To trade or not to trade my 14DE 5mt to an 18ES 5mt

[MightyMirageMpg]

By this logic I guess you'll be trading in your 2015 soon.

I sold my first brand new car at 9 years old with 84k.

I hope to run this car until it's an unmaintainable piece of rust, which i suspect will be about at warrantee end. I paid $8,500. If i get 100k miles i did good. My cars been long paid off, with 31k miles. If im in the position to buy another new one in that time i most certainly will and keep this car as a backup (just like i did previously)

[seabass1858]

Now about those Jeeps - what years? And pictures please.

60 Willy's early cj5 and 83cj7, and you can see a clip of my blue 15 outlander sport which i bought the same time and will be paid for in 9 more months instead of 3 but only has 30k on it

[Eggman]

Very nice. I like those wheels on the Willy's - very appropriate. Do you still have them all?

One of these days I'll have to post pictures of mine.

[MetroMPG]

Love that 60 Willys!

Considering:

A) your Mirage was well maintained;

B) you have mechanical skilss/awareness to detect potential problems;

C) you have a backup vehicle in the event of an unexpected problem;

You already have ample "insurance" to keep driving your Mirage. Unless you're in love with the improvements made to the car for the 2017 model year, I say keep it, and enjoy or bank the payment you no longer have to make every month.

[MightyMirageMpg]

C) you have a backup vehicle in the event of an unexpected problem;

You already have ample "insurance" to keep driving your Mirage.

100% valid

If you have a backup car its definitely the better option to drive the mirage into the ground.

[Top_Fuel]

Here are 2 example scenarios to attempt to answer this question.


I'm making the following assumptions below to keep things simple.

Assumptions

New Mirage Price.......$12,000
Loan Interest Rate.....3%
Loan Term..............48 months
Mirage Trade-In Value..$2,000 (4 year old Mirage base model with 80K miles)


2 people each buy a new Mirage...

Both drive 20,000 miles/year
Both finance $10,000 over 4 years @ 3% ($220/monthly payment)

^^^ This is where the similarities of the 2 people end.


Over the next 12 years...

Person A trades his Mirage every 4 years on a new one
Person B drives his original Mirage for the entire 12 years


Person A

Every 4 years when his Mirage is paid off, he trades it on a new one that costs $12,000.
His old Mirage is always worth $2,000 at trade-in time.
He finances the $10,000 balance over 48 months @ $220/month each time.


Person B

When his Mirage is paid off in 4 years, he drives it another 8 years without a car payment.



How much is that Mirage costing each person over a 12 year period?

..........................Person A.......Person B

Total Payments............$31,680........$10,560
Sales Tax ($800 per car)..$2,400.........$800
Brakes/Tires*.............$1,500.........$2,500
Oil Changes**.............$x.............$x
Struts/Shocks***..........$0.............$1,000
Out of Warranty Repairs...$0.............$4,000

TOTAL.....................$35,580........$18,860

*Assume $500 for tires/brakes every 50,000 miles
**Both cars need oil changes at the same intervals...so cost is the same
***New set of shocks/struts every 100,000 miles (Person A never has to do this)


The difference in this example is $16,720 over 12 years...or $116 per month.

Is that a good deal to always be driving a relatively new car and never have to worry about an expensive drivetrain repair? Well...that depends! For me the answer is no...but if you want to drive a new car all the time, the Mirage may be one of the cheapest ways to do it!


There are lots of other things not considered here...some of which may be hard to assign a dollar amount.

• The guy who trades his Mirage every 48 months will be be required to carry full coverage insurance all the time. The guy who keeps his mirage for 5+ years may opt for less expensive liability coverage once the car is paid off and has a 'worthless' book value.
• Person B with the high-mileage Mirage may never get close to $4,000 of out-of-warranty repairs. I know I'm not planning on it based upon the Mirage's reliability history.
• If you buy a new Mirage and only put $2,000 down, you may be forced to pay for gap insurance which may increase your monthly payment for part of your loan term.
• How do you quantify driving a newer car all the time...or what about the value of not being in debt constantly?!?

I'm sure I'm missing something but I think you get the idea.

[seabass1858]

I love the logic. everything just tells me to keep the mirage and build more guns at the present moment.

[Pryme]

Keep current Mirage. You have back up vehicles. It's not worth trading In imho.

[MightyMirageMpg]

"Don't do any maintenance, it'll drive too 300,000 reliably"

You guys are so smart.

[Ares]

The problem here is you should have bought the ES on your first round. That way, you have all the "conveniences" the ES provides - which makes owning it longer more appealing.

Personally, I'd pay it off and still put the allotted monthly payment in the bank. Whenever you have an unexpected repair, dip into it.

If Top_Fuel's math is correct, you should have enough $ saved up to purchase another mirage without a loan, or just a minimal loan amount later - when you feel the urge to purchase another car.