To trade or not to trade?

[darcane]

Originally Posted by spacemanspif

What money? He is planning (hoping) to sell the Cruz for $10.5k, use the money to pay off Cruz and take the rest to buy a Honda outright. Leaving little, if anything, left to be invested. I'm not one to wheel and deal cars and would rather have a car I know the service history on than take a step backward into an older car that could result in becoming a money pit. I say stay the course, especially since the Chevy shouldn't cost you anything in maintenance for a long while. Higher insurance does suck, have you tried shopping around for a new company lately?

He still has $7000 to pay on the Cruze, plus interest. I assume that is the money that could be invested...

That will go a long ways towards maintaining the old car. Plus, with no loan, he is not required to have full coverage insurance for further cost savings.

I had car payments once and hated it. Loans on rapidly depreciating assets are awful financially. Never again.

That said, maintaining old cars is certainly not for everyone.

[OBD1Kenobi]

Everyone is going to have their own opinion of what you should do, but the only opinion that really matters is yours. Make a list of all of the pro's and con's of both situations and weigh your options based on that. If you want to know anything about a car that you may have in mind as a replacement for the Cruze, this is a great place to get that information. The people here can help you take a look at their personal long term maintenance costs of some of the types of cars you may be thinking of and you can use that information to help make your decision.

Good luck with your decision.

[mikeyjd]

Originally Posted by darcane

He still has $7000 to pay on the Cruze, plus interest. I assume that is the money that could be invested...

That will go a long ways towards maintaining the old car. Plus, with no loan, he is not required to have full coverage insurance for further cost savings.

I had car payments once and hated it. Loans on rapidly depreciating assets are awful financially. Never again.

That said, maintaining old cars is certainly not for everyone.

Good point on the full coverage insurance savings thats what another 1k per year?

[roosterk0031]

He's already lost (WAG)$7-10000 in depriciation, done and gone, the only way to get it back is to keep it a long, spread that deprication out over 15-20 years, not a big deal, own a car since new or almost, know the history, know the maintenace, maybe not pricesless but hard to put a price on.

One of the worst finicancial mistakes I made wasn't buying a 2002 Montero Sport, but trading it off with only 55,000 miles. If my wife was still driving it today it would have been a good choice.

[Xist]

I actually enjoy fixing things, I just wish that I could afford it better! According to Blue Book, the value of my Civic was below $2,000 and I paid twenty-seven hundred. Over a thousand more is difficult to accept, but that had a great deal of work done to it. The dealership showed me a list of parts that they replaced on my Forester before I purchased it. Then my battery died and hoses and tires started rotting.

I still regret not having a full inspection done before purchasing my first car almost fifteen years ago. The cars that I had inspected did pretty well. I do not know what to think about Bacon, I remember specifically looking at the tires before purchasing, but one year later they started failing from dry rot.

How much less would you pay for insurance? Honestly, I think that is the most important detail. You really should be able to trust the Civic's engine, but there are plenty of other components, like the transmission, that are not necessarily worth fixing or replacing.

must see

We would love to! Where are the pictures?!

[fusion210]

I for one wouldn't buy that hx you posted. When there is a massive repair/maintenance job like that engine replacement, you have no assurance of how well it was done or if they're even telling the truth about the engine. People, even professionals often make mistakes. Stripped threads, wrong clearances, wrong torque values, using cheap parts, basically the whole 9.

But I'm all for beaters! Like the youtube show Roadkill (amazing show, check it out if you haven't seen it) I flock to beaters. If you're into saving money and not maximum mpg, that's where it's at. People will sell running cars for sometimes as much or less than scrap value. Then you drive for free. I paid $220 for my 1998 neon in 2007, it had 115k miles and a bad automatic transmission. It also was modified. I sold off the wheels, lowering springs, and cold air intake to end up with a free car. I then swapped in a five speed for under $100 thanks to a popular junkyard chain and it ran great! Over the years I have put more money into it, but nothing crazy. I even did the timing belt and water pump for $40 thanks to an ebay deal. It was a Pittsburgh car, I did the fuel line, evap line, and all brake lines with new fluid for $30 including one man bleeders. Rust free lines for under $2/ea at the junkyard.
Including replacing the seats, interior panels, major maintenance stuff but excluding oil/gas/taxes/tires I have less than $500 into the car. Over 8 years and 70k miles.


If you're going to buy a beater, be extreme and turn a wrench!

On the other hand, I think the Cruze is an incredibly nice car. Great safety, pretty good mpg, quiet and pretty big for a one person commuter. I would not recommend a cheap car to someone who can not do their own repairs.

[fusion210]

Originally Posted by roosterk0031

Why would a 96 Honda have 5 years life and a Cruze only 10 years. No reason the Cruze won't last 20 years 300,000 miles. I had a 03 Malibu that was running strong minimal repairs(under $1,000) to 265,000 when wrecked a couple years ago.

How much are you going to budget for the Honda's replacement in 5 years?

If you have the 1.4 turbo, a few mail order parts and tune can bump the performance. 1.8 not sure what you can do.

Aside from a major design flaw or bad luck, I have total faith in the longevity of cars built since 2000. 150k miles should be nothing.

In the past and current, keeping a car with high miles has been good times. But with the incredible advances in safety and efficiency, I think those days are over for cars made today. Electric cars are making good leaps, both in efficiency and lower prices. It's just going to be a matter of time when gas is high again and electric cars are cheaper to drive.

[ME_Andy]

Thanks guys. I'm gonna talk to my significant other and see if she has strong opinions. I'll probably just keep the Cruze for now. There's a cherry G1 Insight in Texas for $6000-some that will be attractive after I pay off a few more thou.

[fusion210]

I think you're on the right track though. If I was you, I'd keep hunting autotrader.com, ebay, and craigslist for a deal.

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by spacemanspif

What money? He is planning (hoping) to sell the Cruz for $10.5k, use the money to pay off Cruz and take the rest to buy a Honda outright. Leaving little, if anything, left to be invested.

The money that he's currently giving the bank every month. At the moment he has a car and has to make monthly payments on a loan with $7k in principal. After this swap he'll own a car... and not have any payments to make. Other costs will go down too.

That's not even a wash, it's a win. If he can sock away that same payment every month then instead of disappearing into the car he already drives, it'll be a pile of cash that he owns outright. It can go towards repairs if needed or eventually turn into a newer car, a pretty nice trick.

Or he can keep writing a check every month for the Cruze.