suv’s slippery slope
Perhaps the first vehicle purchase will happen sooner than we expected. The partner called to relay some vehicle woes and get my opinion in terms of the financial impact of the situation. Basically, there is a potential problem that could be small or large. The options are drive to the shop and drop off the vehicle — and I drive down and pick him up (not a popular idea thanks to today’s snow storm) — or try driving home and hopefully the engine doesn’t lock up and die.
Thats a difficult choice — we’ve just shoved money into this suv that we already said we wouldn’t put anything else into. The partner wants it through the winter cause he finds value in the four-wheel drive, something I’ve never thought twice about because my front-wheel-drive car has always performed exceptionally well in all weather conditions. At the moment, our spare vehicle is in need of major work, needs new tires, and has no heat (I don’t mind putting money into this vehicle, we just haven’t had the extra to spare the past few months); so, it’s not really a good back-up at this point.
My verdict: drive home and if the car dies, then we get another car now instead of in 2 months, 4 months, 6 months. Now, it does seem fairly likely that it’ll make it home just fine, but that maybe condition is always a little nerve racking. I just can’t accept the idea of it going into the shop again — I’m still pretty upset about the last repair job.
Oh, and if the suv dies, I imagine that the spare vehicle will end up in the shop and have new tires thrown on it before we get around to actually buying another car. But, I doubt that temporary fix will last for long as the partner is very uncomfortable without a backup vehicle waiting in the wings.
Livingalmostlarge
December 6th, 2007 19:08
First off it doesn’t matter what you spent in the past on the SUV, it’s sunk cost. It’s gone. Now you have to make a decision based on the cost/value of the SUV now.
I have trouble with this, but my DH is brilliant. You can never predict the future. And sunk costs is money already gone.
The real question now is how much longer will the car last for the amount of money it will cost to run? And would that money be better used purchasing a used car for the same amount, a down payment on a reliable but more expensive used car say $10k, or would it best utilized in the SUV?
Only you can answer. But you have to not think about money already spent. It has no equation in the matter.
I personally am wrangling with this. I hate DH’s ford focus. I know it will be a money pit soon, but we’re nursing it along. He’s been driving my Corolla which has no reliability issues. This means we can nurse his car as I drive infrequently. But if a major bill hits we are dumping his Focus. Why? Because sure we spent money in the past, but it’s not a reliable car. There are a lot of problems with it. We know rather than dumping say $2-4k into it, we’re better off purchasing a used car for that much or maybe using it as a DP on another car.
Donna Jean
December 6th, 2007 19:17
I agree on ignoring the sunk costs aspect — thats why I refuse to justify more money into just because we just put money into it. It’s not about what we have put in it, it’s about how much more it needs and where that money could go instead. Also almost every time I’ve had to get a new car, it was just weeks or a couple months after throwing cash at the problem.
We could throw a hefty chunk of money into it and maybe we’d see positive progress. This was a $5 vehicle, heheh, so it’s certainly come a long way in the past 3-4 years. Of course, it’s eaten a few thousand in that time and the problems are still not resolved. I’d much rather throw that cash at another vehicle instead as I’ve always had great experiences buying very affordable used cars.
Oh, and it made it home just fine and, as far as I know, has made the trip back to work with no (new) issues. So, hopefully yesterday was a minor fluke and whatever adjustments the partner made this morning will keep it running a few more weeks at least. :)