A few days ago, I called my automobile insurance company and informed them that a deer had hit my car. The insurance adjuster just left, and he gave me an estimate of $2500 to fix the damage done to my car.
Now I have a decision (or two) to make. Just a few days before the collision with Mr. Deer, my wife and I talked about selling my car (and my old pickup truck) and buying a newer truck. I’d love to have a truck that was big enough to carry our whole family. There are five us, and we can’t fit in my standard-cab F-150.
Out of pocket, I’m looking at a $1000 deductible to fix the car. I really don’t feel like spending that much money, especially on a car that I might sell anyway, but I don’t want to drive around in a busted car, either.
Right now, I’m thinking about –
1. Paying the $1000, having the car fixed, and keeping the car.
2. Paying the $1000, having the car fixed, and selling the car.
3. Selling the car, as is.
If I keep the car, I’ll keep the truck. The truck will not sell for all that much, and I am not going into debt to buy the newer truck. If I sell the car, I’ll also sell the truck. I’ll take the money I make an put it towards a newer truck.
I’ll let you know what I decide. Right now, my gut tells me that I’ll just pay the $1000 and keep the car, but I think it’s worth running the numbers, just in case I can find a good deal on a used truck.
Click here to read about how I paid cash for our minivan last year. I’ll use a lot of the same techniques when / if I decide to buy a newer truck.
It is a good time to buy a vehicle.
We were secretly hoping our car would get totalled when my husband hit a deer so we could have gotten a newer one… No such luck!
Sometimes life opens up new ideas!
This is a great time to buy a new vehicle…especially if you have cash.
Whenever I get itchy about buying a new car, I start to question my motivations, whether I can pay cash, and the maintenance costs. New cars usually cost more to insure, more for licenses, and depending on what you buy, more to maintain and keep fueled.
Since you’re a Ford guy, I thought you would appreciate that my neighbor has a F150 Supercrew and loves it.
It’s about 3 years old and rides as well as his wife’s Cadillac. They have a family of 4, but we have fit 5 adults in his truck fairly comfortably. In fact, 5 of us guys pile in it fairly regularly for college game tailgating events.
DON’T sell your car without fixing it, unless you’ve done all your research. I made the mistake of selling my Acura Integra for $700 because repairs were $1500 and I couldn’t afford it. What I could have done was get a small loan from parents or use credit to pay for the repairs then sold it for a cool $3500, as was the average price on craigslist.
But, now I don’t have a car and it has cut down on my monthly costs quite a lot.
I’d say to fix it and keep it, unless you can pay cash for a new truck. Buying a new vehicles is oh so much more fun when it doesn’t come with payments as well.
We just bought a new car to replace my older one, but we had saved up the cash, and were able to write a check and walk out of the dealership with no payments. It was so nice!