itsmeheathermarie
New member
Been a couple weeks and thought I'd share how it turned out.
First - thank you for all the input, it made me carefully review things and helped in discussions with my spouse so we felt more confident about our decisions. We ended up purchasing a new vehicle but not the one we'd been looking at.
Big THANK YOU btw to those who suggested ignoring using that broken one for a trade-in. That's just what we did and taking it out of discussions made figuring out what was going on financially much easier. Also took the advice to simply walk away when a dealership refused to negotiate with us.
Result:
Purchased a 2020 Buick Encore GX Select
MSRP $31,930 Sale Price $26,165 Rebates $2600 + Additional $2500 GM customer service gave us to use as a down payment on new GM vehicle after we called and witched about how crappy the Equinox (which only had 71,000 miles) turned out to be. Used what would have been our down payment to pay off the Equinox, which we'll now find the best way to scrap out.
So our cost for it was $23,166 after taxes, etc. which we financed at 84 months for 1.9% interest.
Many were concerned about us doing 84 month financing and about whether this would be an affordable cost for us. So here's how it fits our budget and why despite some concerns raised in my first post why I feel this was doable:
OLD Debt payment section of budget (been stable for years):
Credit Card A: $100
Credit Card B: $100
Credit Card C: $125
Credit Card D: $164 (paid off - was using to pay extra on Equinox loan but HVAC system went out so now is paying off replacement HVAC)
Credit Card E: $ 30 (paid off long ago, but we use this as an extra payment on card A)
Credit Card F: $82 (also paid off but we apply this as extra payment on credit card A)
Credit Card G: $125 (paid off but again - extra payment on card A)
Car Loan on Equinox: $109
*********************
New Debt payment section of budget:
Credit Card A: $100 (balance $ 2400 / 8% APR)
Credit Card B: $100 (balance $2800 / 0% APR)
Credit Card C: $125 (balance $3750 / 0% APR)
Credit Card D: $164 (pays off HVAC installation from last week $7,200 / 6% APR)
Credit Card E: $30 (will continue to pay towards A which has our highest APR)
And finally
Payments for Cards F & G, combined with prior Car Loan payment total $316 which covers our new loan payment of $296 for the Buick ($23246 @ 1.9%)
*************
So we're now driving a new vehicle without having to adjust how much we spend a month on debt payments. It will take longer to pay off our cards (and the new vehicle, of course) but we'll still have the cards and the HVAC system paid off in less than 3 years. Which will let us then put all $519 additional a month onto the vehicle at that point - resulting it being paid off 17 months later - so instead of 84 months, it will only be 53 months from start to paid off (a perfectly reasonable time frame - esp. considering we like to drive our cars well into the 150,000 to 200,000+ mile range).
This new vehicle also will let us reduce our repair costs annually so that will build up our sinking fund for next vehicle we'll need eventually, and it meets all the needs for my spouse as far as comfort and ability to carry necessary work tools. The price differences between used and new that met our needs were only about $6000 and by the time we took into consideration the increased risk of repairs needed, the shorter life span, and the higher interest rate, this solution is the one that worked best for us.
Thanks again, for reading all this and accompanying us on our vehicle purchase journey!
Edit to add: All credit card debt was acquired over 7 years ago and we've been paying it down while living on a cash budget ever since - these are just the remaining bits of long ago errors.
First - thank you for all the input, it made me carefully review things and helped in discussions with my spouse so we felt more confident about our decisions. We ended up purchasing a new vehicle but not the one we'd been looking at.
Big THANK YOU btw to those who suggested ignoring using that broken one for a trade-in. That's just what we did and taking it out of discussions made figuring out what was going on financially much easier. Also took the advice to simply walk away when a dealership refused to negotiate with us.
Result:
Purchased a 2020 Buick Encore GX Select
MSRP $31,930 Sale Price $26,165 Rebates $2600 + Additional $2500 GM customer service gave us to use as a down payment on new GM vehicle after we called and witched about how crappy the Equinox (which only had 71,000 miles) turned out to be. Used what would have been our down payment to pay off the Equinox, which we'll now find the best way to scrap out.
So our cost for it was $23,166 after taxes, etc. which we financed at 84 months for 1.9% interest.
Many were concerned about us doing 84 month financing and about whether this would be an affordable cost for us. So here's how it fits our budget and why despite some concerns raised in my first post why I feel this was doable:
OLD Debt payment section of budget (been stable for years):
Credit Card A: $100
Credit Card B: $100
Credit Card C: $125
Credit Card D: $164 (paid off - was using to pay extra on Equinox loan but HVAC system went out so now is paying off replacement HVAC)
Credit Card E: $ 30 (paid off long ago, but we use this as an extra payment on card A)
Credit Card F: $82 (also paid off but we apply this as extra payment on credit card A)
Credit Card G: $125 (paid off but again - extra payment on card A)
Car Loan on Equinox: $109
*********************
New Debt payment section of budget:
Credit Card A: $100 (balance $ 2400 / 8% APR)
Credit Card B: $100 (balance $2800 / 0% APR)
Credit Card C: $125 (balance $3750 / 0% APR)
Credit Card D: $164 (pays off HVAC installation from last week $7,200 / 6% APR)
Credit Card E: $30 (will continue to pay towards A which has our highest APR)
And finally
Payments for Cards F & G, combined with prior Car Loan payment total $316 which covers our new loan payment of $296 for the Buick ($23246 @ 1.9%)
*************
So we're now driving a new vehicle without having to adjust how much we spend a month on debt payments. It will take longer to pay off our cards (and the new vehicle, of course) but we'll still have the cards and the HVAC system paid off in less than 3 years. Which will let us then put all $519 additional a month onto the vehicle at that point - resulting it being paid off 17 months later - so instead of 84 months, it will only be 53 months from start to paid off (a perfectly reasonable time frame - esp. considering we like to drive our cars well into the 150,000 to 200,000+ mile range).
This new vehicle also will let us reduce our repair costs annually so that will build up our sinking fund for next vehicle we'll need eventually, and it meets all the needs for my spouse as far as comfort and ability to carry necessary work tools. The price differences between used and new that met our needs were only about $6000 and by the time we took into consideration the increased risk of repairs needed, the shorter life span, and the higher interest rate, this solution is the one that worked best for us.
Thanks again, for reading all this and accompanying us on our vehicle purchase journey!
Edit to add: All credit card debt was acquired over 7 years ago and we've been paying it down while living on a cash budget ever since - these are just the remaining bits of long ago errors.