First, let me say sorry for being so late with this. I won’t even get into my sob story about moving!!! We’ve all had to do it at some point.
This week proved to be an interesting one for Chrissy and I. Without intending to, we both bought new cars! Typically that’s not a frugal thing to do BUT let us tell you our stories. You might change your minds!
Two years ago we were very rushed to buy a new car after a bad accident and purchased a 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee. We were partial to Jeeps because having one saved my husband’s life! They are like tanks in a head on collision.
We only had one child and it was a nice car that we didn’t have to pay too much for so we didn’t investigate it the way we would have with more time.
Fast forward two years and we discover that this Jeep (an All-time 4WD) MUST have all 4 tires replaced at a time or risk damaging the differential and transfer case. Guess what? We bough two new tires in April of ’07 and drove for almost a year on them. The repairs cost us $3500 this year. THEN – as we are getting ourselves ready to drive 1400 miles to Arizona, we discover our AC is going out and it will cost around $850 to get that fixed!
We started thinking about the upkeep costs of this vehicle…$800-$900 each time we replace tires, regular maintenance, high gas and the fact that there is not enough space for all of us and the dogs.
We started looking for a ‘new to us’ car to trade for. After 3 months we found one and in the end, it only cost us $800 (plus a small amount in sales tax and registration fees).
We bought a 2001 Chrysler Town & Country, fewer miles, more space, AC that works, better gas mileage, cheaper insurance and it’s NOT All Time 4WD.
We didn’t get as much for the Jeep as we could have (partly because of the market right now and because we really wanted to get away from it!) but we did make an educated decision in our transaction while spending almost nothing for the new vehicle.
So – buying a bigger, family car CAN BE FRUGAL!
Look for Chrissy’s story – she did even better!
Have you made a car purchase recently to accommodate your growing family? How did you save money on it?
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