Selling a car: is this wise?

[SteveinMN]

Somewhat in the spirit of awakenedsoul's post on selling her house, I've been thinking about whether I should trade down with my car. I'd like to hear the SLF brain trust's wisdom on this. I'm sorry this post is kind of long. Here's the deal:

The car: 2003 VW Jetta Wagon with a diesel engine and manual transmission. Bought new; 95,000 miles now. Mileage is 40-60 mpg depending on the temperature and trip length. The car has some small scratches and dings. It's 10 years old and I take care of it, but I don't baby it.

So why sell?
- I just don't use the car much. It often sits in the garage for 2-3 days in a row.
- This particular model with its low miles is worth a bundle. Even though it's 10 years old, I could sell it tomorrow for at least $9,000. That's not craigslist wishful thinking; that's the history of this model.
- It should be cheaper to drive something else. Parts and service for imported cars are almost always more expensive than domestic vehicles. And though my fuel mileage would drop about half, by driving so many fewer miles, that's less of an issue.
- It would net us some cash. Think of it like profit-taking on a good stock investment: the value of this car is in excess of our need for it. I could buy a different car with 10 years and 10,000 miles on it for around $4,000. It might need some maintenance right away and I'll buy winter tires for it, but that still lets me pull $5,000 out of the Jetta. But see below.

Why not sell?
- The Jetta is comfortable even on long trips and very efficient. Yeah, that's not unique. But it's not universal, either.
- For me, a car is not merely Point-A-to-Point-B transportation or a rolling living room. I really enjoy driving and the Jetta is lots of fun to drive!
- I've maintained the Jetta by the book from Day One. I never cheaped out on it, because the plan has been to drive it forever. Short of an accident, I easily should be able to drive this car another 10+ years.
- I've seen other people drive. No offense, but short-hop driving and late braking and all is very hard on cars. Many people defer maintenance until a light goes on in the car. People DIY with understanding what they're D'ing... You can easily buy someone else's problem.
- We don't need the money. As far as we know. Yet. We're doing okay on my wife's income. We know some expenses are coming -- major appliances, water heater, windows someday, etc. We have a good-sized cushion (EF, savings); the five grand from the car would be a drop in that bucket, but it is 2-3 months of living expenses. I have not yet derived any income from my business, but whatever there is will not be huge.

I do draw a line between frugality and cheapness. I also believe simple living is not merely a matter of driving the cost of living down to the lowest possible level. So, given all that, what do you-all think?

[Tammy]

That's a tough call. I really value quality and efficiency, so I would keep it until I had to trade down to get the cash for another need. But I would also make this our only car. Having just one vehicle for the 2 of us and living 15 blocks from work has saved us thousands every year.

[Polliwog]

You have a very reliable car with your Jetta and it holds good value. I would probably keep it since you stated money is not a pressing need. It is a backup in case something happens to your wife's car. You didn't say, but I assume your wife has a car? You mentioned you could buy another car and bank some cash. However, you might inherit a bunch of headaches from someone else. I think the reasons for keeping the Jetta outweigh the reasons for selling.

I bought a new Jetta in 1998 and absolutely loved the car. I sold it in 2004 because my son bought me a new Mercedes for my 60th birthday. (He was doing very well at the time). Now I am in a similar situation with my Mercedes - do I keep it or find something with better mileage and lower maintenance expenses? Not sure what to do.

Good luck on your decision. BTW, SteveinMN, you write so well. I always look forward to your posts.

[Float On]

I wish you were selling it a few weeks ago when I was looking for something.
If you decide to sell it be ready to let it go quick. So that is a decision I would think about for a few weeks.

[bunnys]

It doesn't sound like you're driving it enough to warrant a 2nd car at all. If you sold it, I'd recommend you try and go at least 6 months without replacing it. Then you'll have time to adjust to the new lifestyle. Or, if this is the better car, sell the other one and keep this one.

If you went down to one car, you'd save a ton of money.

[SteveinMN]

Thank you, ladies. It also is very kind of you, Polliwog. :)

My wife does have a car, a 2010 Kia Soul which has been troublefree over two years and 20,000 miles. We are carrying a promotional-value note on that car and should be done with that in another year and a half; maybe sooner if finances continue to work out.

The genesis of my thought was a thread not long ago in which people were discussing the expenses of a second car. I know my car is not being driven often (or much), but it is handy to have something that can swallow a sofa or a garage full of junk or building materials or four people with a wheelchair and a rolling walker (the Soul can do none of these) when we need it. It is useful to have wheels so that I can run errands while my wife has her car at work about 15 miles away. My wife sometimes needs to visit other offices or clients and mass transit where she works is spotty at best. I have thought about my dropping her off and picking her up most days and just letting her have the car on the days she knows she needs to be elsewhere, but she doesn't always get much notice for those appointments. I'm still thinking about it, but my conclusion so far is that it would be less expensive monetarily, but it would not be simple. I also don't know how much transportation my business will require in the near future. I've shifted the focus of my business so that I don't have to do so much shooting on-site on someone else's schedule, but I don't know if I will need it much more in the future than I do now. If needs don't change, going to one car might be worth it. Or maybe we wait until we need to sell or replace one of the cars.

If we were to keep one car, I'm not sure which we'd keep. The Soul is smaller but gets a little more than half the fuel mileage of the Jetta. But it also is not ten years old with the items one has to replace on a ten-year-old car. One point in the Jetta's favor is that the on-line resources for diagnosing problems and maintaining the car are lightyears ahead of what is available for the Soul, so maintenance and repair costs may be more competitive because we can get the right repairs done for less.

This is not something we need to do right away, so I'm happy to wait and see what others have to say about it. Again, thanks!

[Dhiana]

Personally I would keep things as they are right now.

Considering the massive amount of vehicles that will be considered totaled due to Sandy, the east coast will be looking for a huge amount of new and used vehicles. It will probably be worth it for a LOT of used cars from around the country to be shipped east. Your replacement car choices will become limited very quickly. So if you are going to to this do it very quickly or wait a long time to ensure the totaled vehicles aren't being dumped in your market.

VWs are good vehicles that hold their value, sometimes sitting tight is the best option :)

[Selah]

If you need a second car, even if you don't use it much, the fact that you've taken such good care of it works in your favor, of course. Also, the older it gets, presumably the cheaper it becomes to insure and license/register. If it is a diesel engine, those things are supposed to be good for several hundred thousand miles, aren't they? You could just hold onto it, baby it, and drive it lightly for another twenty years if you wanted to. Sooner or later your wife's car will be paid for, and then you could put her payment money in a fund towards replacing her car for cash when the time comes, a la Suze Orman's technique, and bingo! No more car payments, ever.

[rodeosweetheart]

I agree, this is a tough one. I think if I really needed cash, I would sell the Soul (that doesn't sound good) and go to being a one car family, and when wife needs to go to work, she drives the Jetta, and you rearrange your schedule to suit the worker of the moment.

That's what we did for 6 years when we went to one car.

I would not selll the Jetta because when I was paralyzed after being in a coma, I sold my beloved VW Beetle because I could not shift with my left foot. Lo and behold, six months later, I could drive again, and I have missed that car on a daily basis. I MEAN DAILY, and I drive a nice little Yaris with better gas mileage, but still. . .

I did not get nearly as much for the Beetle as I should have, and I would hate for you to miss the beloved Jetta:)

[awakenedsoul]

Incidentally, I kept my house! It's much less expensive to heat, cool, and pay property taxes on than the ones I found. It's also a short bike ride into town, and there are no association fees. From reading your pros and cons, I'd keep the car. You've taken very good care of it. Many people don't. You could buy another used car, and it could be a lemon. That happened to my friend, and she was miserable. As Selah said, the insurance and registration will continue to drop in price. My parents keep their cars forever. They drive very little. They save a lot of money that way. I have a 2004 Kia Rio that I drive just enough to keep it running well. It has 120,000 miles on it. I bike the rest of the time. I do the 30,000, 60,000, and 90,000 mile checks and servicing. It's been an awesome car, and I don't think I would sell it to buy someone else's used car. As my mechanic says, I'd be buying someone else's problems. With your car, you know what work has been done. You don't need the cash. If someone is selling their car because they have a cash flow problem, they probably didn't have the money to maintain the car.

[SteveinMN]

Thanks, everyone!

The consensus seems to be that the Jetta is worth keeping -- and that the real question is whether dropping to one car rewards us sufficiently to do it. Actually, at halfway through the Kia loan, we may net more "money-not-spent" by selling the Kia, saving what interest there is on the loan, avoiding further depreciation, and spending less on insurance and registration... I think I'll track for the next few months just how we're using both cars and see if using just one is a possibility. We do have Hour Cars and rent-a-bikes not too far from here (though the weather here does not encourage year-round bike use) and we are on a couple of bus lines (better mass transit than most of the Twin Cities area enjoys). Like I said before, it may not be less simple to drop to one car, but we don't know exactly the decision we're making till we've priced it out in time and dollars.