Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Car Trouble


Yesterday I joined a very elite club. It's called the "Go Around" club. To become a member you must allow your car to break down at the most inopportune moment, and certainly in the most inconvenient of places... forcing people to blare their horns at you while you holler and wave your arms in an effort to get them to (you guessed it) go around.

And being the overachiever that I am, of course I refused to join the club in an ordinary fashion... Nope. I chose to have my membership initiation (i.e., breakdown) in the left turning lane on Virginia Beach Boulevard at the start of the rush hour commute.

So where do I get my gold star?

But seriously speaking, our 1997 Nissan Altima really did give up on me yesterday to the tune of about $670. Which absolutely begs the question, when is it time to get a new car? What is "too much" when it comes to continually pouring money into that beat up car in the driveway? V and I have two cars, a 2000 Honda Civic with 170,000+ miles, and the Altima, which topped 150,000 miles sometime last week. Would we like new cars? Sure, who wouldn't?! ... A minivan is looking real sweet right now. Especially with Justin and the car seat in the back... Once the stroller is in the trunk (which takes about 20 minutes of maneuvering to squeeze into the Civic) don't even think about going shopping. There's just no room.

But the joy of not having car payments is something that you get used to Really Quickly, to the point where I don't know if there is any turning back. Right now the leap from no payment to payments again just seems unfathomable. But as the cars get older and repairs start to increase, it forces us to take a look at the financial pros and cons again. I think we go through this like every November or so. And the argument always goes the same way... something like this:


Car Repairs
In 2005, we spent $1726.58 in car maintenance for both cars combined. It sounds like a lot... actually... wait... it is a lot. And because it's rarely a planned event, it always feels like I'm being mugged when I have to dish out 7, 8 or 9 hundred dollars unexpectedly. But then the math kicks in (hold on tight my arithmetically challenged readers)... With two cars over 12 months, divide by 24 and that's equivalent to paying $71.94 per car per month. That beats a car payment every day of the week, and twice on Sundays. In 2006... we spent $1735.20 on car maintenance, which balances out to $72.30 per month per car. It's crazy how close those numbers are, ain't it? Well before yesterday's snafu, we had spent a total of $1728.21 for this year... which is about $72 even. How's that for consistency: 3 years of being within 30 cents of $72 a month for each car. Our streak would've been flawless, but the additional $670 from today pushes this year's average to $99 a month... Which is $39 more than riding the bus to work (yes I've done the math)... but then having a car is still far more convenient than having to ask Ray Ray (or Pookie) down the block for a ride when it's raining on a Sunday and the bus isn't running. So the score so far is

Old Cars: 1 New Cars: 0





Car Insurance
I have to admit that I haven't done the research, but my guess is that car insurance on anything new could easily double the rate we pay per month (about $80 for both cars combined). So there are advantages to having cars worth a combined $5000... but then that same number is also what makes it hard to justify continuing to pour cash in these old clunkers. When your car is only worth $1800, who wants to hear that they've spent $3000 over the past 3 years to keep it running and on the road? Yet and still, doubling our insurance premiums is not something we're exactly anxious to do... even though 15 minute could save... nevermind.

Old Cars: 2 New Cars: 0


Apples and Oranges
The last point is that new cars need love too! Not all of that repair money went into things like distributor cap assemblies and valve cover gaskets. There were also new sets of tires, oil changes, scheduled maintenance work, and new brakes to consider. And last I checked, the newer cars out there still require a little TLC that the warranty won't cover. New cars also don't dodge rocks any better than the older ones. So the cost of the two new windshields we got last year is probably a wash, too. Truth is, while I'd like to believe that a new car would keep all of that repair money in our pockets, comparing apples to apples I think we'd be surprise at how much of that money we'd be spending either way. But of course it would feel better spending it with a new car since those new cars just smell sooooo nice [insert sarcastic grin]. So the score is:

Old Cars: 3 New Cars: 0

So what's the conclusion? The conclusion is the same conclusion that I come up with every year (much to V's chagrin)... we'll be riding our cars until the wheels fall off. Hey, if braking with your feet was good enough for a hard working family like the Flintstones, then it's surely good enough for us. And now that we have Justin that just means we've got one more pair of feet to use and even more braking power to look forward to.

So if you're in our car and notice the scotch tape on the fuse box, or mis-matched hubcaps, or that the driver-side rear door doesn't lock anymore... or that the top left vent on the Altima doesn't quite blow air like it used to... Don't talk about us. We're just trying to hold it together until we can slap down cash for our next car. Because every time I go through this exercise and figure the prospect of finding an additional $500 a month for a car payment (and double that if we replace them both)... the more I realize it ain't gonna happen.

Unless, of course, you guys (our devoted and dedicated readers) would like to take up a collection for us.




Hello?


Where'd everybody go?

3 comments:

Venesa said...

Of course I don't mind... it just brings back memories of my childhood (Mom, Dad, Ruben & Nick... do y'all remember Scarface?) LOL!!

Oh, and on a different note - in the event that any readers of the blog didn't realize this or just forgot... my husband is still a mathematician at heart. Could you tell??? :-)

Anonymous said...

I say ride the car 'til it won't ride no more! New cars smell good but the smell fades very quickly. Just go buy yourself a "new car smell" air freshener. Trust me it's overrated. Save , save, save!

By the way, I didn't see any pics of Justin!

avidphotog said...

Justin wasn't in the picture because he was driving the tow truck. As for the new car smell, to be honest I don't really care for it. You know how sensitive my nose is. New carpet, new leather... anything that needs to be broken-in is a nuisance to my nose until the smell fades. Besides I'm already used to the special blend of honey mustard, ketchup, bbq sauce and now breast milk aromas that you get from our cars. Hey, it has taken a combined 17 years of spills, smears and whoopsees to perfect those scents and stains on our upholstery. It's no wonder I'm so attached to them.

Also, I probably should have mentioned that this is the first time that either car has outright died since being on my maintenance watch. I think it may have sounded worse than it really is from the blog entry. For the most part, both vehicles are still quite reliable. But every 4 or 5 months they just require a litle bit of that special loving that an oil change and tire rotation just can't quench.

Besides, my thinking is that if we replace enough parts, technically we *will* have a new car, right? :o)