Turns out they’ve taken my Granny’s license away (The whole Granny situation is another story… *sigh*), so mom and dad now have her car plus their other two. My Granny has a nice new car, so my parents are going to keep that and have told me they want me to buy the little Nissan Sentra from them.
Ever since I brought up the fact that I want a vehicle, (A Vespa scooter is what I had my sights set on) my dad has been pushing for me to “just buy a real car, Ginger. It’s safer and will be more useful. I don’t want to see you driving around on a little moped.”
I would argue back that with a scooter the insurance, gas and maintenance costs are reasonable, parking is free in the city and the vehicle itself was affordable, whereas a car is SO much more expensive.
It was sort of a moot point though, when I looked at my savings and realized that I couldn’t even afford (a cash payment on) a scooter this year, anyway 🙁
So now I’ve got lots to think about. I really would like to have the car since my parents would sell it to me cheap (around $2000 is what mom said) and said that I could “just pay us back whenever you can”. It would be great for laundry, groceries, visiting friends and other errands.
Actually, I think I’ll do a pros and cons list for this!
PROS
- Reliable personal transportation
- Convenience
- Ability to carry stuff and people
- Can get home for visits easier, no need for train tickets anymore
- Already have a private parking spot at my apartment
- Cheap purchase price
- Cheap maintenance, well-maintained over the years, dad would help me maintain
- Low gas cost since I won’t be using it a ton
- Helping out my parents
- No more cab fares! (except when drinking)
- Have to pay for it
- Insurance costs! OMG
- Though small, maintenance costs still suck
- Gas prices suck
- Would not drive it to work
- Parking in the city is waaaayy too expensive
- Possible abuse by friends
So far the pros are outweighing the cons. I did a quick estimate of costs in my head and I think that if I were to cut back in other areas of my life I could afford to keep it; but the question is: just how much do I have to cut back on? And is it worth it?
As I was writing this I sat back and did some thinking. Insurance will cost me about $120/mo, so where in my budget can I find that? I’ve got a couple of options.
- I could reduce contributions to my savings
- I could cut back on eating out all the time (which would be easier since I would be able to grocery shop properly!)
- I could cut back on unnecessary purchases
I’m not going to stop saving, that would just be foolish. So I think I might try a combination of 2 & 3 and see how that works. I don’t want to sacrifice everything I love just so I can have a vehicle. I guess if everything goes sour I can just sell the car, right?
I still have to factor in gassing it up and maintenance costs which I will talk to my dad about. I would obviously need some sort of car fund to fall back on if something went wrong. But I might also just let the car sit until I can afford to pay a repair bill since I won’t be dependent on it.
I guess I still have a lot to think about. This is a big decision!
2 responses to “Should I Buy The Car?”
I’d go for it because you can use it to get home easier rather than paying for the train. It’d pay for itself in the long run.
Alternatively, just use it once in a while for groceries, etc, but not for things where you can just use a token instead and not pay parking, y’know?
I’d probably go for it too…but that’s because where I live, the transit ain’t so great.
Pics!! Pics of car!! 🙂