Here's the situation:
I have a 2006 car, almost paid off- I owe $4000 on it. DP has a 2009 motorcycle and a 1978~ish big truck with a camper shell- the big kind, with beds and stuff, lol.
We both drive about 45 minutes to work, him 5x/wk, me just 3-4x/wk. We can't commute together because we work opposite shifts.
DP really LOVES his motorcycle and rides it almost every day. But sometimes it's really extra miserable or just unsafe. We're in a fairly temperate climate, so no snow or anything, but lots of rain can be pretty scary on a bike. When he can't ride, he'll take his truck.
However, his truck is failing. He thinks that the clutch might be going out, and there's something about a tie-rod? that he's talked about. He gets super awful gas mileage in the truck, maybe 12 mpg or so.
He told me the other day that he wasn't sure if his truck would make it to work even one more time. Sigh.
I was planning to pay off my car with part of my tax return plus $$ that I currently have in savings. But we're going to have a new baby in a few weeks and he really does need a way to take the baby places if he needs to while I'm gone, plus he needs to be able to get to work safely.
I mentioned to him that maybe we should think about spending the $4000 on a used car so that he wouldn't be so stuck. He's not excited about that, he'd rather pay off my car and get his clutch repaired. I feel like his truck is 32 years old with horrid gas mileage and we'd be throwing money down the drain by repairing it. He's worried about buying someone else's problems with used car and doesn't want to "trade one piece of crap for another".
Oh, and apparently he can't remove that camper shell without camper jacks to put it on... which are a few hundred dollars. So it's a huge vehicle that isn't even useful as a truck to haul things... sigh!
Public transportation is awful here and not an option in any practical sense.
So- WWYD?
I have a 2006 car, almost paid off- I owe $4000 on it. DP has a 2009 motorcycle and a 1978~ish big truck with a camper shell- the big kind, with beds and stuff, lol.
We both drive about 45 minutes to work, him 5x/wk, me just 3-4x/wk. We can't commute together because we work opposite shifts.
DP really LOVES his motorcycle and rides it almost every day. But sometimes it's really extra miserable or just unsafe. We're in a fairly temperate climate, so no snow or anything, but lots of rain can be pretty scary on a bike. When he can't ride, he'll take his truck.
However, his truck is failing. He thinks that the clutch might be going out, and there's something about a tie-rod? that he's talked about. He gets super awful gas mileage in the truck, maybe 12 mpg or so.
He told me the other day that he wasn't sure if his truck would make it to work even one more time. Sigh.
I was planning to pay off my car with part of my tax return plus $$ that I currently have in savings. But we're going to have a new baby in a few weeks and he really does need a way to take the baby places if he needs to while I'm gone, plus he needs to be able to get to work safely.
I mentioned to him that maybe we should think about spending the $4000 on a used car so that he wouldn't be so stuck. He's not excited about that, he'd rather pay off my car and get his clutch repaired. I feel like his truck is 32 years old with horrid gas mileage and we'd be throwing money down the drain by repairing it. He's worried about buying someone else's problems with used car and doesn't want to "trade one piece of crap for another".
Oh, and apparently he can't remove that camper shell without camper jacks to put it on... which are a few hundred dollars. So it's a huge vehicle that isn't even useful as a truck to haul things... sigh!
Public transportation is awful here and not an option in any practical sense.
So- WWYD?
. It just makes more sense, then putting mroe $$ into an old crappy car w/ craptastic gas milage.
And you could always get a car that is going to get closer to the 30mpg mark.... I had a 93 Civic that did better than that with over 150k miles.
.
It leaks and is really old!
