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Okay, back here to clear couple of points. The car in question is a Honda Accord, that is why it has good resale value. The repairs needed are shocks and struts, strut mounts/boot, alignment, tires, brake. Early wear on the suspension is probably due to the previous owner abusing the car, but obviously these show up after 3 years of me owning it. I have not been back to the dealer, never go there for the repairs unless covered by warranty. The repairs are actually going to be done mostly by myself. I will have to take the struts to a local shop to be reassembled because I am not going to put my life at risk and don't have access to a spring compressor. I will also have to use a shop to do the alignment. So overall I am paying ~ $120 for labor. The tires would also be mounted by whoever sells it to me. I am saving ~ $400 by doing the labor myself, but then I tend to by high quality parts for the car.
For the person who is driving their Astrovan to the ground, great, but nobody would pay you $10K for it. Such is the case with our other car, an 11 yr old minivan with 130,000 miles on it, not burning a drop of oil and being maintained and repaired on a weekly basis but myself. We will keep it until the wheels fall of and then some (probably my teens would practice on it).
The dilemma here is the cost of getting a 7 yr newer car comes to ~ $111 per month. I would be taking advantage of the good resale value of my car. I am not sure how much the dealership would sell my car for or what their profit would be. They inspect the car and buy it, the rest as far as I am concerned is not my problem.
IMHO you are better off fixing the car you have, particularly if you are not in rust country. Tires and brakes are wear items, as are the shocks/struts - you can put in Koni or Bilstien shocks, some premium brake pads, and premium tires (depending on where you are and how you drive, I can't recommend anything in particular without knowing that) and have many more years out of the current car without spending much more on it (probably).
Newer and fewer miles is not necessarily better (new will come with tire pressure monitoring, you have to take it and have to pay for it, but you strike me as the type who can check his own tire pressure) just for example.
IMHO you are better off fixing the car you have, particularly if you are not in rust country. Tires and brakes are wear items, as are the shocks/struts - you can put in Koni or Bilstien shocks, some premium brake pads, and premium tires (depending on where you are and how you drive, I can't recommend anything in particular without knowing that) and have many more years out of the current car without spending much more on it (probably).
Newer and fewer miles is not necessarily better (new will come with tire pressure monitoring, you have to take it and have to pay for it, but you strike me as the type who can check his own tire pressure) just for example.
As noted insurance on the newer car will be more.
i despise the tire pressure monitoring systems. they are wrong 90% of the time on my car. i'm going to disconnect it i think. drives me nuts.
The rule to remember is, the thrill of a new car only lasts a few months, the payments last for several years..
In my case, buying my Outback wasn't the smartest move from a financial standpoint, especially considering the car I traded to do so. (low mileage Toyota Corolla) But I loved the car when I bought it, still loved the car when I paid it off last year, and anticipate another 100K miles of love and good use before it's time to find its replacement.
In my case, buying my Outback wasn't the smartest move from a financial standpoint, especially considering the car I traded to do so. (low mileage Toyota Corolla) But I loved the car when I bought it, still loved the car when I paid it off last year, and anticipate another 100K miles of love and good use before it's time to find its replacement.
when i went shopping for my legacy, one of the dealers had an outback in the showroom with 394,000 miles on it.
Since you have more money than you can ever spend seems like you would have been fine spending some more money on cars
When I retired, I paid cash for a new, very large home. I paid off my daughter's condo, bought myself a new truck, bought wife and daughter each a new car, all purchased for cash. You don't do that by blowing every dime you make along the way...
That's why you spend a life time being frugal, so you can enjoy the fruits of your labor and not worry about unexpected bills or bill collectors chasing you around like many threads I read here.
Some of the replies I see here proves many people really don'r know what frugal means. Those are the ones worried about how to pay off their giant CC bill, and how to stop the bill collectors from calling.
Some people just don't get it, and will flounder in debt until the end...
It's still a free country, one can live how they wish and get as deeply in debt as they want....
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