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I'm thinking of buying a new car. Not because I want to, because I think I have to. I posted a thread in AI about a problem that has been reoccuring with my 2003 Honda Civic. It's a really lovely electrical problem that has happened 4 times and basically forces me to a mechanic within 30 miles. I don't want to buy a new car but I need something reliable for work. Here's my financial info: Bi-weekly income: $1,455 Total cash: $1,200 Total debt: $1,100 credit card (Was a -lot- higher, I've been paying it down aggressively, like $1,000 of every paycheck goes to it, it should be $0 by the end of the month) A conservative estimate of the trade-in value on my car is about $4,000. I'd be looking at something in the $15,000-$20,000 range and taking loans out for the difference since I don't have a lot of money for a down payment at the moment. The other option is to keep paying for repairs on the Civic. So far, the one electrical problem has cost me $800. The connection to the Crank Position Sensor keeps going out and they think it's a connection issue now - the wires are now soldiered to the unit and I'm picking it up today. To replace the unit would cost $1,000. My question to you guys: do you think I should get a new car now or just keep paying for repairs and hope for the best? I had planned on buying a new car in the spring when I had a bit more cashed saved up but the drat Civic's electrical problems are making me think that an earlier buy date is necessary.
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Oct 22, 2009 19:17
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 22:39 |
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dreesemonkey posted:I understand how frustrating it is when cars break down so I can see where you're coming from. I assume since you didn't mention anything about it, the car is paid off. Here's the thing, I need a reliable car and at this point both myself and the mechanic have zero faith in the car. I'd rather sell it now when I can get $5-6,000 rather than sell it as a parts car for $1,000 when it won't start and the repairs are getting costlier and costlier. I've never had a loan. I've had a credit card for 4 years and that is literally the only thing on my credit report. I'd like to some day buy a house and I need some way to build my credit anyway. I make $58,000/year before taxes. I was quoted 7.75% APR for a $14,505 5 year loan at $293 a month which assumes a bare minimum ($2,000) down payment. The loan I'm getting allows you to pay it off early without penalty. My take-home monthly income is $3,330. Using the 20% rule, I can afford over 660/month for the loan; double what the payment actually is. Additionally, by the time the payments kick in I'll have the Credit Card paid off and about $3,000 in savings. This month alone I've already pissed away $300 on repairs for the car. Including the 90,000 mile maintenance I've spent $1,840 on this car for the five months I've owned it. That's $368 per month. I've done some research and found other people with the same problem my Civic has and they haven't been able to figure out a solution that will work. The problem keeps happening regardless of what they replace. It's time to sell it while I still can get some money for it. The reason I have so little cash on hand is because I've been paying down my credit card to the tune of $1,000 every two weeks. I incurred a lot of CC debt due to moving expenses combined with my Ex-GF screwing me out of a couple months of rent and the entire deposit to my old apartment. I usually have around $3-4k cash on hand but my job is extremely stable so I feel comfortable getting the CC debt eliminated while having about a grand on hand. Like most people coming to the internet for advice, I've already made my decision. I'm just posting to make sure the way I'm thinking makes sense to someone else. If this is a horrible idea I'm going to regret, let me know.
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Oct 25, 2009 07:06
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Yup, she was up front about the 90k maintenance not done yet and I worked that into talking down the price on the car.
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Oct 25, 2009 07:52
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an adult beverage posted:I didn't even consider Leperfish's idea of "fix it, then sell it." That makes a lot of sense. I had just assumed in the era of carfax reports that an "engine replacement" might look bad on its history? CarFax will have no idea if you do anything to your car if you don't submit it under warranty, insurance or file some sort of police record. I could go buy some doors or poo poo for my car right now, install it by myself and nobody would be the wiser. CarFax doesn't tell the whole story.
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Jul 31, 2010 22:49
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shredswithpiks posted:If you have a dealer do the work (outside of warranty) don't they normally submit all their work to carfax? I just bought a 2000 Jetta (daily beater), the dude printed of the carfax for me and it was like 4 pages of "VW dealer - scheduled maintenace." That's the emphasis. I bought a car that had serious front-end damage that I didn't notice until later. Completely clean CarFax but it had new welds in several places under the hood and the hood was repainted. If they got random mechanic #4209 to repair it and he didn't report it, it won't show up.
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Aug 2, 2010 22:05
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 22:39 |
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Current car loan: ~$4,500. Current cash on hand: $14,800 I've been holding out for a better investment opportunity but I'm not seeing one. Any reason to not just pay this off immediately and actually own my car? It's a 2008 Lancer GTS. I'm less than 2 years into the 5 year loan due to aggressive payments early on. I have no other debt and have been saving about $1k/month.
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Sep 18, 2011 08:55
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