My 18 year old Volvo S40 bit the dust back in January, and I've been using public transportation to commute since then. In all honesty, it's been fine with the exception of those nights where I need to work late (2X/week) and it's unsafe to commute home (it's a rough neighborhood at night). I've been taking Uber (kinda expensive) or having my husband pick me up. He's a good sport about it, but it's a 30 min. commute for him (one-way) in the wrong direction.
My husband has a car (a 2007 Honda Civic) with 180,000 miles that he uses to commute to work (public transit is not an option for him). It does the job, but has some things broken on it (A/C, exhaust, etc.) and a major rattle that we haven't fixed because it would be worth more than the car. I find myself looking at our situation going - "we need to take care of this ASAP before we have no car at all." We live in a big city, so all of the mileage is city-driving (not highway).
We've got $2000 already saved for a down payment for this purpose. We've been casually looking at used Rav4s, Honda CRVS, and Subaru crosstrek/forester as potential options (we want an AWD option for rural driving, snow handling, towing, comfort, and space for road-tripping).
Combined, we make $95K annually and we're on Step 6 of the flowchart (we have fully funded retirement and have no debts after paying off all our student loans last year). We were putting $700/mo toward loans (so our budget can accommodate a car payment) but I would feel more comfortable paying $500 or less per month on a vehicle. My credit rating is a 804.
If we were to buy a used car, what would be a reasonable budget? Do we try to save up a little more before purchasing? Do we trade in my husband's car?
This will be the first time either of us will have purchased a car so we're finding ourselves a bit lost in the process.
Submitted May 23, 2019 at 11:28AM by idolspize http://bit.ly/2Eriswo
