New minivan now or later - what would you do?

[Anonymous]

I’m completely undecided and am hoping DCUM will make this care decision for me.

I’m driving a 3 year old minivan with 75,000 miles on it. I still have about 22 payments left to make before it’s paid off. It has (obviously) had its expensive 60,000 maintenance done, but little issues are starting to pop up. The issues are all things that don’t matter much but would be expensive to fix if they really go and also potentially super annoying. For example one window kind of shudders and squeaks, which is fine unless it gets stuck open in winter. And one door sometimes randomly refuses to close, bouncing back as if something is in the way when nothing is. Also I’m due for a new set of tires soon.

I had been planning to get to 100,000 and then trade it (so fall/winter 2020) but I’m wondering if maybe i should grab a 2019 still sitting on the lot and try to get a good deal now before anything craps out. A new car would obviously drag my payments out by resetting the clock on the loan, but i was probably never going to keep this car for the full 5 years anyway.

so what would you do DCUM?

[Anonymous]

I keep my cars till they die. You must have lots of money to burn. Get it fixed.

[Anonymous]

You've got to get this fixed. 75,000 miles coupled with the issues that you mentioned, you will not get enough money in the trade-in to pay it off completely. Thus, your new van payment will be more than the vehicle is actually worth.

I've had 2 vans that lasted about 12 years each. Fix the "important" issues and ride it until it dies or at least 2 more years.

[Anonymous]

My minivan has 130,000, and I hope it gets to 200,000! Just make the repairs...

[Anonymous]

What brand is original minivan?

[Anonymous]

Wow you drive 25,000 miles annually? Is this highway or surface streets? How much time do you spend commuting?

[Anonymous]

Also how old are your kids? Do you want to drive a minivan once they’re out of the house? (No judging if you do, my widowed mom drives a town and country.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My minivan has 130,000, and I hope it gets to 200,000! Just make the repairs...

And mine has 200k. Aiming for 250k. People like OP are poor because they keep making bad financial decisions. Amazing.

[Anonymous]

OP here - i guess i was thinking that spending $3000 on car repairs that won’t increase the car value at all seems like waste.

The car has some equity in it so the payoff isn’t an issue.

Yes, I drive about 25,000 miles a year and I’m still in the soccer mom phase of life, so a minivan, while hideously uncool, is still the perfect car for my lifestyle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - i guess i was thinking that spending $3000 on car repairs that won’t increase the car value at all seems like waste.

The car has some equity in it so the payoff isn’t an issue.

Yes, I drive about 25,000 miles a year and I’m still in the soccer mom phase of life, so a minivan, while hideously uncool, is still the perfect car for my lifestyle.

How can a car has equity? Only 75k and serviced at 60k, what repair do you need that will cost you 3000? Something sounds odd.

[Anonymous]

It's not a bad idea. Bring it in and find out approx trade-in value to get a ballpark, then do the numbers. You can see the going rate for 2019's on dealer websites. They may indeed be willing to do some deals now that the year's about to change, and they also want to prop up theri 2019 and Dec numbers.

The thing with cars (I'm an engineer) is that all the parts have an expected life. Those vary by the parts -- a transmission is designed for 200k miles let's say, while a timing belt for 60k miles and an alternator for 100k miles.

So in the first 50k miles of a vehicles, there's just a lot fewer things that will reach end of life compared to on a 125k vehicle.

Now on the other side of it.. 2020 models came out a few months ago already. Minivans sell well, and there may not be any 2019's left. But they can still deal on a 2020, just to make sure sales numbers look good. Toyota has special APR on Siennas up to 1/6/20 for example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not a bad idea. Bring it in and find out approx trade-in value to get a ballpark, then do the numbers. You can see the going rate for 2019's on dealer websites. They may indeed be willing to do some deals now that the year's about to change, and they also want to prop up theri 2019 and Dec numbers.

The thing with cars (I'm an engineer) is that all the parts have an expected life. Those vary by the parts -- a transmission is designed for 200k miles let's say, while a timing belt for 60k miles and an alternator for 100k miles.

So in the first 50k miles of a vehicles, there's just a lot fewer things that will reach end of life compared to on a 125k vehicle.

Now on the other side of it.. 2020 models came out a few months ago already. Minivans sell well, and there may not be any 2019's left. But they can still deal on a 2020, just to make sure sales numbers look good. Toyota has special APR on Siennas up to 1/6/20 for example.

Lol. You are an engineer? Not ME I hope. Timing belt is probably designed for 200k or more. You apply a safety factor to bring it down to 100k replacement

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not a bad idea. Bring it in and find out approx trade-in value to get a ballpark, then do the numbers. You can see the going rate for 2019's on dealer websites. They may indeed be willing to do some deals now that the year's about to change, and they also want to prop up theri 2019 and Dec numbers.

The thing with cars (I'm an engineer) is that all the parts have an expected life. Those vary by the parts -- a transmission is designed for 200k miles let's say, while a timing belt for 60k miles and an alternator for 100k miles.

So in the first 50k miles of a vehicles, there's just a lot fewer things that will reach end of life compared to on a 125k vehicle.

Now on the other side of it.. 2020 models came out a few months ago already. Minivans sell well, and there may not be any 2019's left. But they can still deal on a 2020, just to make sure sales numbers look good. Toyota has special APR on Siennas up to 1/6/20 for example.

Lol. You are an engineer? Not ME I hope. Timing belt is probably designed for 200k or more. You apply a safety factor to bring it down to 100k replacement

Just using examples, not giving accurate numbers, which vary by vehicle anyway.

[Anonymous]

Equity in a car is the same as in a house. You owe less than the value, so in a sale, the value of the car/house exceeds the value of the loan/mortgage and you receive cash at closing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Equity in a car is the same as in a house. You owe less than the value, so in a sale, the value of the car/house exceeds the value of the loan/mortgage and you receive cash at closing.

That’s a funny way to look at it.