I drive a 20 year old yota, gets me from A to B type car, but thats about it. Its been reliable up to this point, although it eats oil, and just threw another engine code (that I can hopefully fix for cheap, but not sure on that one yet).
Previously, I was considering holding on to the car and driving it into the ground, and hopefully waiting out the chip shortage so used car prices go back to normal. Would also give me more time to save and buy something nicer in the future.
That said, I just put my car into Carmax's offer website and they said they'd give me $2,000 for it. About $1,800 more than they said they'd give me months ago. I have about $10,000 in the bank + investments I'd be ok with pulling as a down payment on a new car. I've been looking at getting a 2017-2021 civic or something japanese around ~20-25k. Using a downpayment of $10k.
Another option is to change my priorities and start looking at non-japanese cars lol. That's my next point thing to research after posting this.
I guess I'm torn between driving my current car into the ground and saving in the meantime, but this would risk me not outlasting the chip shortage (I mean its going to last for a minute from what I've read, and who knows it'll probably get worse before it gets better and the pessimist in me says my car will shit the bed when its worse) and missing out on getting $2k on my car.
At the same time, my current car runs and is paid off. But I'll have to get a new car sooner than later given my current car's age, just not sure if its worth it. I've driven this car since highschool, so an old beater is all I'm used to lol; payments are intimidating. But I'm finally making better money since graduating school and have a solid savings, so buying something more reliable seems like it should be on the books lol. But I'm also afraid of lifestyle creep.
Thanks for any advice.
Submitted September 28, 2021 at 11:03PM by ogthrowaway_365463 https://ift.tt/3ujWnZs
