JDB123
Out for smokes...
I have a silver 2011 Toyota Prius with 123k miles on it, and while it's been a great car for the nearly 10 years I've had it, I'm now at a crossroads with what to do with it, as some major mechanical maintenance is on the horizon, along with some cosmetic stuff to take care of. My wife gave her car to her little sister back in December 2023, so we've been a single car household since then.
I threw down $3k in maintenance costs back in 2023, which is basically half of the private party value of the car per KBB. It probably needs the struts replaced and some other ticky tacky miscellaneous things under the hood taken care of that would probably end up being the other half of the cars value. It's also probably getting close to full hybrid battery system replacement time (though I'm still getting like ~43 total mpg) which would be a least a couple grand. In addition to the mechanical stuff, it sat in the driveway of an Airbnb last month and got slammed by a hailstorm, so the hood and roof need work.
To add on to the recent woes, I was at a wedding last weekend helping load out and was told to park by a low concrete planter while loading my car. Needless to say, once it was time to leave I had totally forgotten about the concrete planter in front of the car and put the puppy in drive and drove right into it, leaving an unsightly crunch on my front bumper.
So my question is, what do I do with the damn thing now? I could probably sell it for right at or maybe even a little above KBB value here in town on Craigslist once I get the most glaringly cosmetic stuff taken care of, but I'm mostly wondering how long I should stick with it now that I'm only going to get at the very most half of its current value back if I sell privately.
My wife has a work trip in Houston at the end of the month, so my current thought is to get the front bumper replaced so she can drive it without being too embarrassed by it, and leave the rest of the car as is after the fact. We have a great landlord who would probably whip up a car covering solution if I asked about it, but being in the middle of severe weather season here in Texas without any protection makes doing the cosmetic repairs seem pretty pointless.
We're starting the family planning journey now as well, so a bigger, safer car is already in the cards (2022 RAV4 or CR-V most likely), but we currently rent a house without a garage or any covering, so it doesn't make much sense to make an upgrade right now with nowhere safe to put it.
With car prices inevitably on the rise, should I stick with the devil I know and max out the value on it and keep it running for as long as possible? Or just sell it and move on?
I threw down $3k in maintenance costs back in 2023, which is basically half of the private party value of the car per KBB. It probably needs the struts replaced and some other ticky tacky miscellaneous things under the hood taken care of that would probably end up being the other half of the cars value. It's also probably getting close to full hybrid battery system replacement time (though I'm still getting like ~43 total mpg) which would be a least a couple grand. In addition to the mechanical stuff, it sat in the driveway of an Airbnb last month and got slammed by a hailstorm, so the hood and roof need work.
To add on to the recent woes, I was at a wedding last weekend helping load out and was told to park by a low concrete planter while loading my car. Needless to say, once it was time to leave I had totally forgotten about the concrete planter in front of the car and put the puppy in drive and drove right into it, leaving an unsightly crunch on my front bumper.
So my question is, what do I do with the damn thing now? I could probably sell it for right at or maybe even a little above KBB value here in town on Craigslist once I get the most glaringly cosmetic stuff taken care of, but I'm mostly wondering how long I should stick with it now that I'm only going to get at the very most half of its current value back if I sell privately.
My wife has a work trip in Houston at the end of the month, so my current thought is to get the front bumper replaced so she can drive it without being too embarrassed by it, and leave the rest of the car as is after the fact. We have a great landlord who would probably whip up a car covering solution if I asked about it, but being in the middle of severe weather season here in Texas without any protection makes doing the cosmetic repairs seem pretty pointless.
We're starting the family planning journey now as well, so a bigger, safer car is already in the cards (2022 RAV4 or CR-V most likely), but we currently rent a house without a garage or any covering, so it doesn't make much sense to make an upgrade right now with nowhere safe to put it.
With car prices inevitably on the rise, should I stick with the devil I know and max out the value on it and keep it running for as long as possible? Or just sell it and move on?
