Over many years of paying close attention to this, I’ve realized that I don’t know anyone that’s ever gotten a bad deal on a car.
How could that be possible? I know I freely admit that I once got a horrible deal on an Acura TSX because I was young and stupid and really wanted it. But when I ask around, everyone I know got what they describe as a good, great or decent deal on their cars.
Obviously this is untrue. Car dealerships wouldn’t be in business if they were giving everyone a great deal. Car advertising wouldn’t make up what seems to be 75% of all the advertising in the world. Cars are really very rarely a good deal, especially when they’re new and leased.
It seems that either everyone I know is lying, or they need to believe that they got a good deal to justify their purchase, or they legitimately don’t know the difference between a good deal and what is really just the price of the car. This will forever amaze me.
Recently, I had a lease come to an end. Against my better judgement, I had two leased cars in my driveway. This happened because we were in a period of flux when we were trying to have our first baby, and knew we were going to have another baby quickly after that. I didn’t have a clue what kind of car we’d need, so I sold off our two paid off commuter cars and leased a Sonata and a Forester. I got good deals (wink wink).
Fast forward a few years, the Forester is gone because we quickly realized that attempting to transport two kids, two pack and play’s, two strollers…right there the car was packed to the roof and we had yet to load the suitcases. I replaced it with a leased Highlander specifically because it’s the perfect size, and it’s leased because kids are gross.
We realized the Sonata was being wildly underutilized. It was a great car, but we weren’t using it to bring the kids anywhere. Neither me nor my wife commute anymore, so it wasn’t serving as our commuter. It also pales in comparison to the Highlander when it comes to hauling anything. Long and short, we had no use for a mid-sized sedan. When I turned it in, we were 10,000 miles under our 10,000 mile/year three year lease.
I’m a big fan of a car serving a purpose. We owned a Prius because we were both commuting, it got insane gas mileage, and most important it allowed a single driver to use the HOV lane. We got the Forester and Highlander because they are safe, easy to get babies in and out of, have extra cargo space, and make for great foul weather cars. The one thing we’ve lacked over the years is a vehicle that can easily transport large items anywhere.
With that in mind, I recently bought a 1987 Chevy C10 for $4000 to replace the Sonata and become my “daily” driver. I don’t actually drive all that much, so it’ll be used largely when I need to make quick runs to the store, or on the occasions I need things like 800 lbs of pool salt. The break even between the layout on this truck and the monthly gas+payment+insurance cost on the Sonata is about 10 months, and I’m automatically transferring $400/month from our checking to our savings account to recoup the layout on the truck.
Overall, I’m really excited about this strategy. Financially, as long as nothing catastrophic happens to the well maintained truck this is a win that will start saving me $4800/year in 10 months. Functionally, I now don’t have to worry about transporting anything I may need to move (the 1100 lb swing set I had to cram in the Highlander last year comes to mind). As a bonus, the truck is really cool for something from the 80’s, and I’m excited that it’s simple enough that I can fix a majority of the issues that may arise.
One thing is certain about this 32 year old $4000 truck….I got a great deal!
Freed by 50 