The last few weeks, since returning from Ohio, we've been on a mission.
A mission to find a replacement car for the car that was totaled by a 16 year old drive a year ago last May.
Daughter is home working full time now. In August she will be commuting to college and working part time and will need a car. #2 Son will have his license by October and will need a car to get to Marching Band rehearsals and performances. One of them can borrow my car but if both need wheels at the same time?.....it won't work.
So we really do need a 3rd car now.
Of course we got very little for our wrecked car since it was 1 year younger than my son.....the son that turns 21 this week!lol
So we took that small check and put it with another small check(Hubs inheritance money from his mother), which gave us a grand total of $3,676.58 with which to buy a car.
This price point gave us a very limited range of inventory locally, but it was enough to give us choices.
After whittling the list of possibilities down to 6 or so, we decided on this one.....
A 1999 Buick Century.
An old person's car. ;-)
Hubs got them down to $4,100 and with the tags, taxes, inspection, etc. it cost us $4,600 Out of Pocket.
So I took $923.42 from the 2011 Savings Challenge monies I saved last year to cover that last bit over $3676.58.
Why we chose this car?
2 of the final contenders were cheaper but had no a/c and way more miles on them.
The mileage on this car was a mere 58 thousand miles.....on a 13 year old car!
While the MPG for this car wasn't the lowest of the contenders, it wasn't bad. It's a nicer, read more substantial, car which is important, when it's your kids in there on the road amongst crazy drivers.
If they are going to get hit, I want something more than fiberglass between them and that impact.
And did I mention it only had 58 thousand miles on it? I can picture the previous owner....an old lady who bought it new in 1999 and drove it to the grocery store, church, bingo and maybe to see the grand kids twice a year. With that low odometer reading, that's about all the traveling she did in that car.lol
I know it's an old car. The insurance will be lower because of it's age and the fact that it's safer because it's NOT a tiny compact car.
We don't buy cars to trade in later so we don't care about it keeping it's 'value'.
This car will be run into the ground. After us, it will be junkyard fodder. ;-)
It needs to last 2 years. 2 years and the younger will be done with high school and on to college or who know?, and the middle child will be done with college and on her own.
At that point if it's still on the road?, all the better. Having to figure out what to do with it will be a happy consequence.
Now if we can just get the daughter out of the car when she isn't working!lol
Sluggy
A mission to find a replacement car for the car that was totaled by a 16 year old drive a year ago last May.
Daughter is home working full time now. In August she will be commuting to college and working part time and will need a car. #2 Son will have his license by October and will need a car to get to Marching Band rehearsals and performances. One of them can borrow my car but if both need wheels at the same time?.....it won't work.
So we really do need a 3rd car now.
Of course we got very little for our wrecked car since it was 1 year younger than my son.....the son that turns 21 this week!lol
So we took that small check and put it with another small check(Hubs inheritance money from his mother), which gave us a grand total of $3,676.58 with which to buy a car.
This price point gave us a very limited range of inventory locally, but it was enough to give us choices.
After whittling the list of possibilities down to 6 or so, we decided on this one.....
A 1999 Buick Century.
An old person's car. ;-)
Hubs got them down to $4,100 and with the tags, taxes, inspection, etc. it cost us $4,600 Out of Pocket.
So I took $923.42 from the 2011 Savings Challenge monies I saved last year to cover that last bit over $3676.58.
Why we chose this car?
2 of the final contenders were cheaper but had no a/c and way more miles on them.
The mileage on this car was a mere 58 thousand miles.....on a 13 year old car!
While the MPG for this car wasn't the lowest of the contenders, it wasn't bad. It's a nicer, read more substantial, car which is important, when it's your kids in there on the road amongst crazy drivers.
If they are going to get hit, I want something more than fiberglass between them and that impact.
And did I mention it only had 58 thousand miles on it? I can picture the previous owner....an old lady who bought it new in 1999 and drove it to the grocery store, church, bingo and maybe to see the grand kids twice a year. With that low odometer reading, that's about all the traveling she did in that car.lol
I know it's an old car. The insurance will be lower because of it's age and the fact that it's safer because it's NOT a tiny compact car.
We don't buy cars to trade in later so we don't care about it keeping it's 'value'.
This car will be run into the ground. After us, it will be junkyard fodder. ;-)
It needs to last 2 years. 2 years and the younger will be done with high school and on to college or who know?, and the middle child will be done with college and on her own.
At that point if it's still on the road?, all the better. Having to figure out what to do with it will be a happy consequence.
Now if we can just get the daughter out of the car when she isn't working!lol
Sluggy
I don't know much about cars but this low mileage is pretty impressive. And if you guys have some money in EF for possible repairs, I think you can easily get couple of years out of this car. Our 19-year old Saturn is on it's last leg but it gave us two years we needed to save some money for another one.Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome. Glad your daughter likes the car! I've had my share or older cars (my newest car is a 99, my first car was a 98... such an upgrade!), and I loved it. It was fairly cheap, and as a secondary car, as long as it passes inspections and all, it is good to go. 58k miles? Wow! I'm surprised the old lady even went to bingo. Haha. Good job on picking your newest car. Sounds like you got quite a deal.
ReplyDeleteI think that you got a very good deal! That is all most like getting a car 3 or 4 yr old car for that cheap. Most cars have that many miles after a few years. Someone obviously took very good care of the car. And good jobs to your hubs for getting the price down!
ReplyDeleteI think you did well. And with care, I think you should be able to get several more years out of this one.
ReplyDeleteI thing you got a great deal! That car may outlast your newer cars.
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