Christy and I have never owned a new car. The cars we did have, until 2013, averaged around 5-7 years old when we bought them. We aren’t really car people, so buying something new and fancy never really registered in our minds as something we needed.
I always bought clunkers. My very first car was a Buick I bought from one of my sisters for $100. A week later the engine blew because the oil pump went. Next was my beloved Ford Escort hatchback that was in the shop every month and had to have it’s engine and transmission replaced at separate points in time. Then I had a Toyota Tercel. It burned oil and I had shoe strings tied to the inside handle that went out the top of the window so I could pull the string to open the doors because the exterior handles were broken. Since then I’ve always had a company vehicle for work and drove whatever Christy was driving for personal.
Christy had a little better taste and a little more luck with hers. Both of her cars, pre-children, were Saturn’s. It’s a shame those stopped being manufactured. They were quality cars and we never had any issues with them. It was a sad day when her Saturn was driven away in front of our house, but it’s hard to put car seats into a Saturn and not have your knees and chest against the dash.
When we sold the Saturn in 2007, we bought our first minivan – a 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan. It was a decent vehicle. No bells or whistles and it had it’s issues, like the air conditioning going out at the beginning of the first summer, but it got us through those early years when we had kids. Eventually though, the day came where the repairs were mounting and it just wasn’t worth it, so we traded it in.
This time, we were at our peak. We were doing better financially, both income wise and with our discipline, than in any other time in our lives. We probably could have bought a brand new van like most people and maybe we would have if we had been as irresponsible with money as we had in the past, but like I said, we aren’t car people, so spending $30,000+ on a vehicle wasn’t even on our minds.
This was in 2013. We liked the Dodge Grand Caravan that we already had, so we went to the local Dodge dealership. They had a 2012 with 36,289 miles on it, that to us, was pretty damn fancy. It had a touchscreen stereo with a hard drive, a flip down screen with a DVD player, AV connections to play video games on the screen (which we’ve never used), Stow & Go seats and even electric controls on the drivers seat. It was like we just stepped into the future.
It was a nice van, but it was out of our price range. They were asking $20,770 for it. I asked the salesman if they could come down and that we didn’t want to go higher than $16,000 after the trade in. He did his little song and dance where they go “talk to their manager” and come back with a counter offer. He came back, but his counter was that they couldn’t lower than $18,000 something after the trade in. I said “Well you know what we are looking for and our budget. Let me know if you come across anything that will work for us.”.
I was probably about 2 miles down the road when he called me and asked if we could have a deal at $16,495 and I said yes. I was happy that I got the van that we wanted for the price range that we wanted, but I was a little pissed that he let me get in our van, drive down the road and make me turn around and drive back to close the deal. I guess they get so many people that cave and exceed their budget that they thought they could squeeze more money out of me.
After putting $5000 down, taxes and registration, we walked away with a balance of $13,156.25. Unfortunately, we didn’t have cash so we had to finance. This is the first time we’ve had a car loan and we didn’t like it. We focused everything on that loan just like we did our credit card debt years earlier and got it paid off within a year.
One funny thing that happened is, they drove the car around, and when the salesman and I went to look it over before I left I saw that the floor mats were gone. I said “What happened to the floor mats?”. He said that vehicle didn’t come with floor mats from the Enterprise rental they bought it from and the set that was in there was for while they were showing it, to keep it clean. I told him that I bought a van with floor mats so they need to go get me some. His mouth dropped a little and he went and got the mats. Anytime I brought it in for service the next 6 years after that, if we see each other he greats me and asks how me and the van are doing. I think that interaction with the mats may have made an impression.
The point is, if you have a budget set in you head for a large purchase, or any size purchase for that matter, don’t be afraid to walk away. If you don’t stick to your guns, you could find yourself in a financial mess that may be hard to dig yourself out of. If you do, and your budget limitations are reasonable for your end goal, you’ll end up getting what you want without the financial strain.
We held our ground and because of that we have positioned ourselves, after years of hard work and not squandering our money to satisfy the opinions and impressions of others, so that the next vehicle we purchase could be paid for in cash.
How important are vehicles to you? Do you need to have a new car every 5 years? Do you buy with cash, finance, or lease? Or do you just buy what you need to get from point A to point B?