Looking for a married mobile...

[Jiggerachi]

OK as you all may know, I just got married. After doing some budget work we came to the comclusion that the Civic just isnt cutting it anymore. Its a damn good car, gets great gas mileage, but being a coupe, the back seat is way to small, it totally blows on a camping trip, & worst of all the $360 /month + insurance is just not practical at all in our situation.

I was upside-down when I bought the civic 2.5 years ago, got a hell of a deal on it trying to get back on top, & while im not as bad as before I think im still upside-down. Now we are looking for a small SUV, or something as practical, we wanted a Jeep Wrangler, but theyre too expensive & drink too much gas. We really want an Element, but I think that we would be in the same situation as we are now with the payments & such. I have a buddy at a Honda dealership thats trying to work us a deal on a used 5spd Element(damn, lot of torque, surprisingly), but I dont know how its going to work. We are also looking at an 02 Mazda Protoge5 at Carmax. Its older, but about 5 grand cheaper, I think its a winner, but will it still be practical in like 5 years or so when/if we have kids(were both in no hurry to have kids, but would like to be prepared) is the question.

Any ideas guys??

Make fun of me all you want about the married/SUV thing, but im sure most of you have been here before

Oh & dont worry, the miata isnt going anywhere...

[Titus]

I can make you a great deal on a 2000 MPV just around the corner from you... it's loaded, with Leather, sunroof, TV, VCR, wired for plug and play for your playstation, factory ground effects and spoiler, factory 16s, hitch, dual AC, I could go on and on!.

[POS Racing]

Just an SUV FYI ; This morning I put $55.00 worth of gas in my SUV, in about 350 miles I will be doing it again.

It's also the most expensive to insure in my vast fleet of cars.

Don't forget to get an insurance quote before you buy! Don't ask me how I know that, but my State Farm guy has a wing in his Colleyville home named for me.......

[Jiggerachi]

^yea thats why were looking for a small SUV with a four banger, or a hatchback. For both gas & insurance.

[Jiggerachi]

I can make you a great deal on a 2000 MPV just around the corner from you... it's loaded, with Leather, sunroof, TV, VCR, wired for plug and play for your playstation, factory ground effects and spoiler, factory 16s, hitch, dual AC, I could go on and on!.

Nooooo!! Minivans are the DEVIL!!!

J/k man, but yea, dont want a minivan right now, im still in my 20's man.

[POS Racing]

Nooooo!! Minivans are the DEVIL!!!

J/k man, but yea, dont want a minivan right now, im still in my 20's.

I'm almost 37 and I still don't want a Minivan! :P

[Titus]

I can make you a great deal on a 2000 MPV just around the corner from you... it's loaded, with Leather, sunroof, TV, VCR, wired for plug and play for your playstation, factory ground effects and spoiler, factory 16s, hitch, dual AC, I could go on and on!.

Nooooo!! Minivans are the DEVIL!!!

J/k man, but yea, dont want a minivan right now, im still in my 20's man.

Yep... thats why we are selling it... My wife said it made her feel old, so we got her a Murano. Still kind of a Mommy-mobile, but cool at the same time... if thats possible.

[BigDmiata]

Olivea (the wife) drives our '03 P5, its a great car perfect for a family, gets pretty good gas mileage and really is a sporty wagon. If you have to take a P5 off road for camping, be carefull, they're pretty low.

[srivendel]

Diesel Jetta wagon?

S.

[Jiggerachi]

Olivea (the wife) drives our '03 P5, its a great car perfect for a family, gets pretty good gas mileage and really is a sporty wagon. If you have to take a P5 off road for camping, be carefull, they're pretty low.

Cool, ill let the wife read that...

I dont think low would be a problem, we usually park in the spot, walk a little ways & set up the tent, we only need it to haul a bunch of crap & back seat with legroom & fairly easy access. Although a big tall $UV would be nice though.

[Titus]

Diesel Jetta wagon?

S.

You mean like this one? I hear it's lift gate is made of gold!

[Treibenschnell]

I'm almost 37 and I still don't want a Minivan! :P

Dude, you're old!!!

[BigDmiata]

Olivea (the wife) drives our '03 P5, its a great car perfect for a family, gets pretty good gas mileage and really is a sporty wagon. If you have to take a P5 off road for camping, be carefull, they're pretty low.

Cool, ill let the wife read that...

I dont think low would be a problem, we usually park in the spot, walk a little ways & set up the tent, we only need it to haul a bunch of crap & back seat with legroom & fairly easy access. Although a big tall $UV would be nice though.

Olivea sells tupperware, and it amazes me how much crap the P5 will hold, especially when we lower the 60% half of the back seat(gotta leave the baby seat on the 40%side) Also there is plenty of leg room in the back, I'm 5'11" and sitting back there doesnt bother me. :) Besides, the price on a used P5 will beat the hell out of a new element.

[ccage]

Not to be a spoiler here, but if you're still upside down on the Civic, getting another car probably isn't going to help economically, IMHO.

I figure there are really four components to a vehicle's economy

1. Payment (or not, if you own it). $365 right now for you, and I don't know how it'd get much lower if you're upside down. Even if you found something cheaper, you'd still be rolling in that mess (unless you've saved up and intend to just cash out). (Hey, not judgemental in the least -- Been there.)

2. Maintenance -- the Civic is one of the easiest and cheapest cars to maintain around. Hard to beat there.

3. Milage -- You're not going to get much better with anything you'd care to buy, and it's only going to get worse with the SUV. As POS said, watch out for those fillups. The difference between filling up my Jeep (15mpg) and a Miata is about $20-$25 a tank. Ouch!

4. Retained Value -- This is especially important to you if you entered the loan upside down. When you look at the curve of what you owe over time vs. what the car's worth over time, it's easy to see that the more the car retains value the quicker you're out from under it. Again, the Civic is right up there near the top. It's like getting free payments as you go.

Insurance is a factor, too, but unless you're buying certain cars it's really not much of a factor. The difference in monthly cost among all four of my vehicles (truck, Jeep, Miatas) is less than $10. I figure less than $20 a month really isn't serious money.

Now if you just WANT a new/different car, I totally understand that, too.

Chuck

[Jiggerachi]

^ I totally agree with you. Only reason we want to get rid of the civic is the Miata is a 2 seater, & the Civic dosent have much of a back seat. After awhile this is going to get old...

[srivendel]

^ I totally agree with you. Only reason we want to get rid of the civic is the Miata is a 2 seater, & the Civic dosent have much of a back seat. After awhile this is going to get old...

Going to get old how? My wife and I lived the first 5 years of our marriage with a Miata and Corolla, then just a Corolla. We don't have kids, so the small backseat was never an issue. In fact, we'd still just have a Miata and Corolla if the latter hadn't gotten totalled. Now it's a Miata and a 9-2X.

S.

[rjosey8385]

Nooooo!! Minivans are the DEVIL!!!

J/k man, but yea, dont want a minivan right now, im still in my 20's man.

I'm closer to 50 than 40, and I don't want a minivan. Went to Fla. this past weekend and had an econobox rented for 3 days (total bill $380 for 3 days....damned spring break pricing!). They were at the time out of econoboxes (darn the luck) and offered me a minivan. I told them I'd wait for a couple of hours until one of the econoboxes returned, but I just couldn't be seen in a minivan. The guy next to me in line says, "Hey! I drive a minivan" I said, "Oh, and you're apparently proud of it" Finally got him to admit it wasn't by his choice that he drove it...weenieboy.

[Jiggerachi]

Going to get old how? My wife and I lived the first 5 years of our marriage with a Miata and Corolla, then just a Corolla. We don't have kids, so the small backseat was never an issue. In fact, we'd still just have a Miata and Corolla if the latter hadn't gotten totalled. Now it's a Miata and a 9-2X.

S.

The civic wouldnt be too bad if it wasnt a coupe. Lately its really been a real pain in the ass, just not the kind of car that we need right now.

That P5 is looking mighty attractive now. But regardless, me & my wife are prepared to walk away from anything if it dosent put us in a better spot financially than now, its not like we have to have a new car right this moment.

[BigDmiata]

Whats the gas mileage on the civic. If the rising cost of gas is an issue you can use my P5 as a frame of reference. With mostly city driving we get about 26mpg and highway only yields 30mpg. I drive the P5 as hard as I drove my miata, which was pretty dman hard. YMMV

[channelmaniac]

It's also the most expensive to insure in my vast fleet of cars.

Heh... My Jeep Grand Cherokee is rated as a STATION WAGON by my insurance company... Nice & cheap.

You may want to look around a bit for vehicles that are being sold at an attractive price point... When we got the Grand we were upside down in a piece of crap Kia (in the shop more than in our hands) by about 4 grand... The Grand was a 2 year old off lease return Limited model that was selling about 6 grand below bank loan value. Made it easy to get into it.

The big thing to remember is that if you are upside down then you need to get enough of a discount on the car to cover what you are upside down in so you don't have to finance too much. Hell, Pontiac is doing some big discounts and the rest of GM will probably follow -

RJ