The Car Repair Dilemma

If you haven't guessed, and you would have if you've been reading this blog for awhile, I have a terrible time making decisions sometimes.
I guess it's a fear of making the WRONG decision that causes my indecision usually.

I hate making a bad decision because that leads to even more decisions that I fear.
Sigh.

Yes, sometimes I am a big ball of all kinds of f**ked up-ness.....(that is TO a word! lolz)

After reading all the comments about this potentially $3K minivan repair I am still torn.

Yes, I don't want to throw more money after bad on repairing a 10+ year old vehicle but the one big stumbling block is this.....

My minivan doesn't even have 98K miles on it yet.
Potentially this motor and other major parts is good for another what?...52K miles at least?

On the flip side, it's 10+ years old, gets miserable gas mileage and I don't NEED a car that large since I don't have a business or kids I need to haul around anymore.

And if we use that $3K this vehicle may need to repair it toward a new used car, that amount doesn't buy much of a car, even used.....we'll have to pour more $ into a new used car purchase than $3K.

I went looking around at the local Chevy dealer's site.

Isn't this car cute?

I know....you don't base your car choice on "it's cute".
Besides I probably can't fit my fat ass in the thing, it's tiny!
But the local dealer has one and it's only $12K new.

Off to go window/internet shop........
Such a waste of money, cars are IMHO.

Sluggy

Have I Mentioned How Much I Hate Cars Lately?

First let me state for the record......March kicked my ass.

Except for a few days away in Delaware, it was a sucky month, both financially and personally.
Lots of bills....too many for my taste.
If not for a nice tax refund we would have been into the negative money in March after paying all the bills.

The health is ok but I am not making enough progress on my goals of dropping weight and getting more fit.  It's difficult to see results when you can't exercise much due to breathing issues.

Can't get motivated to do what needs to be done to this house or the many projects I have to do.
I am about at the point where I just want everything that isn't getting completed GONE from the house.  I feel a big donation to Sallie's bubbling up to the surface.... ;-)
At this rate, by the time 4 years from now gets here, I won't have anything to throw away or even MOVE when we leave this house. lolz

My newly fixed, floored, painted and crown molding-ed living room still has no furniture in it.  But the dog enjoys the rug in there to sun herself on nice days.
I'm so glad we had that work done.....for the dog's pleasure. ha!

I guess I am just feeling frustrated and ready for some warmer weather.  Remind me I said that when I am sweltering a few months from now... ;-)

Back to the bills.....
I just tallied up what we've spent on the SUCK HOLE that are cars in just the first 3 months of
this year.

$5,076.35

And that's just repairs; not gas, insurance and the usual monies we have to sink into them.

I just wish you could fix everything car related with duct tape.  My life would be so much more pleasant and richer!

So hating what it costs to remain mobile in this society of ours......

Hubs has decided to just limp along with his vehicle(aka the Death Trap)until August.
When #2 Son leaves for college the Death Trap gets donated(somewhere they will take it!lol)and he'll start driving the 3rd car(that use to be his car before he bought the DT)again.
Then we have to decide what to do with my minivan......the one that needs bodywork or won't pass inspection this time again next year, but doesn't even have 100K miles on it yet.

Maybe we will become a 1 car family by then?
We had planned on downsizing to 2 cars this year, then 1 car once he retired in 4 years time.
Maybe we'll get down to 1 car sooner than we planned.

Lord knows I'll enjoy NOT spending all that cash on the beastly things!

Sluggy

 

2013 Finances Review....Cars are Money Suckholes!

January is the month where I pull out all the receipts, paid bills and such from the year just ended and start going over and analyzing all the data.

I have started the Christmas 2013 Spending Autopsy(will post that later this weekend probably) and the Yearly Spending category totals to see where we need to do better in the coming year.

One of first categories was Car Spending.....Sonya Ann, you may want to cover your eyes while I talk about this one. ;-)

It was NOT a great year at Chez Sluggy for spending in the car category.....

Between a totaled car, buying another "new to us" used car, a rebuilt motor, expensive repair bills(four of them above $400 a pop-one was over $900!) and regular oil changes, parts replacements, we spent $7,186.86 on our "fleet" of automobiles.

Car insurance brought that total up to $10,267.00.

And that doesn't include any GAS purchased to fuel said cars.
bleh.

At least I take consolation in the fact that we got off rather cheaply with the totaled car and having to replace said car.
With what insurance gave us for the totaled one and what the new used car that replaced it cost us, we were only out $1363.42(plus new registration/tags).  Plus our insurance only went up just short of $69 per 6 months with that claim.
But I was sad to see that totaled car go, as it was a great deal and in really good shape, well....before it got hit, it was. lol

The car Hubs bought to replace it has been bad news.  It did fine for a few months but then it developed 2 leaks, one in the oil something or other and another in the transmission.  One is repairable and the other isn't, as it would cost more than what the car is worth. 
Ugh.
So Hubs is having to be vigilant about checking his fluid levels every week and carrying bottles of fluids in the trunk to top off levels or risk having something or other run dry and kill the car.
Don't you love my use of all these fancy technical mechanical auto terms? 8-))

Basically the replacement car has turned into a PITA car and he is making plans on how to get rid of it.  He wants to trade it in and get something else but once the dealer finds out what a fine driving machine*cough* this is, who in their right mind would want to take it?
I said we are probably better off just leaving the keys in the thing with a big sign on it "STEAL ME, PLEASE!" and then report it stolen.

To bad we don't live in a flood prone area, like someone I knew in my 20's who lived at the beach and had a POS old VOLVO.  It had been flooded during a hurricane so it started only running when it felt like it, which turned out to be every 3rd Tuesday and alternate weekends from 11am to 3:15pm. 

She got a phone call in the middle of the night a few months after the hurricane that her car was sitting in the middle of a major highway about 5 miles from her house, abandoned.
Seems someone had stolen her car that evening after she went to bed(who in their right mind, would want to steal an old, rusted Volvo station wagon?!?) but it stopped running 5 miles away and the thieves had just left it there at an intersection and fled.
True story.

But I digress....

If #2 Son goes away to college in the Fall we only need an extra car for 7 more months so Hubs may just limp along with this PITA car until then and then get rid of it, instead of replacing it soon.
I just don't know but personally I am not in a big hurry to throw more money into cars at this point.
As long as it is safe to drive if these issues are kept on top of, I say keep it on the road and keep the money in our pockets.

The fact is all of our cars are now becoming senior citizens of the car world.  My van, which was bought new, has barely 90K miles on it, but turned 10 years old last March.  I don't drive it much as I don't need to haul lots of kids anymore and I never go anywhere, so it should make it through 2014 without a lot of spending on repairs now that we had the rack & pinion work done.  I might need new tires but that's about it.  If it comes down to it, Hubs can use it for commuting, though it doesn't get great gas mileage. 
Should cars start to fall apart again!, we have options before we dig into our savings for expensive repairs.  #2 Son no longer has a part time job or extensive band commitments and I don't need a car to commute to a job, so between the three of us, one job and three cars(that all have issues of some kind), we should be able to limp along until at least the Summer.

The goal is to get to where we only need 1 car but that won't happen for at least a few years yet.

As far as car spending in 2014, I hope to keep it below $8K including insurance this year.

So how was 2013 for you and your vehicles?
Did you spend a little or a lot on cars last year?
(I expect Sonya Ann to leave me a long comment/rant on this post! lolz)

Sluggy

Sometimes I Don't Like Being a Grown Up

This title means I sat down today and paid bills and it wasn't pretty.  But at least it wasn't as ugly as it could have been. ;-)

The second paycheck of the month hit the bank account credit union account on Friday, so I sat down this morning and paid the rest of the bills that need paying this month.
That would include the "monthlies"--electric bill, the credit card bill(which includes most of our gasoline purchases and some eating out).  The "rest of the bills" also includes the non-montlies like a $1197.71 car repair(I can now state for the record that I hate catalytic converters!) and the yearly school taxes(ditto school taxes).  I did receive a 5% discount for paying the taxes before Oct. 1st so it was a mere $1940.81.  I got about $76 off....go me!

After writing out the checks that needed writing, I now have $1246.24 LESS in my account than I had BEFORE the paycheck hit the account.!
Or to put it another way, I just spent $1246.24 MORE THAN the paycheck brought in.

Yah, still wrapping my head around that one!lol

Oh, and that doesn't count the $480 IN CASH Hubs took out of the bank on Saturday.  Ok, some of that was for me for my food budget, but most of it I will never get a single receipt back on what he blew it on.  I am guessing coffee and crap he buys at the hardware store.....crap he HAS already in the garage but he can't find because he refuses to CLEAN HIS WORKBENCH!
End of rant.......

I'll just say here that I am so glad that I put money aside each month for that tax bill(plus the other tax bill that comes due April 1st), plus the car insurance bill which I pay semi-annually. 

If I didn't and I had to basically pull money out of my ass for some of these bills, we'd be in a bad bad place financially....
A place called "Hello Credit Card!, let's put what we can't pay on YOU" and then only make minimum payments and stay in and increase our debt until we end up on Suze Orman's show as a warning to the world on how NOT to handle money, instead of downsizing out lifestyle and spending less on crap or "wants" so we can only be in debt for a short time while we turn our ship and get headed in the fiscally responsible direction.

But still......sometimes I hate being a Grown Up and doing the responsible thing instead of the easy thing or the thing I see other people doing that I know is only going to cause them pain at some point in the future.

But I have my eye on the prize.....the prize of a financially secure retirement.
Well, as secure as it can be considering the political atmosphere in this country. ;-) 

When I retire, THIS is the view I want to have when I have to pay my bills.....but with cuter feet......

Sluggy
 

Car Dilemna......Help a Slug Out!

I've got a choice coming up soon involving cars--buying them and how many.  I'd appreciate any advise/help anyone wants to chirp in with.

We have 2 cars at present: Hubs commuter car for work and my minivan.  I don't work outside the home so my car is only used for errands and such and when we need a vehicle for carrying loads of stuff and/or loads of people.

We use to have a 3rd car.  It was an old Toyota that had belonged to my mother and then my oldest brother.  When he died, we bought it off of his estate for a really good price.  Since it still only had 65K miles on it even though it was about the same age as my oldest child, we had hoped that it would last through the last kid's teen driving years until he went off to college.
But the stupid 16 yr. old driver who hit Daughter and I last May changed all that.  The car was totaled and we got $2,400 from her insurance company which wasn't enough to replace the car....IF we could have found one that old, in that condition, with that few number of miles on it.
And with Daughter leaving for summer job and then college the next month, there was no point in replacing the car then.

Now that we are about to need the 3rd car again, since #2 Son gets his learner's permit later this week(crossing fingers he passes!lol), we have a complication.

Daughter has changed her career goals and what she needs to do to get there.  She has decided that she no longer wants to go to medical school, nor does she want to get a 4 year degree.  She is finishing this semester of college and transferring to the local community college for a 2 year training program and an Associate's degree in Applied Sciences in Nuclear Technology Engineering. 
Basically, my daughter wants to be Homer Simpson's boss.

This new track of her's will have her living at home again full time and commuting to school.  She will need a car to get to school plus she will eventually have a part time job and need a car for getting to work.

#2 Son will need a car for the part time job he hopes to look for as soon as he starts driving.  Plus he will also have music type rehearsals next year he can drive himself to, though he doesn't HAVE TO do this.  Two years out, his senior year, he MAY need the car to commute to a local college, if he does the Young Scholars Program(seniors take college courses for 1/2 a day in this program and they have to provide their own transportation).  At this point we aren't sure if he will qualify for the YSP or if he'll even want to do this(it's optional).  So though he wants a car that's for his use only when he gets his license, he doesn't need one.

So our question is this.....Do we buy 2 cars or 1?

Hubs thinks we should buy 2 junk cars.
He feels that since the older 2 kids had a junk car available for their use in high school, that we should provide a junk car for #2 Son as well.  That the Daughter will need a car in the Fall is definite but he also thinks buying 2 cars(and paying insurance/maintenance/repairs/registrations)is the way to go, in case they both need a car at the same time.

My feeling is just buy 1 car.
If we have the same amount to spend whether we buy 1 or 2, by buying only 1 we can get a better car.
And a better car is a safer car.

Paying insurance on 1 car is less than paying it on 2 cars.
Paying registration on 1 car is less than 2.
Paying for repairs/maintenance on 1 is less than 2.
Those are my financial reasons.

Daughter will NEED a car, but #2 Son won't NEED a car his Junior year.  In the first place, I won't let him drive a car to school every day anyway until he is a Senior.  He can take the bus for free.
The parking lot at our high school is nuts.  More accidents happen there than on our roads in town, because you have all the new/in-experienced drivers in one place at one time and they are constantly hitting each other's cars.lol  Both the older 2 had fender benders with other bad teen drivers in the school parking lot.
I would never buy a new car and let my kid take it to the school's parking lot!!  It's insane....
#2 Son can take the bus and get rides home on days he has activities....or he can ride the bus home and then take the car back to school for his rehearsal days.  We live about 1.5 miles from the school so it's no big deal.

If both the kids have part time jobs and need the car at the same time, one of them can take the minivan.
It's not fashionable but it's wheels to get you someplace.  And I can arrange my needing the minivan schedule around their needs.

As for Daughter's new direction....She will be living at home her 1st year at the comm. college.  Then she plans on moving out and getting an apartment near school.  Any car we buy for her use while living at home does not go with her.  She has been told she will need to arrange her own transportation once she moves out again.

At this point, the spare car can go to #2 Son for his use.  He can use it for his rehearsals, for school or for school and the Young Scholars program, as well as to get to his part time job.

Now if Daughter decides NOT to move out(God forbid!)until her 2 year's of school is over, we can re-evaluate buying a 2nd car then.  Perhaps then we purchase a car that she can make payments toward and eventually buy from us?

Besides the added costs of buying 2 junk cars, when the kids leave home(1 in 1 yr. or 2, the other in 2 yrs.), we will have 2 cars to sell or otherwise get rid of.  I consider throwing money at cars akin to throwing money into a big black sucking hole anyway.

Let me add in that Daughter will NOT be spending all the college money with this new tract, that we had set aside for her educational use.  She has already hinted that any money we don't spend in the next 2 years on room & board since she is now commuting should be hers to use to get an apartment and buy food for herself in Year 2 AND should be used toward buying this car she needs to commute to college starting in the Fall.  If we buy 2 cars she will decide in her own mind that the car we buy for her to commute in is HER car and she'll expect us to let her have the car when she leaves home.
We have told her that any money she does NOT spend on educational purposes is NOT her's to keep and that includes if we use some of the money to buy a car for her use while she lives at home. We "might" bankroll a cheap apt. near campus the 2nd year but we are NOT bankrolling her car needs if she leaves home.

Hubs and I need to sit her down and make perfectly clear about the parameters on this college money.
It is also not being held for her use into eternity.  There is a time limit on how long she takes to finish school.  She can't keep changing her mind for the next 10 years and coming back for more money for school.

So I'm in the "buy as little as possible in cars as you can get away with and then ease into more cars/spending if you truly need it" camp.
Hubs is in the "just buy it all now and don't worry about anything" camp.
But he doesn't do the books around here, I do!lol

So what would you do....buy 1 or 2 cars?
And is there anything I am overlooking in this?
I really need some advise or at least an independent pair of eyes looking at this situation.

Sluggy