Car Situation

[havaneselover]

I suppose that's true, but that's never been our experience. We like to do things ourselves rather than depend on others.

The truck is an extended cab and seats 6. The saturn seats 5. We have 4 kids.

We just kind of accumulated them. When we got married, I had the Saturn and he had the truck. Then we purchased our explorer as a family vehicle and when the explorer was down due to needing a transmission rebuilt, my husband's grandmother passed away and we purchased the van for $500 so we could get through until we could get enough to rebuild the transmission.

Oh, gosh. I first read it to mean that you just accumulated the four kids! It does happen sometimes

 

[Gumbo4x4]

The truck also fits all of us. We do need it as my husband frequently does side work and needs to tote his big old welder around.
Mileage: saturn is over 200,000; van is 120,000; truck is 145,000 ish; Explorer is 145,000.

I do agree that the Explorer ought to be the priority. I'm just terrified it's the head and not just the lifter. And I do agree about the heater being a luxury now, but in winter it isn't, especially if it remains unreliable while I'm toting 4 kids 7 &under around. While he's got it own, might as well take care of that too.

Even if the entire head needs to be rebuilt, that's a reasonably inexpensive fix & not terribly labor intensive.


And as pointed out, all brands have their issues. My S-10 was reliable as taxes, Toyota pickup broke EVERYTHING except for the transfer case inside of 100,000 miles. My parents have a 2013.5 Camry thst's left them stranded 4 times already. '05-'09 Civics are among the least reliable cars on the road. Nissan & CVTs? Yikes!

 

[tvguy]

Even if the entire head needs to be rebuilt, that's a reasonably inexpensive fix & not terribly labor intensive.


And as pointed out, all brands have their issues. My S-10 was reliable as taxes, Toyota pickup broke EVERYTHING except for the transfer case inside of 100,000 miles. My parents have a 2013.5 Camry thst's left them stranded 4 times already. '05-'09 Civics are among the least reliable cars on the road. Nissan & CVTs? Yikes!

Oh man, Nissan CVT's are a mess.

 

[kymom99]

Oh man, Nissan CVT's are a mess.

Have to disagree with this statement. I have a 2012 Altima with 80k. Not.one.single.issue..... None. Far and above the best car I have ever had.

We had a 1997 camry. Oil leaked into valves less than 100k. water pump at under 50k. Suspension. lots of major repairs. Also had a Toyota tercel back in the day. Headaches

 

[ellie05]

Op I would sell all the cars except for the truck that you husband needs for work and buy 1 newer reliable car. My family had owned toyotas and it is impressive how long they can run with no problems. There was this Toyota previa that run with no major issues for 250,000 miles my mom made my step dad sell it because the heating stopped working. The number one thing a car has to be for us is reliable if not we will get rid of it. We had really good luck with our Lexus we have put 159,000 miles on it and we only had 1 repair that was not regular maintenance that cost us $300 at the dealership. We will be buying a new car later this year and I am really torn. Good luck OP!

 

[cvjw]

Oh man, Nissan CVT's are a mess.

Don't I know it. Had to lemon out my 2013 Pathfinder at only 10 months old - it needed it's 3rd CVT. Nissan fought me the whole entire time - they just kept putting the same CVT into my PF and wondering why nothing changed

 

[MariMama]

I can't get past you making car payments on a vehicle for 10 years. I agree with those that said sell your cars and buy something reliable like Honda or Toyota.

 

[kymom99]

I can't get past you making car payments on a vehicle for 10 years. I agree with those that said sell your cars and buy something reliable like Honda or Toyota.

I'm going to guess they bought it used

 

[MamaBelle4]

I'm going to guess they bought it used

Yep.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

OP, I'm going to assume that you live on a tight budget. Sell the Saturn and the other car that is not needed for work/family and use that money to fix the truck and explorer. Then pay the explorer off. Even if you bought it used, you should not still be making payments on a vehicle that old. Once the Explorer is paid off, start saving to buy a newer family vehicle that you can either pay cash for, or pay off in a year or 2 max. And do your research on the reliability and issues of the next car. Unfortunately newer cars are being made so that you need to take them to a dealer for service, even American brands. As your vehicles get newer, your husband's ability to fix most problems on his own will decrease as he wont have access to the specialized tools.

 

[MariMama]

I'm going to guess they bought it used

Even if they bought it used, you should never still be making payments on a car that is 10+ years old.

 

[MamaBelle4]

Even if they bought it used, you should never still be making payments on a car that is 10+ years old.

It isn't yet 10 years old. We will be done with payments before it crosses that threshold.
Would we like to buy new, sure, of course! But unfortunately, laying out $40,000 every couple of years is a smidge outside of our budget. We try to not live outside our means and sometimes that means we have to compromise.

 

[MariMama]

It isn't yet 10 years old. We will be done with payments before it crosses that threshold.
Would we like to buy new, sure, of course! But unfortunately, laying out $40,000 every couple of years is a smidge outside of our budget. We try to not live outside our means and sometimes that means we have to compromise.

If it is a 2007, it is already 10 years old.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Even if they bought it used, you should never still be making payments on a car that is 10+ years old.

Well, if cars magically depreciated to nothing in the first 5 years, that would be possible. But it's just not so, especially of trucks & SUVs. Give you an example, we own the following:

2002 GMC 2500HD
2008 GMC Acadia
2014 Ford Focus

All of the above are worth about the same right now - $10-12,000 each. So, even though my truck is 14 years old, it's not inconceivable that were I to sell it, the next buyer might take out a loan.

 

[Darcy03231]

OP, we're a drive them until they die family and we also have a larger family. Here's what I would do.

Keep your husband's work car, sell the other two cars and fix the Explorer. If you have left-over money, pay it down/off. Once the Explorer is paid off keep depositing the money you would pay for the payment into a separate account and start researching cars that will meet your family's needs. when one of the two remaining cars die/bad shape, hopefully you'll have enough for a down payment on something a bit newer and more reliable. We typically buy cars that are a year or two old. This is what we did:

New car (year old) for DH (he worked about an hour away from home). 4 year loan. Once it was paid off I took it and we traded my car/van/SUV in on something newer for DH. This way we had a newer car and an older one. I would keep depositing car payments into a separate account and when the older car was dead or dying we would then swap out cars again. I would take DH's and he would get a newer one. Eventually we had enough money in "car savings" that when the older one died we were able to purchase newer in cash and never had a car payment again.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

It isn't yet 10 years old. We will be done with payments before it crosses that threshold.
Would we like to buy new, sure, of course! But unfortunately, laying out $40,000 every couple of years is a smidge outside of our budget. We try to not live outside our means and sometimes that means we have to compromise.

No one is saying buy a $40K vehicle every few years. What we are saying is that if you are buying a used vehicle it is not wise to be financing it for a long period of time because you could end up in the very situation you are in (you need a more reliable vehicle but are stuck paying for the old one). There is nothing wrong with buying used if that is what you prefer. But you should not take out a long loan on a vehicle that is high mileage or very old.

 

[MariMama]

Well, if cars magically depreciated to nothing in the first 5 years, that would be possible. But it's just not so, especially of trucks & SUVs. Give you an example, we own the following:

2002 GMC 2500HD
2008 GMC Acadia
2014 Ford Focus

All of the above are worth about the same right now - $10-12,000 each. So, even though my truck is 14 years old, it's not inconceivable that were I to sell it, the next buyer might take out a loan.

No one is saying buy a $40K vehicle every few years. What we are saying is that if you are buying a used vehicle it is not wise to be financing it for a long period of time because you could end up in the very situation you are in (you need a more reliable vehicle but are stuck paying for the old one). There is nothing wrong with buying used if that is what you prefer. But you should not take out a long loan on a vehicle that is high mileage or very old.

This is what I was saying, not that people shouldn't take out loans on used cars.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

Well, if cars magically depreciated to nothing in the first 5 years, that would be possible. But it's just not so, especially of trucks & SUVs. Give you an example, we own the following:

2002 GMC 2500HD
2008 GMC Acadia
2014 Ford Focus

All of the above are worth about the same right now - $10-12,000 each. So, even though my truck is 14 years old, it's not inconceivable that were I to sell it, the next buyer might take out a loan.

Well obviously the more expensive the vehicle is to start with the longer it will take its value to decline to almost nothing. It also depends on the amount of miles on the vehicle, and the engine and powertrain. A Diesel engine on a truck is expected to last for much long than a gas engine on a car. A Diesel engine is designed to last 500k miles or more, where a gas engine is not expected to last more than 200k consistently. Therefore a diesel truck with 100k miles is worth more than a gas-powered car with the same mileage. The truck has a longer expected useful life.

 

[MamaBelle4]

I just want to take a minute to thank everyone who offered me advice. I don't think we will be buying Toyota or Honda or Nissan, we are (foolishly at this point) loyal to Ford.
My husband has fixed the truck to the point that it is reliable to get us from A to B and back again (knock on wood).
We are going to have to have a long discussion to figure out how to move forward at this point and you guys have given us a lot of food for thought, so thank you.
I think what will likely happen is we will fix the Explorer (pray it is just the lifter), fix the timing belt on the van and sell it, then work on fixing up the truck while my husband drives the saturn to and from work.
I wish we could just go to the dealership and trade in but I have two reasons for not wanting to:
1) I worry about how much we'd get in trade in at this point and we really do not want a higher payment. If we fix the head, the only repairs going forward on the explorer should be minor (HUGE KNOCK ON WOOD) and,
2) though he always puts us first, I know my husband wants a new truck for our next vehicle purchase. I really want to make that happen for him, he really is a wonderful man and deserves whatever he wants.

 

[tvguy]

Have to disagree with this statement. I have a 2012 Altima with 80k. Not.one.single.issue..... None. Far and above the best car I have ever had.

We had a 1997 camry. Oil leaked into valves less than 100k. water pump at under 50k. Suspension. lots of major repairs. Also had a Toyota tercel back in the day. Headaches

Nissan has had to offer an extended warranty on the CVTs they are so bad.
http://www.nissanassist.com/faqs.php?menu=3