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We Did It, We Bought A New Car
Posted on August 5, 2008 |
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We did it! We broke down and decided it was time for a new car. We bought a brand new 2008 Honda Odyssey EX. We picked it up last week and we love it so far! I feel a little guilty saying that since hey, a new car costs money, but I think we did it as cost-saving as we could.
See, we could have stuck with our 2004 Toyota Corolla, which was a great car. It had a relatively good number of miles on it and it ran well. Thing is, it was getting too small for our family. We’ve been getting by finding ways to fit everything into the trunk of the car on various outings. Shopping at BJ’s was always fun since we had to get things like diaper and wipes boxes into the trunk as well as the stroller (remember, we have two kids one of which is a toddler). On some days we got real close to not fitting everything. The other things was we really couldn’t fit any more people than the four of us. Maybe we could squeeze a friend of my daughter’s in but that was it. We wanted to be able to transport more people if we wanted (and hey, there’s always the possibility of more little ones too).
Let me show you what we did to keep costs down:
- We traded in our Corolla. We considered keeping it but we didn’t need two cars. We were better off putting the car toward the cost of the Odyssey.
- We researched and then researched some more and then shopped around. We checked Consumer Reports, Edmunds.com, the official Honda site, the Official Toyota site…We looked everywhere we could to make sure we understood what the dealer costs were and what prices we could expect to get for both the new car and our old car. With this information we shopped around until we found the best price from a dealer. In the end, after an odyssey of our own, we received a price that we were happy with (much less than MSRP and lower than dealer invoice).
- We added some luxury but not the works. I wanted power side doors which put us up higher than the base model. After that we didn’t go for any other options. As much as we would have liked them we didn’t get the navigation system, the DVD player, the leather seats, etc… We looked at what we knew we needed and wanted and stuck with that.
- We got a great financing deal. I know, buying a 2-3 year old car and paying for it in cash is what a lot of experts say is the best thing to do. We’ve had bad experiences with older cars already and we know we are going to use this car for as long as we are able (many, many years we hope!). We considered a used car but in the end we wanted new. One thing that helped decide was the fact that Honda is offering 0.9% financing right now (Toyota was offering 0% but we preferred the Honda overall). Financing for 0.9% is real close to free money (a great reason to make sure your credit score is good). So you know, we have enough put away that we could have paid the car off entirely but since the rate is so low we can keep the money in our ING Direct account and let it earn interest while we pay the fianancing. I did some quick calculations and our financing is costing us less than $300 while we could earn around $1800 keeping the money in our savings. For a used car the fianncing would have been much higher.
- Our insurance will be lower. As an added bonus I found out that our insurance premiums will be lower since the Odyssey is considered a safer car.
- Our vacation will be more local. We were undecided on what to do for vacation this year. We were strongly considering flying off somewhere that has Caribbean water. But now that we have a new car with more storage space we’re going to do a driving vacation and travel within a day or two’s distance and check out the sites. Yes gas is expensive now, but we’ll still be saving more than if we flew somewhere.
We have a little bit of buyer’s remorse knowing that we have a debt to pay off but we’re really happy to have gotten the car! We’ve already taken a couple of small trips and we plan to do some more (there’s a frugal list of things to do somewhere out there isn’t there?).
A car is a great big expense. But I think we purchased ours in a way that’s financially responsible.
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Congrats on the new car. I was wondering how the cost of the new car vs used car would work out in your situation but looks like it worked out great.
In 05 my wife and I bought two brand new cars, which were cheaper then their used counter parts. It was a great buy for us over all.
I’ve been putting it off for about a year now. I have been at a breaking point a time or 2 but keep putting it off until I can get a big car in a hybrid model. I think I’m still 4 or 5 years from that, but who knows. Both my cars are getting older and might head south soon, but we’ll just have to play that one by ear and keep the Efund stocked up…
Way to go. Good work on the financing.
You’re right the experts don’t recommend the purchase of a new car, but I think you were able to easily justify the reasons to do so.
I too have bought used cars only to find I inherited someone elses mess. The financing alone was a great deal.
Remember NYC is rough on cars so maintain it well, so it keeps a good resale value.
Good luck with you Honda.
Regards
Congrats! You will love your Honda Odyssey! We have a 2000 and it is still the best.
@ Jeff - It’s nice to know I’m not the only one finding value in a new car!
@ Hank - I really wish they had a mini-van with hybrid or something else. Who knows, maybe something will come out in the next year or so? I’m sure your cars will hold up in the meantime.
@ PT - Thanks
@ Ray - We’ll try to take it easy on her. We don’t drive into Manhattan often so that should help.
@ CY - Wow, it sounds strange that a 2000 car would be an older car by now! It’s nice to hear yours is still running well.