. His wife, on the other hand, was not. Don't be surprised if selling it causes some reaction. YMMV.

This...

Here's one thing to check. Does a rear facing car seat even fit reasonably in the back? I have a 2012 focus hatch and when the carseat is in the back the passenger front has to be so far forward you cant really sit there. I'm not happy about this, don't know why these cars are designed with such tiny interior compartments. Funny thing is it would be more than big enough for 2 adults and 2 (maybe 3) front facing car seats, but the rear facing ones take up space in the absolute wrong direction.

Means when the 3 of us go driving, its a driver and two rear passengers. Good thing my wife fits ok behind me when I'm driving it. Needless to say we are planning something bigger, especially before/if we have a 2nd kid.

You might find that the civic really isn't a good fit for a family at all. Better to know before than after.

Also, if you already pickup on the manipulative factor, just wait until you're driving their car...