I am still drooling over a Honda Pilot, never mind that I am supposed to be considering the best model of car to buy if we have to buy a beater. We only have to buy another vehicle IF Mr Wonderful gets a new job. Which we haven't heard anything from them yet anyway.
As I ponder about howe to get my hands on the steering wheel of a Honda Pilot I started thinking, we could trade in our truck but then what would we haul all of our camping stuff in or remodeling supplies...nope that won't work, gotta keep the truck.
Now the only other option is to just buy it, isn't that what most people do? Just sign on the dotted line and you have yourself a nice new car payment.......I was toying around with some numbers today, wondering if I could REALLY save money each month for a car payment (as if we had a car payment but not really) and in 3 years we'd have enough $ to buy a car....so you have several things going for you....Let's say I have picked out a 2003 Honda Pilot which is worth around $18,000. If I saved up $400+ each month for 3 years I'd have my $18,000 with the help of a 3% savings account and not having to come up with around $700 (interest I earned on the money sitting there). However the impatient side of me thinks, we'll never actually save it, the money will dissappear on something and we'll never get that newer car.......so we should just buy it and that way we HAVE to pay the payment right? So I did the numbers trying to contrast it in almost the same terms as before $18,000 for the car, interest is higher though at 5% and we get to pay it out instead of earning it. Let's just say we also did it for 3 years like the first figures, our payment would be about $100 more per month AND we'd end up paying out about $1400 more in interest payments!!! Not to mention your car is like 3 years older and worth considerably less....However if we saved up that $18000 for that 2003 car we had our eye on, in 3 years we have our cash and what do you know? The car we had our eye on is no longer $18000 is it less, so we have the option of still buying that car for less OR getting a newer car for that same $18,000. See where I am going here?
Now this is the kicker, I see the advantages plain as day I really do, but will my responsible side win or will my childish impatient side win? Or will we go somewhere in the middle and buy a older car we can afford to pay for now with a thousand or two and then go ahead and save that $ for another car down the road?
Ugh, we never should have sold that 1991 Honda Accord, it was such a good car, now I'd be scared to buy a car that old because of what might be wrong with it. Darn it! I am off to stew over this new contumdrum!
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