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my child and I are back home in Hawaii and have finally just saved up enough (1,000) to ship my '96 30mpg well maintained VW here to Maui. Now I'm having last minute second thoughts.
It has new tires, new clutch, high miles, ac, well maintained but 96. I am not mechanically minded, but know the car and altho high miles @ 115,000, it gets great gas mileage. concerned I might buy a lemon here and then be stuck! my thinking is that altho the miles are high - I know the clutch is fairly new.
any wisdom?
mahalo nui loa
115,000 may sound like high mileage, but your car should be good for at least 100,000 more if properly maintained. We shipped over my high clearance 4-wheel drive paid-for vehicle with 195,000 miles on it because we knew the vehicle had been well maintained and we knew we could take it everywhere. I say look around at ads to see what's available just for comparison, but I'd be inclined to ship over your VW.
Your car is worth roughly $1,000 in either location. Spending $1,100 to ship a thousand dollar car makes no sense financially. I'd sell it in LA, save the $1100 cost to transport it, and spend the $2,100 (or less) to replace the car locally. You should be able to get a newer, better car that way.
Your car is worth roughly $1,000 in either location. Spending $1,100 to ship a thousand dollar car makes no sense financially. I'd sell it in LA, save the $1100 cost to transport it, and spend the $2,100 (or less) to replace the car locally. You should be able to get a newer, better car that way.
do you know anyway to sell a car from a distance?
We're already in Maui
the car is in LA
thanks
time and effort make the decision 50/50 I guess?
Think of it another way... if you had a car worth $1,000 (in good condition), would you spend $1,100 to repair it? I wouldn't. When you got done you'd still only have a car worth $1,000.
And if you sold it for $500 in LA, then you'd still be ahead of the game... you'd have $1,600 to spend on a car here, as opposed to shipping it here and having $2,100 invested in a car that's only worth $1,000.
Shipping cars here from the mainland makes financial sense when you see an appreciation in value. A car worth, say, $12,000 on the mainland, plus $1,100 shipping, that is worth $14,000 here is worth shipping.
But a car worth $1,000 there and $1,000 here, adding $1,100 shipping makes no sense at all.
And what I would do, in your situation, is to have someone in LA sell it for you.
OP, you are here in Hawaii. You have some time to look around at what you can buy if you decide not to ship your car over. Figure out what you can afford and spend some time looking to see what kind of vehicles you can get for that price. You say you've saved up $1,000. Does that mean that if you decide to buy a car in Hawaii that you'd have to take out a loan to be able to afford something decent? Using OpenD's analysis, you would have $1,600 to spend on a car here. Do you really want to buy the kind of vehicle that you can get for $1,600?
If your VW is paid for, then paying the $1,000 to ship it makes sense to me because you have new tires, new clutch, etc.
$1,000 cars in Hawaii (at least the Big Island) are generally junk. Look thru craigslist and you will soon see what I mean. Your quality used car is worth more here.
$1,000 cars in Hawaii (at least the Big Island) are generally junk. Look thru craigslist and you will soon see what I mean. Your quality used car is worth more here.
this is what I'm thinking... I am NOT mechanically minded.
all I know is I've paid thousands over the last few years for clutch, new tires (have only been driven 3 months) and the manual mpg is 29-33.
I've check CL and local cars for last 2 months. I'm just not sure what I'd get -either way I'd end up with repairs on an old car - while my vw gets good gas miles at least...plus new clutch etc and tires.
the work you put into the "unknown" of trying to find another car...arrgggghhhh...that's when I was a guy or had a dad or brother or something! mahalo nui loa to all for the wisdom - anybody know a vw mechanic in maui?
$1,000 cars in Hawaii (at least the Big Island) are generally junk. Look thru craigslist and you will soon see what I mean. Your quality used car is worth more here.
Sorry, but the facts don't support that conclusion. I check Edmunds and Blue Book to determine that the value of this car is $1,000 in LA, and $1,000 in Hawai'i.
Besides, if she sells the car in LA for $1,000 and saves the $1,100 shipping, she'll have $2,100 to put into a car here. With careful shopping she can get a decent car here for that.
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