Thursday, February 16, 2012

Car buying...do you go with brand new or settle for good and used?

 So, my wife and I have been thinking about replacing our old girl for awhile. That girl would happen to be our good ole reliable Chrysler LHS.

What we are looking for is a car that gets exceptional gas mileage, doesn’t have five hundred billion miles on it, and doesn’t cost ten million dollars.

Plus getting to that point, we have a few other stumbling blocks to consider.

We don’t want to start a payment plan  and if we do, we don’t want it to tax our budget to its limits.

Also, we don’t have tens of thousands of dollars just lying around to throw at any car we want and pay for it in full.

That would be nice it just isn’t the reality that I live in.

So what is a thrifty couple to do?

I mean we could settle for an older model with some extra mileage on it. Then, of course, we have to hope and pray that it will last until Declan’s graduation. (He is 18 months old)

The other option is to go all in. Find the car of our dreams and try, somehow, to fit that car payment into our budget.

Of course, then all we are doing is, for the most part, paying out little for the actual car and more on interest itself.

That is fine and dandy but since the car loses value as soon as you drive it off the lot, that seems like a hard pill to swallow even though many people do just that every day.

Don’t get me wrong I am not saying that those that get a car, get a loan, and pay for it with their hard earned money are doing anything wrong. I am just saying, for some of us, it just doesn’t work.

Plus Dave Ramsey would reach up from the photo below and slap me across the face for going against everything I learned at his conference that my wife and I attended a few years ago.

He, of course, would say buy something that runs and will get you from point A to point B that you can pay 100% for right now.

Then, while driving around in the car you settled for, you can put the money you would have been paying out towards another, more expensive car, into an interest earning account, or pay off your debt snowball, etc., etc.

Those that read this column on a weekly basis, for whom I am communicating with more and more (thank you all), know that I have a hard time waiting for new and shiny things.

Me in a car lot (or electronics department) is like Gollum from Lord of the Rings in a jewelry store. “My Precious”!

Plus there are so many good and honest dealerships in town, where do I even start? 

It is a conundrum that wears on me with each passing moment.

Luckily I have a bright and caring woman taking care of most of the leg work on this situation. I don’t think I have seen a more devoted and dedicated researcher in my lifetime. It is actually pretty cute to see her go through all the pros and cons of every vehicle we even have a passing interest in.

So if you see me out on one of the lots in town, feel free to honk the horn or even stop in and give me your two cent opinion on anything and everything related to a car I am looking at or one that you recommend. Too much information is always better than not any at all.

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