Soliciting advice

Don't forget the cost of your TIME to do all the changing around, looking for that second car, dealing with trading the truck, working on the beater, or even just downtime when something breaks on the beater. Time is money so how much is your time worth compared to now when you just get in and drive?

 

Steviestyles,

You seem to have time since you don't NEED money right now so take your time. Talk it over with your wife, make a list of pros and cons for getting another car, trading truck, and staying with what you have. See with works out better.

If it comes down to getting a new car keep researching like you are and see what the common repairs are. Pick a couple cars you think would be good and then look for them at dealers, auto trader magazines, eBay, etc. See how much they go for, what's available as far as mileage and condition. My 98 Corolla had 49k on it when I bought it. I put 140k on it myself. Being at around $9k with 6.9% rate the monthly bill was around $160. So think if that payment plus gas is less that what you have now. Or whatever you'd be able to get.

Also, check out credit cards with reward programs. Like cash back or discounted gas. My buddy has a QwikFill card that saves him 5 cents/gallon. Before we moved I was driving the truck 50 miles one way to work. With that commute I was going through 125-165 gallons per month. You might be using more. With those numbers and 5 cents/gallon you could save $6.25 - $8.25 per month. Not much, but that adds up over the year and it doesn't cost anything to do. $8.25 x 12 = $99 per year. Add that to anything else you can do to save money and it would add up. Just be sure to pay the card off each month.

 

Oh, and you could buy a scangauge www.scangauge.com or watch TN for group buys, set it to show mpg, and modify driving habits to maximize MPG.