I'm so stressed out! We decided to sell both our vehicles (one is paid off, one loan) and use the money for the one paid off to buy TWO other vehicles so we don't have the loan anymore.
We found someone to buy our van for exactly what we owe on it...GREAT! But now trying to sell our car for enough to buy 2 others...well, not so easy. Of course, no one wants to pay you what its worth! I get it! When we go to buy the other 2, we will haggle too! But I don't like it when they do it to me! lol!!!
We have a couple who is probably going to buy our car so I started looking at what we can buy *if* they do buy it now. WHY OH WHY did I even start to look??? More than half are salvage/restored titles which I will NOT buy and everythings is WHITE out here (because of the heat) and its our least favorite color!
So I've decided I'm not going to look or even worry about what we are going to buy...until we sell the freaking car, then I'll look. Its just toooooo much! My head is pounding and I want to go back to bed...
So my question...have you ever stretched yourself thin but taking on something like this and you had to step back and just take a deep breath? Well, if not, keep your fingers crossed for us. We have never sold and bought privately, only traded thru dealers so this is all new. Thanks and have a great weekend!!!!!!!
Theres other factors I didn't mention on why we can't keep the ones we have, but we can't. So we have to sell them and replace them. Its just a bit much all at once but I'm going to focus on getting mine sold first and then figure out what we will buy next. Doing it all at once is just not working for me! Plus its FRIDAY! YIPPEE!!!
yes, we can deal with one car without a problem, I work from home. yes, i didn't mention the ridiculous high miles either, my car has averaged 10k per year, which is considered low, so hard to think we may have to do higher miles too...ugh.
Used cars are more expensive than they ever have been. I'm noticing that too, since my husband and I are in the market to buy a used car right now. (and we'll only pay cash, so like you, we are a bit stressed about it).
The right deal will come along, just relax. These things have a way of working themselves out. :)
MzKitty!!
I'm sssssoooo sorry!!! I know what you mean!!! I started looking for a car back in April - well - I've been looking for a LONG time but really - only seriously over the last 45 days.
We financed - which is ODD for us as we paid cash for our Grand Caravan and the Honda CR-V - so I knew how much I wanted to spend to keep the payments lower....we ended up buying the Honda Odyssey....
You WILL find what you are looking for and you WILL get what you need. I'm sure of it. You are one smart cookie....IT WILL WORK OUT...take a deep breath!! You'll be fine!!
ETA: the reason used cars are so expensive is because of the Cash For Clunkers program...ALL cars that were traded in were destroyed so the market for used cars went into tank as no one had used cars - they only had NEW cars. Not everyone could afford a NEW car....now a used car is almost the same price as a new one.
ETA: Adam Smith is a bleeding heart liberal. He will say ANYTHING to protect his seat. Here's what USATODAY said - http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2009-08-09-cars-cash-...
Here's another....
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/08/25/used-car-prices-sky...
Part states: Prices have jumped 10% overall and in some cases as much as a third for used cars, thanks not to demand as much as a restricted supply after the government destroyed billions of dollars in assets as part of its Cash for Clunkers program last year (via Instapundit):
Here's another.....
http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2011/10/cash-for-clunk...
ETA: I TOTALLY forgot CARMAX!!!! I looked at several cars from there. And oh yeah - they said the CASH FOR CLUNKERS Program drove the prices up because the inventory shrank....
My BIL owns his own auto shop. When "Cash for Clunkers" came out, it damn near bankrupted his business. Now, he is having issues finding parts for cars. Unintended consequences! Used cars are expensive because they aren't so "used". Good luck! My daughter will be in the market soon so please keep us posted.
Oh my. Sounds like the time to back off and live in your happy place for a bit. Ya know, old lady is going to buy my car and there will be two perfect cars in the news paper the next day! :)
They really weren't joking when they said cash for clunkers really did a number on the used car market. :(
Have a beer, cross the bridge when you come to it, ya know?
When we went down to one car we sold mine to Carmax for the best price. It was a great decision; they offered more than the dealer or any other individual buyer! That doesn't help with your need to get two more cars, but it might help you get the most for the remaining one so you have more flexibility. Good luck!
One day at a time.
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It wasn't Cash for Clunkers that drove up the price - it was the recession causing people to keep their cars longer so that the supply of used cars is lower than demand - thus driving up the price. I cite Adam Smith as my source.
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Adam Smith is the founder of modern economics. He's long dead. You may be thinking of someone else.
"Cash for Clunkers" had an interesting effect on the used car market.
Our van was recently in an accident (rear-ended) and the repair shop thought the insurance company might just total it due to the size of the repair. I was actually upset because the van is worth more to us than what I thought the insurance co would give us (we don't owe anything on it). Well, as it turns out the value is approximately $8K+. This is a 2004 van with 111,000 miles! So no, they didn't "total" it.
I'm just amazed at how high used car values are now.
Hint:
White cars tend to be less expensive than colored cars (strange, but it's the rental fleets, aand govie fleets, and, and, and).
ANYHOW...
Paint Job. Couple hundred bucks.
Sounds to me like you should keep both your cars the one paid and then pay off the other one faster if you can. You purchase older cars and then have other headaches with uncertainty in repairs etc..... Just my opinion though.
When you go for cheaper cars you get what you pay for. They are going to have motor issues, they will have high miles and higher miles, they will have body damage, etc....there are no deals on used cars that are not due to "what" the car is.
I remember going through this when hubby lost his job and we no longer had the credit union. They terminated him on Friday, right before Christmas, and then told him that he needed to surrender our vehicles on Monday or pay them off....what a shocking surprise.
Our car payments were just under $700 per month and the full coverage insurance was $1100 every 6 months. They were really nice cars too.
It was a blessing in disguise though. It started us thinking about how our finances were out of control due to the high pay he was getting. If he was still working there he'd be making at least $120K per year and that would be so nice to have instead of his SSDI that we now live on.
I think starting to realize that life is different now and accepting that you are not as well off as you were, well, it will help you to be more accepting of what you can afford now and you'll be able to accept the changes easier.
First of all, I commend you for only buying what you can afford!!! Even though the reality of what you can afford might not be fun, you should still feel empowered since this is a choice you are choosing to make, and a wise one I might add. But sorry, you probably can't be picky about color. That's the not so fun part about living within your means. Growing up we had crappy cars that left me stranded on the side of the road many times. So I personally would either keep or buy one car that actually functions properly and is reliable, and then save up to buy a second. And since the second would be a backup car, then maybe that one could just be a cheap piece of junk. Or even a cheap mortorcycle, just something to get you from point A to point B (I'm too scared to let my husband buy one, but if it was the only way he could get to work I'd have to reconsider my ban). In college we had one decent car that cost us $7000 and was reliable but not fancy, and then one we bought for $800 off of craigslist that smelled of smoke and the window wouldn't roll up all the way. But got great gas mileage and worked for about 2 years before the engine threw a rod and that was the end of that. I was a stay-at-home mom, so it wasn't a big deal for me to use our reliable car to go save my stranded husband and drop him off at work. After that I just dropped him off at work if I wanted a car that day and other than that he drove himself and I was left without a car. Which sounds like you can do since you work from home. Now we have two medium cars (one cost $5500 and one cost $12,000), one from Craigslist, and one from Ebay. Neither are fancy, but both are very reliable and we take good care of them. Everyone in our neighborhood has nicer cars than we do, but the great part is that we own them outright and we never worry how we're going to make a car payment or waste money on interest. College is now behind us (we scrimped and just paid off the student loan last month, yipee!) and we are now doing very well financially, but we still have to play by the rules. We are currently saving up to replace one of the cars, since the mileage is getting higher and we don't want it when it starts nickel and diming us with repair needs or leaves us stranded. We could get a loan for a much nicer car, but part of the reason we're doing well financially is that we avoid debt like the plague and always have. It's not fun being patient, but it's peaceful. I love being in control of my money, and not having it control me.
Just wanted to wish ya luck! We've been looking for a newer vehicle for a while now and a lot of them are salvaged titles or crazy high miles. It's a good thing we're not in a hurry, we're planning to sell after we buy. Are you going to be able to live without a car for a little while?
