I’m playing with some numbers trying to figure out if something makes sense. Between payments, built up equity (or lack thereof in this case), and repairs the Jetta’s cost me about $2700/year since I bought it.
By comparison, my sister in law bought a new Accord for $18k, kept it for 3 years, then sold it for $13k. No repairs. (18000-13000)/3=$1667/year.
This is turning out to be a great way to justify going to see Jeff at Northtown Subaru. :lolham:
Thoughts? Am I actually making sense or just finding a way to justify what I want? Ever figured out your annual cost of ownership?
I never bothered to figure it out, but I got my 02 prizm in 03 with 6000 miles on the clock for 5500. It now has 46k on the clock and the only other thing besides oil and gas that ive done to it is buy tires. Owning a cheap but rock solid reliable daily that you dont give a crap about is sweet, it just makes playing with other toys that much more fun.
But yeah, I think youre just making excuses to go to the dealer
LOL naw I could sell the wife on a new car in a hearbeat. I’ve just justified enough bad decisions on the past that I’m more cautious now. I’m too good at using logic to justify what I want, so I don’t trust myself.
Maintenance and gas should basically be identical between the Jetta and a Impreza wagon, which is what I’m mulling over. The payments would be a bit higher, but that’s offset by slower depreciation and no repairs for 3 years and probably waaaay fewer repairs thereafter. But that’s a gamble.
Plus a reason that I’m looking is because the wife is going into her first winter of full time work. She’s a speech pathologist doing home car, and over the winter she’ll be driving to springville twice a week. So AWD and way better safety ratings are hard to put a price on when she’s going to be driving down to snow country all winter. But again, probably just justifying a shiny new vehicle.
It’s just a classic “I can make the payments no problem” but “should I make the payments”?
Granted annual cost of ownership is just an educated guess, but if it’s reasonably accurate then it makes a lot of sense.
I dunno, I should probably just drive the jetta till it dies. Should only be a couple of weeks anyhow.
So, I assume that you are still making payments on the '01?
I assume that you have a little “equity” in the car, but I’m still willing to bet that over the next 3-5 year a new Impreza Wagon will be cheaper overall.
Discount fluids, the VR6 will generally be more expensive to maintain (tires, front end, brakes, tune).
When it comes to repairs I know that the VR6 will be more expensive. A coworker of mine had to replace the trans in his '00(?) VR6… $2300 for the 5 spd, and he did it himself. This was ~100k miles and he was a responsible driver as far as “car guys” go. Not too mention that seals and servicible parts are generally more expensive then “the norm”.
Now… I doubt you will have to do any repair work to a new Impreza over the next 3 years… there is anywhere from $2k - 6k in savings (we can berak down an estimated schedule of failure if its slow enough today) over maintaining a 6 yr old “performance” VW.
That’s the thought. Plus financially, the Impreza looks like about 1300-1500 annual cost of ownership vs about 2500 per year for the Jetta. Over like the next 5 years. Plus in 5 years the Jetta would be 11 years old with around 161k. It will have to be gone by then anyhow because I need a reliable car to get to work. (The car would primarily be mine. She likes her Protege, she’d just take the AWD way safer car on high-risk days driving to Springville when it’s snowy.)
It all makes sense, it’s just hard to believe that a brand new car can make sense financially so I’m trying to figure out where my logic is twisted to get what I want.
You sound like you “want” to talk yourself out of it
Brand new definately can make sense sometimes… this absolutely appears to be one of those times.
Also, look for a new “used” '07…?
~3 years ago we picked up my sister’s Mazda 6 “used” with 6200 miles on it - while it was still in its NEW model year. So she rec’d full warranty & incentive for ~$6k less then a lesser milage model.
As long as the payments are affordable, I would do it in a heartbeat. Not only will the Suby be more fun for you to drive in the summer at autocross, ect. but the AWD will dominate in the winter.
If she has to go to Springville to do homecare, she will run into some very sketchy snow in the course of the winter.
I don’t know if you’ve ever driven n AWD car in the snow with snow tires, but they are machines. The amount of control is unparalleled
Here’s the part that I want to choke myself for: I financed the Jetta for 6 years with the intent of paying it off in 4 making some double payments. Well I haven’t started that yet so I’m still scheduled for 3.5 years of payments. I owe almost $7k on it, so part of this hinges on getting that or close to it on trade. I’m thinking that’s a pipe dream, but we’ll see. I may stop by the dealership on my lunch break.
Wait, how’d she get warranty and incentives on a car with 6k miles? Was it a new car that the dealer had never titled and dumped miles on?
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Yes.
An old friend of the family told us about this idea many years ago. He’s a GM retiree, and has done this kind of thing for years because it was cheaper then using his GM discounts (back when).
Basically you buy the demo model, or the model that the sales guys were DD’ing, or cars that were driven from another dealer to this dealer, etc…
Generally speaking, new (2007 in this case) car with >3k miles can be sold as used. Though, I do not know if there is any specific guidelines for the dealers to reference - i’ve only been involved in this once personally.
Here’s the part that I want to choke myself for: I financed the Jetta for 6 years with the intent of paying it off in 4 making some double payments. Well I haven’t started that yet so I’m still scheduled for 3.5 years of payments. I owe almost $7k on it, so part of this hinges on getting that or close to it on trade. I’m thinking that’s a pipe dream, but we’ll see. I may stop by the dealership on my lunch break.
So yeah, no equity in the Jetta.
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ewwwwwwwww.
Lesson learned?
You’ll have to find out what the 01 VR6 is going for at auction. Theres at least one member on this forum that will know, i’ll look for his name after lunch.
