(no subject)

[drewkitty]

I'm over the knock-me-on-my-butt illness from last week. Barely. I'm still resting as much as I can and taking it easy.



The van decided to gracefully drop the front sway bar. Gracefully, as in "in the parking lot while drewkitty was trying to figure why the wheel was 90' turned while the car was going straight ahead" as opposed to less gracefully, as in "What was that clatter and thunk?!?!" Thus I've made the decision to give it to a mechanic friend who can give it the TLC it needs at 150K. Otherwise, the van will quietly rot on the mountain, doing neither me nor the mountain any good.

The station wagon continues to suffer from serious overheating problems. There is a known factory defect in the engine block that will take a little under $1000 to fix, counting the radiator flush etc. Tried various work-arounds a couple days ago, when I really needed a car. Did not quite blow the engine, but I'm not risking it again.

So practically speaking, I am carless. This is not entirely a bad thing, as I can get to work readily by mass transit. It does cramp my social life and visits to the mountain, however.

For various reasons I've determined that I need to own a pickup truck with hitch and brake controller capable of towing 3,000 lbs.

Buying a suitable new pickup truck would cost a chunk of future income for four years to come. Buying a suitable _used_ pickup truck would be more practical, except that the cost of the loan is higher and therefore more cash is required to complete the deal. Buying an older car (or "beater") outright, ironically enough, would involve the most cash and the least reliable outcome.

I feel silly allowing my LJ paid status to expire without actually using the poll feature once. So:

[Poll #1007733]

Ideas? Opinions? Brickbats?

Comments

[trema-slo.livejournal.com]

I voted for the used car for you. This is based on my understanding from your posts regarding money. Otherwise I would probably recommend a new car. But truly it is all up to you.

[sylvan.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're feeling better. Sorry about the transport woes.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

How good is your bank? If you can get an acceptable loan, I'd lean towards a gently used pickup. My credit union gave me a good rate on my (new) vehicle loan 8 years ago, and let me suspend payments when I was unemployed while still paying it off. I don't know if a major commercial bank would do that last.

I picked 'new vehicle' myself.

[wolfwings.livejournal.com]

And I'd say budget around the $24-26k range and get a new Jeep Wrangler hardtop. Yes, I'm biased. But you've seen how capable a Jeep old enough to be served booze in a bar is. The newer Wranglers can (for all intents and purposes literally) run circles around my Jeep, sideways, in a blizzard, on a 30% grade.

Jeep X (base line) 4x4, trimmed for minimal maintenance and optimized towing, is about $24k including delivery charge, or about $26k for the 4-door extended version that's about as long as your van. That's the "Click here with some mythical credit card to buy it now," price via the Jeep.com pricing system. You can definately get it for less from numerous other locations or just with good haggling. How much less requires research I can do tonight if you'd like?

If you're gonna break down and buy new, buy new that'll (A) Easilly last you two decades, and (B) be able to basically say 'screw you mother nature!' and keep going in pretty much any situation.

Seperately... if you can't afford that.

[wolfwings.livejournal.com]

Then yeah, find a gently used truck and see if you can mince it along for a'while still. =^.^=

[mesiunu.livejournal.com]

gimmie yer number again :D

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

e-mail me at drewkitty@gmail.com

[taral.livejournal.com]

Last option. You don't pay the hefty first few years' depreciation but do get a fairly reliable item.