Making the most of a salvaged car: Car update, Part 1
January 22, 2016
We’ve made one decision about the car, at least.
We’re taking the salvage car and title and selling the car for three reasons:
- The buyer said that he would deal with actually getting the salvage title,
- He would deal with the smog check,
- And he came to us to pay for it, saving PiC the trek to the DMV and the shop (hours away)
All of the time PiC had previously spent on the car rental and the evaluation at the shop was a sunk cost up to that point, but now we can consider covered by the $200 over salvage value that the insurance will pay.
The math: the insurance agreed to pay out $5200. They deducted $800 from that value because we’re taking the car. The buyer paid us $1000. After the costs of driving and dealing with all the details were deducted (mentally), we’ll have $5400 in hand.
Meanwhile, we’re temporarily out our $500 deductible and the cost of a replacement car seat until the Other Driver’s insurance coughs up the reimbursements.
On the replacement front: PiC has found a few decent looking options for around $6000 if we’re willing to buy older (we are) and buy a fancy German make (ehhhhh….).
We’re both ambivalent about getting a car that is usually a status symbol even if it’s old and only costs $5000-6000 because we don’t like that the car logo will signal a level of wealth and luxury we don’t aspire to. Wait, that’s the luxury part. I absolutely aspire to the kind of wealth where I could afford a fleet of these, no sweat, but I also absolutely do not want anyone to know that I have it. That might be an odd reason to avoid the purchase in an area where it’s not that unusual to see Porsches and Teslas, who’s gonna give two hics and a hoot?
Still, we’ll have to ruminate on this for a while.
Would that bother you?
And friends with recent (last 5 years) carseat buying experience: What did you use when your kids outgrew the infant size seat? Our current one is rated for up to 30 lbs but if we’re going to replace it, we may as well get a different model that accommodates from 20 lbs and up.
The status symbol part is less of a concern to me than repair costs. I’ve always been told that the higher end cars come with equivalent higher repair bills thanks to part costs and rarity of shops. But if they’re common enough in your area, that may not be a concern. I learned a lot of my car catechism in Michigan where and when driving something that’s not a Chevy or a Ford was highly suspect.
No, I had the same concern! The only reason this particular make came up as a suggested option was because a good friend can get us very good maintenance deals. I don’t like to take advantage of friends or rely on their goodwill, but she offered.
I wonder what effect it may have on our insurance, though.
I absolutely love my 1997 320i and my daughter’s newer model (2004) is fantastic also. Repairs on older ones are reasonable ! If it’s a BMW you are looking at for 6000 I say go for it!
Thanks for weighing in – I’d like to get some solid numbers on what maintenance would cost but it’s good to know you’re still driving one from the 90s happily 🙂
Even though our baby is still in utero, I picked up a Chicco convertible seat during a 25% off Black Friday sale. It’s highly rated by consumer reports and works from 5 lbs through toddlerhood – hoping it works out!
Was it the NextFit? PiC was just looking at that one and wondering why we didn’t go with it. (well, I don’t think it existed last year, but I’m not sure.) I think it had to do with wanting our car seat to fit into our stroller, though, which the NextFit does not do (so says his research).
Yup that’s the one. I’m planning on using the Chicco Keyfit until 30 lbs, at which point we’ll switch over to the NextFit. It is definitely too big to fit into a stroller but should work nicely for >30 lbs through toddlerhood. I was definitely thinking ahead when I bought but I couldn’t resist at 25% off (and diapers.com has a 1 year return policy so I suppose I have time to change my mind!).
Be careful about buying a ‘status’ car. They can be very expensive to fix even if bought cheap. A friend bought a Car that way and was constantly in the hole with expensive repairs.
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Very true – I’m only considering it because we have a good friend connection for maintenance and parts. It wouldn’t even be CLOSE to the list otherwise 😀
I believe in spending quite a bit on car seats if the higher end model is easier to get the kid in and out of. Also as they get older it’s nice to have a car seat they can fall asleep in without their heads falling forward.
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Good point! One nice car seat we found was the frontrunner until we saw reviews saying it was harder to get the kid in and out of it (they have the same car we do). More research!
You should research the cost of maintenance & repairs for older European make cars. Several friends often had $$$$s maintenance issues and fixes after it was out of warranty (usually 3 years), for pretty much all the big European brands. My almost-luxury Japanese make maintenance & fixes were usually in the $$$s.
I usually had a convertible Britax carseats for my kids. Although, it’s been a couple of years since I’ve had to buy any, so I don’t know which ones are good right now. If you want to rear-face for a long time (my youngest rear-face ’til 3.5YOs) the Radian have the longest height/weight limits and then convert to forward-facing. A friend had one and loved it. Also, be aware that shoulder-height is more relevant than total height listed, since a child can sit in a carseat a lot longer as long as the shoulder-height is ok. http://carseatblog.com/ is an awesome resource for carseats.
Definitely. My primary experience is with not-luxury Japanese and not-luxury American, so I’m used to that level of repair. We’ve got a reliable resource on repairs / maintenance for this particular Eurotype but I’m still iffy.
Thanks for the tips, I’ll definitely take a look at the site and shoulder heights.
we just bought a front facing carseat for our older child – we went with a Chicco Nextfit — good ratings on consumer reports (which is how we narrowed our search), can do both rear and front facing, and the reviews on amazon from users were positive. It’s a pretty expensive carseat though.
Try the carseat in your car you plan to buy (borrow someone’s carseat!) if at all possible. Some carseats do/don’t work in some cars. We had a hard time getting our infant carseat to level in a Toyota minivan but no trouble in the Honda we were considering. Some cars (subarus) in older models are so small in the rear seat that it is hard to get an infant car seat in and have the driver be comfortable also. We also love http://carseatblog.com mentioned above.
That one is very tempting, particularly the one zip design! Our remaining car sounds to be too small to accommodate it though, so it’s only on the maybe list. Although I guess that may not be an issue if we manage to replace the second car soon. Thanks for the input!
It’s not intuitive. Both the key fit and the next fit work in our Honda Accord. Neither fit in a Subaru Forester that we test drove. Both fit in a Subaru Outback. The next fit wouldn’t level in the Toyota Sienna. I think it has to do with seat depth and angle as much as actual space.
Our post-infant seat car seats were Britax and Diono. The Diono (formerly called Sunshine Kids) were great for travel- they fold flat and go in a travel bag, making them easy to check. But they are super heavy. We moved our kids out of them and into booster seats when the kid hit 50 lbs. They could have stayed in the 5 point harness, but at that point our reading of the recommendations was to move from the latch system to using a seat belt to secure the car seat, and that is more of a pain for getting the seat in and out. Since our kids were in 1st grade and Kindergarten when they hit the 50 lbs mark, we felt fine about moving to a booster seat at that point.
The Britax seats were a little nicer for long car trips, because they seemed easier for the kids to sleep in.
Hmmm definitely less the baggage of the Euro logo and more concerns about the cost of repairs and maintenance and parts. Interested to see what you go with!
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If you can get a great price on a replacement car I wouldn’t worry about the make and model. Do what feels right for you, and don’t worry about other people think. The reliability and safety of a car is most important. Good gas mileage is another big one even if gas prices have dropped. Buying a used car with those qualities at a cheap price is fantastic. I don’t think you’ll regret your decision.
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