Friday, February 29, 2008

Vehicles

So right now Bobby and I have three vehicles - a 2005 red Honda Civic (automoatic), a 2005 silver Accord Hybrid (also automatic, as it is a hybrid), and a 2005 white Ford F-350 (deisel, automatic). The truck we have for the business, so that one isn't changing, but we are evaluating our options right now regarding the cars. As nice as it is having the extra vehicle, we are trying to reduce our monthly expenses, and eliminating a car payment is one of the most obvious options. I'd really like to be able to save money to buy a house in a year or so, as I think the market is going to keep dropping that long.

The Accord is great because it is has 4 doors, and I love having the XM and the navigation system. It's a beautiful car, with leather interior and little buttons that open my garage door. But it is starting to show signs of wear - it has a lot of miles, I've already had to replace one door actuator and another is starting to behave abnormally, I'm going to need new tires soon, etc. Minor stuff, but we still owe a sizable chunk on it. We are only upside-down on the loan by a couple grand, but the balance on the loan for that car is more than double the balance on the loan for the Civic.

The Civic is a great little car, has about 10K fewer miles than the Accord and runs awesome. It is a fun car to drive, and as odd as it sounds, the Civic actually gets better gas milage than the Accord, even though the latter is a hybrid (the hybrid engine in the Accord actually suplements the power of the engine, rather than improve gas mileage). We are right side up on that loan by at least a few grand, so between the two cars we about break even. The only problem with the Civic is that it is a coupe, and with Emma it really is preferable to have a car with 4 doors.

Both of cars have recenlty seen a little action and have some scrapes we need to get cleaned up before we sell one or both of them.

So I'm trying to decide which we should do:
Sell the Civic and keep the Accord
Sell the Accord and keep the Civic
Sell both cars and get a Honda Civic Hybrid
Sell both cars and get a Toyota Prius

In either of the latter cases, I think we should buy a newer used car, in an effor to keep our payments and debt ratio low. So what do you think we should do? Take the poll on the right and let me know.

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