“Honey! I shrunk the car!” and several costs associated with it.
I had always thought I needed a big SUV, well at least right after my “I need a super cool sports car” phase. Now, looking onto the horizon of financial independence, I am scratching my head like, “why do I need this giant gas hog again?”
Enter, Mr. Money Mustache…a little over a month ago, I discovered this blog and holy shizzle did stuff change. He made a pretty valid point (as well all of his posts are) and it was basically, why would I drive a 7 passenger, 11 mph, luxury SUV all by myself or with a max of 4 people in it. Seems a little fiscally and environmentally irresponsible, yeah? It’s okay, you may need to read this once or twice to get it. I am being hella wasteful. Are you? Let me know in the comments.
I started searching, and it took me about 3 weeks to find something. See my car has been paid off for a while, so I had to find something that I could get cash trade for cash trade. It doesn’t help our nest-egg to spend more or get a car loan, though if you’re looking for one then click here to learn about car loans in columbia sc, or search around for other options if you’re based elsewhere. Back on track, though.
Here are some of the qualifiers I was looking for (these may be different for you):
- seats 5
- backseat fits 3 adult asses comfortably (with knee space)
- reasonable room for groceries
- fold-down seats (3/2)
- factory warranty
- gets me a net return (I trade and walk away from the deal with a check of at least 4-figures)
- has A/C (its hot in TX)
otherwise I was pretty open.
The first thing I looked at was a Prius, lots of friends love them…I drove like ALL of them in the metroplex and didn’t find one that I liked. I then started to think if I wanted to save money month to month, it might be beneficial to look into financing another car again, which means I’d have to look into gap insurance again to insure the difference between what the car was worth to how much I was paying off, but I remembered I had to get the Nissan sold, so I opted for a full purchase this time.
Then I looked at the Kia Soul. DING! DING! DING! I found one!
Here’s the car inside and out:
It’s totally RAD! And aside of some razzing from friends, (there are rumors of it being called a “clown car”) we LOVE this little car! Plus its super cute!
Here’s how the savings broke down:
- $2015 cash in my pocket after trading my 2010 Armada with 75k miles for a 2015 Kia Soul with 25k miles
- 5 years and 50k miles bumper-to-bumper factory warranty
- $160/month in gas
- $184/year in car insurance (you got to love cheap auto insurance, as it makes a huge difference!)
- ability to park in compact car spots….priceless 😉
- not to mention what I save by biking and consolidating errands!
Again, my hat goes off to Mr. Money Mustache and the Financial Independence Game peeps because this journey is amazing!
What do you drive? How can you be more efficient?