On
“Hey, I just stopped at Jiffy Lube and the guy said they couldn’t work on the car because there’s coolant all over the engine. They said to take it to a mechanic immediately.”
I didn’t think much of it at the time. Or at least right after the call.
Her car had broken down before. And always come back to life. We had talked about the price of fixing the car versus the value of the car. Kelly Blue Book gave us a dollar amount of $1300 in excellent condition. It could at best be considered “good” condition. And in broken down condition? A pile of scrap metal basically.
The maximum we were willing to spend to fix the car was $500. Almost half of the price of the actual vehicle we thought.
But as soon as we realized that the car may not be worth fixing we started the car shopping.
About 6 months ago, I was looking online for cars (just for fun) and noticed that Honda had come out with a Civic Si – but this time in
A few days later the call came through that it wasn’t worth it to fix the car – from the mechanic. News got to my in-laws and my father in law offered to fix it as a “project car”. We just had to cover the parts.
What at first glance looked like we had to purchase another car now suddenly became a choice.
And I struggled with it. A lot.
It was my head versus my guts. I didn’t like it at all.
Here’s a bit of what has been running through my head the past few weeks:
Pros of getting a new car:
-It’s a new car. I don’t expect to have problems with it for at least the next 3 years. And if we do they would all be covered by the warranty. I know who has driven the car, who has owned it and how they’ve treated it. And as much as people say buying a new car isn’t that smart financially – no one really ever mentions the risks associated with even buying cars that are “dealer certified”.
-It’s got almost everything that my wife wanted in a car – except for the heated seats. It’s got head lights that actually illuminate the road, a radio that works and displays the time properly, a sun roof, and most importantly 4 doors.
-We were offered one heck of a deal from a friend of the family. Sticker on the Si sedans is $24K (or more if you get swindled out of it). We were given the dealership cost plus $500. $20,700. Go out and try to get an Si right now. I guarantee they won’t go any lower than $23,000 for you. They’re in high demand, sales people know that, and you’ll have one hell of a time even arguing $1,000 off the top.
-The financing they are offering us is almost unbeatable. 2.9% I can definitely handle. In a situation like this it makes sense to pay down my mortgage first over this car. Of course I would be much happier with a 0% interest rate, but literally the difference comes to a few hundred dollars over 3 years. I burn a few hundred dollars doing less worthy things.
-The car is exactly the car I would’ve wanted for my wife. It’s a stick. It’s quick. It’s 4 doors and reliable. But it’s black and doesn’t stand out. I won’t dread driving “her car” if she wants me to. I have seen families before who are “all sticks (manuals or standards)” – and I thought it was the coolest thing. I also hold people who drive sticks (or who know how) up on a pedestal. Call me crazy, but after driving a stick for 7 years through all that traffic I still love it and wouldn’t change a thing.
-Hopefully she can be happy now in really the only thing that wasn’t “nice” in her life – and that was her car. Now instead of getting made fun of by her friends maybe they can be a little bit jealous.
-We wouldn’t know exactly how long her old Pontiac Sunfire would last – even if it was fixed. And we didn’t know when her dad would get around to actually fixing it. I didn’t want to drive his truck to work anymore. It’s fun to drive every now and then, but every day to work and not being able to even fit it in a parking spot, let alone park it? Last night I filled up a little over a quarter tank yesterday in gas and it was $35. No thanks 11 miles per gallon. If we did wait for the
Cons of getting a new car:
-We were 3 months away from finishing all of the debt on the investment property we own. So close I could taste the extra money. We financed all the upgrades to the condo on 0% interest rate cards and it’s saved us a lot of heartache and also given us a lot of flexibility and freedom that paying a lot of those costs up front would not have. Those are two things we won’t be feeling for the next few months until we get those cards paid off.
-We go from $0 in car payments to at least $375 a month. Insurance is going to go up anywhere between $50 to $75 a month. To round up, this is going to be an extra $500 a month we’re going to have to come up with – where from, I’m not really sure. We’re pretty well spent every month. And this is really what has scared the heck out of me. I know that she has a pretty solid job, and I’m not worried about her – but I’m not so sure of myself. The other day I received an email from Ticketmaster about a concert in May of 2008. I couldn’t believe that they were sending me an email about May of next year! Seriously? I can’t even think of what February of 2008 is going to be like, let alone next May! Maybe I’m paranoid and pay way too much attention to what is going on in the market, but I feel like 2008-2009 are going to be some of the toughest economic times the
-Along with her friends/family being jealous of the new car, I get to be the main hater. I bought the car for her, but I don’t want it for myself. It’s a beautiful car. It’s the reincarnation of my first true car love – my old Si (RIP). Seeing it parked in the garage, and washing it and vacuuming it from time to time, knowing that it probably never sees redline through 3 gears…it’s going to pain me a bit. I know, it’s terrible, people are probably laughing at this right now, but it’s just not my car. And I do it to myself almost as a kind of motivation. The proverbial carrot in my own garage. “Look at what amazing material things you can buy yourself if you work hard enough!” Sad, but true. I am hoping that the novelty of the new car wears off within 3 months. And if not then, hopefully in 3years.
-A friend of mine gave me some good advice about cars. Obviously everyone knows they are a waste of money. But for some of us in this country, they are a necessity. He said that you should only buy a car when your old car is completely unbearable to drive. This will probably stick with me when it comes to my car. But my wife’s old car wasn’t unbearable. It just needed a lot of work and I guess money we didn’t want to spend to fix it.
We will never know how long that Sunfire will run though. For the car’s sake I hope for years to come. We went out and bought the 2008 Civic Si Sedan this afternoon. $22,800 after taxes. We put down $10,000 of my investment earnings and drove it home through an hour and a half of traffic. I’m glad I drove my car out there and I was able to watch my wife follow me home in her new car. From what I remember when I bought my Si back in 2000 – there’s an immediate “love at first drive” that you get when you first drive a car that you really want. Luckily for me I wasn’t driving or riding with her tonight. I’ll stick with my car with no car payment for as long as I can.
So after 2 and a half weeks we made the decision to just suck it up and deal with the financial consequences as they come. How in the world does everyone else do it? They just view the car payment as a necessary evil? I suppose I’m in that boat now too.
The car is perfect. I thought I saw maybe 1 or 2 scratches on it, that ended up being dry water spots from it’s washing this afternoon. It’s got the new car smell and had 17 miles on it. We were told that it was going to have “10 miles or less” on it so I’m sure one of the mechanic boys (they looked like a bunch of kids younger than me) took it out for a bit of a joy ride. That’s fine. It’s in good hands now.
So for this round, my gut won out. The smart financial thing to do would’ve been to take the risk of driving the Sunfire for as long as we could and save as much as possible so that we could buy another beater that could be driven for another 10 years. But sometimes in life you have to live it up a little and treat yourself for working so hard.
Side prayer:
Please don’t let it get all banged up in an accident or any big scratches or dents for at least the first few years of ownership.
Also, you took my first one away from me God. Maybe because I was too proud of it? Or maybe the money earned from the parts sold from it were able to feed hungry families? Either way, do you mind if we keep this one for longer than 2 years this time? I know it’s silly, but at the time it was pretty painful to lose my car. My wife says I’m still mad about it almost 5 years later. It’s possible that I am.
Thanks for your consideration.
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