sojah

iTrader: (1)

quick question for people who may be facing a similar citiation. i have a gs400 with 2.5 years worth of payments left and it gets about an average of 21 mpg's and i have been looking at picking up an 09 camry hybrid which would be the same car payment but gets an average of 34 mpg as a daily driver (I currently drive about 1600 miles a month). it would be very difficult to make monthly payments on both because i am also making another car payment for my wife's car. what to do???

1. Pay off my current car which would use a little more than half of my total cash savings.

2. Trade or sell my lovely gs400 (not really to thrilled about this option) and pick up that camry hybrid.

3. Wait a year and see if it would be easier to pay off the lex and then possibly take on a new car payment-- like possibly a gs 450h.

4. Pay a years worth of payments like 5 g's down now on the lex which would make my next lex car payment be due like 13 months from now and then pick up that new car payment asap.

What would you guys do in this situation???

98GSOwner

Some thoughts: Your GS4 will burn 76 gallons of gas per month to go those 1600 miles, while the Camry Hybrid will burn 47 gallons. That saves you 29 gallons of gas each month. Assume gas is $5/gallon (just to be safe with our calculations!) and you save $145 each month. However, your GS4 isn't depreciating much anymore, but a new car certainly will (I'm sure the difference in depreciation is more than the $145 monthly gas savings).

Also, even though the monthly payment is the same, I'm sure the new Camry's payments go many years beyond the point where your GS4 payment ends. Assuming your GS4 has lots of life left in it, you could go some years with no car payment if you wanted to (and save that money toward your next one).

In my opinion, making payments can hide the true cost of the new car. For example, if you pay $30K for the Camry, that is $2400 in sales tax alone (assuming 8% sales tax - yours may be less). You don't ever get that back even if the car didn't depreciate.

You may want to check on insurance rates for the Camry also to see how that factors in to the monthly cost question. A last thought - how would you feel if a year or two from now gas prices have fallen to $2.50 a gallon and the Hybrid isn't quite as exciting as a 300hp V8? Hope this helps!

sojah

iTrader: (1)

i appreciate your thoughts and input, i too came up with the same calculations in gallons but figuring a little less than 5$ a gallon bringing the saving down to about $125 a month. the sales tax is a killer though and although it would be cheaper to keep this car in the long run its still not as new and efficient.

i don't think we will ever see less than $3.50 a gallon. once you have paid x amount for a product willingly do you think the store will ever lower the price for the same product???

with the depreciation and the length of the loan going back out i guess i will just shut up and color... for a little while more at least...