Have you thought about buying from a private party? You might be able to purchase what you want as private owners are typically less expensive than dealerships.
That's too many transactions, I just can't seem to make it work in my head. I would have to sell my Prius private party first, leaving me without a car for myself or the kids. Who knows how long it would take us to find a van, I can't be car-less for that time. I need to trade in my Prius and walk out with a van same day.
Unless I'm misunderstanding something about that?
How much are you expecting to get for your prius? Let's call that amount X. If you have X amount in your savings then pull it from there to buy the mini-van. Once you have your mini-van then sell the prius and replace your savings with X.
Selling the Prius private party leaves us without a car to transport the kids. The car seats won't fit in DH's truck. We've got to swap the cars same day, with DD with us (she's a bottle refuser). So unfortunately that means we're stuck trading it in.
Can't you sell it after you buy the van? You would have an extra car for a week or two. We pulled from savings so we could apply the car value to the van down payment. Once the car sells the savings is replenished.
I would also consider selling the car after you purchase the van.
You really need to compromise somewhere. Selling private party is a good option, if you won't have a car without the Prius can you investigate borrowing or renting another car until you get one? Or having the private party sale happen around the dealer where you find the car? Or sell the car AFTER buying the minivan assuming you'll be able to sell it. I realize that's a risky option especially if you live in as small a place as you describe.
Hondas are great cars but are not perfect. It's crazy that you are set on a car you haven't test driven. Sure test driving is more of a pain when you don't live near dealerships but it's something you need to troubleshoot a way around. Maybe you'll test drive a bunch of minivans and discover you hate how they handle and want to go the SUV route even though you are dead set on a minivan now.
@supergreen - Am I remembering correctly that you also inherited your H's grandmother's car? What are you doing with that?
Yes that's correct. We have to re-title it first, which takes some time. After that we will sell it private party and put the money towards the minivan loan. That money will help us pay off the minivan in a year.
Can you drive this car? Can you use it to transport the kids?
Can't you sell it after you buy the van? You would have an extra car for a week or two. We pulled from savings so we could apply the car value to the van down payment. Once the car sells the savings is replenished.
I would also consider selling the car after you purchase the van.
Yeah. We were offered $3k and $2k at different dealers for my car (07 with JUST 100k on it). The third said they didn't trade in over 100k. KBB is $4-6k+ for private sale. We used $4k from savings and if we make more selling the car- bonus.
Selling the Prius private party leaves us without a car to transport the kids. The car seats won't fit in DH's truck. We've got to swap the cars same day, with DD with us (she's a bottle refuser). So unfortunately that means we're stuck trading it in.
Can't you sell it after you buy the van? You would have an extra car for a week or two. We pulled from savings so we could apply the car value to the van down payment. Once the car sells the savings is replenished.
We don't have the savings to do that. We're already putting our designated car savings as a down payment, there's no extra savings to pull. We need that DP plus the money from the Prius to get the van down from the $20K purchase price to $10K. We're only financing $10K b/c that's the monthly payment that fits in our budget. Does that make sense? I hope I explained that right.
WRT to going in person to buy or not, fwiw, we got the best price by shopping around online. First we went to test drive it in person to make sure we wanted it and that guy gave us a price. It's one of those dealers who advertise that they don't deal on price. They give you the lowest one they can the first time around. Then we emailed other dealers and said, "here is what we are looking for. This is the price. If you can beat it, we will buy from you." We got a few thousand knocked off that way.
Dude. Everyone's Saturdays are precious - use one to go car shopping properly.
You're right, I see that now! DH is just going to be grumpy about it, he's always got so many house projects planned that anything I need is "interrupting his work." But that's a whole separate issue
Can't you sell it after you buy the van? You would have an extra car for a week or two. We pulled from savings so we could apply the car value to the van down payment. Once the car sells the savings is replenished.
We don't have the savings to do that. We're already putting our designated car savings as a down payment, there's no extra savings to pull. We need that DP plus the money from the Prius to get the van down from the $20K purchase price to $10K. We're only financing $10K b/c that's the monthly payment that fits in our budget. Does that make sense? I hope I explained that right.
Can you finance at a longer term (6 or 7 years vs 3 or 5) for a smaller monthly payment? Especially since you plan to pay it off in a year anyway, a higher interest rate wouldn't be that bad..
We don't have the savings to do that. We're already putting our designated car savings as a down payment, there's no extra savings to pull. We need that DP plus the money from the Prius to get the van down from the $20K purchase price to $10K. We're only financing $10K b/c that's the monthly payment that fits in our budget. Does that make sense? I hope I explained that right.
Can you finance at a longer term (6 or 7 years vs 3 or 5) for a smaller monthly payment? Especially since you plan to pay it off in a year anyway, a higher interest rate wouldn't be that bad..
Also, check around for your loans. We got ours through one of or credit unions instead of the dealership. It was 2% interest rate over 6 years (I think). The dealer couldn't come close to that and told us to use our own financing. The CU gave us (basically) a blank check, preapproved for a certain amount (more than what we were planning on spending) and H just filled that out at the dealer as if we were paying cash.
Dude. Everyone's Saturdays are precious - use one to go car shopping properly.
You're right, I see that now! DH is just going to be grumpy about it, he's always got so many house projects planned that anything I need is "interrupting his work." But that's a whole separate issue
Even more reason for you to test drive solo first, narrow down the options & then bring your DH along
Yes that's correct. We have to re-title it first, which takes some time. After that we will sell it private party and put the money towards the minivan loan. That money will help us pay off the minivan in a year.
Can you drive this car? Can you use it to transport the kids?
Yes I could. I could sell the Prius private party, drive DH's grandmothers car until I find a van, get a loan from my bank for the van (instead of financing through a dealership), buy the van, sell grandma's car private party, then apply that money to the car loan. Phew lordy, that's a lot of transactions, Craiglist ads, and money jostling just to eek out an extra $3K at MOST.
Man I think I'd rather finance $3K more than I wanted to avoid all that!
nomad you are completely right, it is crazy that I got stuck on one model. Bad idea SuperGreen! I'll test drive a few models first, then choose.
We shopped around A LOT while looking at vans. Most of it with DD (who was 9 months at the time) in tow after work and on Saturdays (car dealerships aren't open on Sundays here).
What we did is we found dealerships that had multiple used models of the TYPES of vans we were interested in. They may have had a few more miles, more money, wrong colors, etc. but they were still close to what we were looking for. That way we could only have one stop and still drive a T&C, Odyssey and Dodge. Then a week later we would go to another dealership and drive a Sienna and VW. Were we ever going to purchase those exact cars? No! BUT, it allowed us to get the "most bang for our buck" when it came to dealerships we had to visit. By doing that we narrowed it down to a T&C. From there we decided on a price point and mileage we would be comfortable. I am very particular and I wanted all the features with a white exterior and a tan interior. Those are hard to find as most have dark interiors. It took awhile but we found it an hour and a half away. DH took an afternoon off of work and went and bought it.
We don't have the savings to do that. We're already putting our designated car savings as a down payment, there's no extra savings to pull. We need that DP plus the money from the Prius to get the van down from the $20K purchase price to $10K. We're only financing $10K b/c that's the monthly payment that fits in our budget. Does that make sense? I hope I explained that right.
Can you finance at a longer term (6 or 7 years vs 3 or 5) for a smaller monthly payment? Especially since you plan to pay it off in a year anyway, a higher interest rate wouldn't be that bad..
You're right, I see that now! DH is just going to be grumpy about it, he's always got so many house projects planned that anything I need is "interrupting his work." But that's a whole separate issue
Even more reason for you to test drive solo first, narrow down the options & then bring your DH along
Yes that's exactly what I will do. He's been totally hands off about this whole thing, he's like "it's your car, you deal with it." I'm like, it's twenty THOUSAND DOLLARS and you'll be driving it a lot too, don't you at least want to be somewhat involved?! I think I'll test drive the van from the dealer to his office, let him take it for a quick spin around the block, then I'll drive it back to the dealer.
Yes I could. I could sell the Prius private party, drive DH's grandmothers car until I find a van, get a loan from my bank for the van (instead of financing through a dealership), buy the van, sell grandma's car private party, then apply that money to the car loan. Phew lordy, that's a lot of transactions, Craiglist ads, and money jostling just to eek out an extra $3K at MOST.
Man I think I'd rather finance $3K more than I wanted to avoid all that!
$3k is like getting 15% off the price of your VEHICLE! We go nuts for 15% off of LANDS END FFS.
Okay, here is the point in my threads where I usually over-explain the situation, stick my foot in my mouth, and say something stuuupid. I get (understandably) flamed, and I never hear the end of it. So I'm going to try and learn my lesson and stop over-explaining right at this point. You're right, I will consider what you've said.
Yes I could. I could sell the Prius private party, drive DH's grandmothers car until I find a van, get a loan from my bank for the van (instead of financing through a dealership), buy the van, sell grandma's car private party, then apply that money to the car loan. Phew lordy, that's a lot of transactions, Craiglist ads, and money jostling just to eek out an extra $3K at MOST.
Man I think I'd rather finance $3K more than I wanted to avoid all that!
$3k is like getting 15% off the price of your VEHICLE! We go nuts for 15% off of LANDS END FFS.
Seriously. Dude, money sounds a little tight. I get that it's hard work but it sounds like $3k is a lot of money to you. That's a lot of money to most people!
If you don't want to go to the hassle of selling private party, at least re-title the other vehicle and use both as trade ins.
We had thought about that, but the logistics are hard. We'd have to find a dealer with the van we want, who is willing to take BOTH old cars and not shaft us on the trade-in value for either old car. Seems daunting. Since we need the van soon-ish and re-titling takes time, it seems to make more sense to trade in the Prius and sell grandmas car private party once we get the new title.
Post by Ashley&Scott on May 26, 2015 14:58:47 GMT -5
Is grandma's car in decent shape? If so could your DH use it as a commuter car? If I'm remembering correctly he currently drives an unreliable truck like 2 hours per day?
We had thought about that, but the logistics are hard. We'd have to find a dealer with the van we want, who is willing to take BOTH old cars and not shaft us on the trade-in value for either old car. Seems daunting. Since we need the van soon-ish and re-titling takes time, it seems to make more sense to trade in the Prius and sell grandmas car private party once we get the new title.
I'm not trying to needle you, but this isn't a matter of you "over-explaining." There have been like 50 solutions/options/alternatives suggested here and you're shooting them all down.
And retitling a vehicle doesn't take any time at all. You take take the bill of sale and proof of insurance (you can add it over the phone) to the DMV and pay the fees. That's it.
I thought it took 30 days to get the new title in the mail? Or something like that?
Ok, @supergreen why don't you tell us what you are going to do since most of our suggestions won't work or will mess up weekend work for your H. THE ANSWER HAS TO BE SOMEWHERE IN THIS THREAD!
LOL I know right? I'm being obtuse I know. I'm sorry. I'm just trying to think this situation through. I don't know what I'm going to do. You guys are a great sounding board. You've already given me a lot to think about!
I think bottom line is this - if you want bottom dollar, best deal for your trade and your purchase, you're going to have to handle the tricky logistics and give up some time/effort.
Otherwise, you're going to have to decide that it's worth paying $3-4k more for the convenience of an easy transaction.
I thought it took 30 days to get the new title in the mail? Or something like that?
Google your state and "car title transfer." I can't remember where you are, but I googled FL and a bunch of others and they all seem to be done right there on the spot. You should be able to make an appointment online for the DMV too.