I hope you had a good Columbus Day. Yes, I’m a day behind (as usual). I’m still trying to figure out what kind of holiday it is. The kids and wife didn’t have school or work, but the stock market was open. At this point, if I don’t haven’t figured it out, I probably never will.
That four word title has been nearly 6 years in the making. Let me recap:
The Subaru Forester
In late December 2012, we bought a Subaru Forester. The move back to New England with a newborn made my old Ford Mustang not practical.
I wanted to buy a gently used car to take advantage of someone else paying the depreciation. However, there were very few gently used Foresters in New England. I think people tend to drive them for years. The dealership had a couple of used Foresters, but the discount was only about 8% off a new one, not a big savings. In addition, there were some dealer incentives with the new cars that weren’t available with the used ones. I felt like they wanted to keep those used ones around to bring in new customers into the showroom.
One of the dealer incentives was 0% financing over 60 months. Why yes, we will take your interest-free loan, Mr. Subaru!
Many personal finance gurus will say we made the wrong financial decision buying a new car. The numbers worked out better with the new car. It was a reasonable new car purchase at $25,000. Finally, we put a premium on safety with the newborn. We had an incident with the old car and it reaffirmed to us that life is very different when you are new parents with a newborn.
The Acura MDX
Eight months after the Forester, we found ourselves buying an a luxury SUV, the Acura MDX. We were expanding the family with another son. It made sense to move sell the Jeep from 2004 with 125,000 miles and get one that is bigger than the Forester for longer family trips. Two kids, big dog, and strollers take up a lot of space. When we travel with luggage to the airport, we get very close to using every square inch of space.
From a personal finance perspective, a new luxury SUV breaks ALL the rules. It’s a cardinal sin. There’s no way to justify spending a lot of money on a depreciating asset, right?
Wrong.
As I wrote in that article, my wife’s previous two cars had been the “junk college car” and the “need a car right now” car (2004 Jeep). At the time of the car purchase, she’d been a pharmacist for a dozen years. That’s another way of stating what I wrote at the time, “she’s earned a luxury car and then some.” She commutes 90 minutes a day a couple of times a week to her office – a tremendous reason for a luxury car. Finally, did you notice from the above that she was pregnant twice in a very short time?
We went through a dozen luxury cars (as mentioned) and eliminated a lot of the 70K+ luxury SUVs. The Acura MDX checked off all the luxury boxes. It also was only $42,000. I realize that “only” in this case may mean different things to different people. Personal finance is relative. However, when you are looking at spending $70K, $42K is a bargain.
We financed the Acura through USAA which had a partnership with TrueCar. It was 60-months at 1.35%. If someone wants to loan me thousands of dollars at a nearly 1% interest rate, I’m not going to say no. Unfortunately, it’s not as good as Subaru’s deal.
Fast forward to today. The 5 years (60 months) have passed and we have the titles. We moved from “buying” two cars to “owning” two cars.
The plan is to drive both cars for many more years. I’m hopeful that we’ll get 8 more. At that point this 50-year Lazy Man will have yet another mid-life crisis and buy the Mitsubishi 3000GT that caught his eye in college. (I try to plan my next mid-life crisis because that means I’ll live forever, right?)
Like everything in life, plans change. We’ll re-evaluate all the time like we always do.
Congratulations on the Forester. I’ve been driving Subarus (2 Outbacks, now a 2012 Forester) since 2001. I seriously doubt if I’ll ever seriously consider purchasing anything else.
With one exception (a cursed Plymouth Sundance) I always buy used. Let someone else take the depreciation hit. Let someone else get through the first 3 years of inevitable recalls.
I cart around giant breed Leonbergers, so the last thing I want to do is cram a furry, slobbery, muddy hound into a brand new car.
I also tend to keep my cars for a LONG time. Had it not started to simply wear out, I’d likely still be driving my 1997 Outback (purchased in 2001). I loved that OB that much. I even kept the Plymouth for 10 years.
I’ve dog-sat over 150 different dogs and I don’t remember a single Leonberger coming by. I wish we could have found a deal on an older Forester, but the kids, beach, and dogs made it old real quickly ;-).
Leos are still pretty uncommon in the US, but they’re becoming better known. Once you meet one, you’ll never forget it!
Just read your review on the RainSoft. Friend of mine was accosted the other day by a very aggressive “Home Depot Services” rep who would not take go away for an answer…
Hopefully Willy Kai Oatey, 742 Evergreen Terrace, will enjoy his presentation…
The few times they’ve tried to snag me I’ve just ignored them and kept walking.
I caught the Simpson’s reference there, but the name didn’t ring a bell. Good for you for not stopping.
Congrats on finally owning both cars! I agree that some things in life are worthwhile. If that’s a luxury car for the Mrs., then so be it. I hope she’s thoroughly enjoyed it all these years.
I agonized on how to write that paragraph, because personal finance is often, “don’t spend money ever.” However, there’s a time and place to put personal finance aside and it was one such case – even if it was one of the biggest purchases we could make.
If I had to spend 90 minutes per day, I’d go for a nicer vehicle too. That’s a lot of time on the road. We have a Mazda 5 and it works very well for us. Hopefully, it’ll last until our son is done with high school. Then he can take it to college. :)
We got it new too. The minimal saving isn’t worth it with a low volume economy car.
Good to hear that I’m the only frugal(-ish) blogger who is okay with buying a new car.