Update: minivan question
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| Tue, 04-11-2006 - 1:06pm |
First of all, THANK YOU very much to everyone who responded. Lots of great thoughts, questions, ideas, and feedback.
We've been checking around and now I have new questions. We looked at a Honda Odyssey but, honestly, in the older versions (2001-2002), they don't have as nice a feel inside as the Dodge Grand. Of course, they do last longer and may be worth more for that reason, but considering that they're also much more expensive, we're just not that sure what the best option is.
But, we're also looking at the Toyota Sienna, thanks to several recommendations here and the fact that we love Toyotas. They run a little cheaper than the Odyssey. We haven't test driven one yet, though, so I'm not sure how we like the feel. We're going to try out a few tonight at Carmax, and have them look at our car at the same time.
Here's my big new question. We've been thinking that we would sell our car first and then look for the right van to buy. Of course, the difficulty with that is that in the mean time we'll be driving dh's 1974 VW Thing (it's the German answer to the Jeep), which is cool and fun, but not exactly a family car and not the safest thing to tote the kids in. We do drive with them in it for short trips to the park or what-not, but are not terribly comfortable with highway driving with them in it (and it's a highway drive to Meeting on Sundays, for a start). Still, we thought that was the wisest thing, since we didn't want to have two car payments at the same time while we waited to sell.
But today I had another thought, and confirmed the possibility with my bank (USAA). If we buy a Sienna for under its loan value (which, through a private party, should be quite doable), we can borrow up to 120% of its value, thereby freeing up enough cash to pay off our current auto loan. On a three-year loan, our car payment would still be lower than our current loan, so that the cost of having both vehicles at once would be only the $40 or so in interest each month on the extra balance (plus whatever insurance payments we would make, though that should be minimal on a car that's parked).
We could then take our time selling the vehicle, and it would stay really, really nice after the detail job, because we wouldn't be toting the kids in it at all. And we wouldn't have to put any extra miles on it.
Once the car sold, we would take the entire proceeds and put it down on our auto loan. Of course, we would then pay off the remainder of the loan as quickly as possible once our cc debt was eliminated.
Is this a smart idea? Or a really dumb one? What would you do?
Thanks,
Heather

The only caution I wanted to throw out was that you need to make sure there is no prepayment penalty on the auto loan (probably not from USAA but ask anyway). Otherwise, it makes sense to me. I imagine you'll find your vehicle fairly quickly after the sale but still might give you more peace of mind and allow you to wait for the right deal on the sale of the Subaru.
Peg
Yes, thanks for the reminder. As you guessed, USAA does not charge pre-payment penalties on their loans. But it's definitely something to look out for!
Thanks for the input!
We just bought a Dodge Grand Caravan 2005 (used w/ 14,000)gray--stow'n'go and a dvd player. We got a great deal on it. We test drove a fully loaded Town and Country w/ heated leather seats, moon roof, etc. the works. I thought the Dodge Caravan drove much much smoother. So far I love it. We've had it about a month now. We had our 3rd last year and our Jeep (which was paid off but 10yrs old and now needed $2000 worth of work so we invested our $$ into a down payment, put $3000 down). Anyway, just wanted to tell you that I really like our minivan. Our payment is about $300--well within our means and I didn't really want to spend more than $400/mo. GL
Now I'll go finish reading your post.