Talk me out of doing something stupid

Those of you who know me in real life know that I'm not too bright.

I almost traded in my car yesterday to buy a brand-spanking-new Jeep. The stupid part is that I just bought my car less than a year ago and have at least four years left of payments. It doesn't even have 10,000 miles on it yet.

I've been upside-down in car loans before, and it was no fun. But still, the weather here has been really nice and I can't help wanting a Jeep, and can't help but think how much fun it would be to tool around town with no top and no doors.

Plus, I'm single. Does it make me an idiot to want to trade in the family truckster for something fun?

 

Your thread title is right. That would be pretty stupid.

If you keep rotating your cars like this and always maintain a loan, by the end of 10 years you will have spent at least $25,000 more than you should on cars. Hell, you'll get to that point just by buying this one, and then if you buy another car in five years that will get you to the "spent $50,000 more than you should have" threshold. Insurance also costs more on a new car and probably a lot more on a Jeep.

I'd see if there are quite a few people like you who wanted a Jeep on impulse one day and are now selling it because they're tired of it/having kids/just sick of it. Plus a used Jeep that has some dirt on it looks better.

Signed,
Haven't Had A Car Payment Since 2004 And Loving It!!!!!

 

Don't do it.

Haven't had a car payment for three years now. Know I'm running on borrowed time in that regard, but my beater does the job, getting me the 10 miles round trip to work.

 

Go ahead do it. You know you want it.

Do it. Don't be such a pussy.

And when you are broke and homeless - come back for some more advice.

 

So jealous of LTL and wicked right now.

We had no car payments for a while. Then my car caught fire while driving the Pennsylvania Turnpike in August of 2010. I wish I was kidding about that. Here is the thread about it. http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/79448/

(By the way, I'm just now re-reading that thread. First response was spnited. Still not used to him not being here.)

Then my wife's car gave out a few years before we thought it might last year, so we've got two payments again. Sure, it's different with a wife and kid, but no way I'd do anything to raise my payments right now.

 

'Sote, if I had to talk you out of doing something stupid, I wouldn't have time to do anything else.

Don't do this.

 

Let me just add that doing this would not only be stupid, it would be willfully stupid which is worse.

 

Haven't had a car payment for quite some time and yesterday turned 300,000 miles on my Honda minivan. The plan is to just keep chugging away with it and when it finally gives up, see if we have put enough money away by that point to stay payment free. Probably not as I know the van wont run forever, but we hope to get at least one more year out it.

 

You're The Fonz. Get a Motorcycle instead.

 

What's the math? How much will you still owe on trade in?
What is your monthly payment now?

 

tiy ibit kucw ibxw.

Which is a cryptogram for You only live once.

 

As a dedicated Jeep owner, I think you should consider getting one. A used one.

I'm not sure what type of car you've got, but you should be able to do a straight up trade if not get some cash back.