Figuring out if it makes sense to sell my 2004 Subaru Forester now and lease something else, to save money on repairs. Crunching numbers.

Suggestions?

I had 2007 Grand Prix which I absolutely loved, loved that car. Unfortunately, it was in the shop way too much. Then about 1000 miles from the end of the warranty, the transmission (which they had already fixed) gave out again. With much wrestling with the warranty company, they fixed it - but I was much too nervous to come off warranty with it so I traded it in for another car. Just one more repair over $2000 which I would have had to pay for, would have wiped me out. Within a 15 month time period - they had to fix the transmission twice, replace the water pump, fix the heater that was blowing cool air, replace part of the driver's side seat belt, fix the computer because the car kept shutting down (Fortunately it actually gave a warnng before it did so). Any of these alone was a mint 'o money, had I not had an extended warranty.

Dianne -

That's what I'm worried about. This car has 151,000 miles on it and I've had it since 2006. I put about 16,000 a year onto it. The exhaust has literally fallen off and all sorts of other things have gone wrong. If it has something catastrophic now I'll be in trouble. It only gets 21mpg. So if I get a car with a low monthly payment and high gas mileage I could end up saving a lot of money.

I currently spend $2,100 a year on gas. That's a LOT of money just on gas.

It looks like if I bought a used 2010 prius and even if it was worth zero dollars after 5 years, I would only be putting $4000/yr into it between purchase costs and gas. So I'd save $1000/yr by owning it, plus it would actually have a resale value at the end. Hmmmm.

Hi Lisa,

You've certainly done more number crunching than most people do when buying a car.
It sounds as if it might be time to buy something else and either sell the Subaru or trade it in. You'll get more money selling it yourself, but many people don't want to deal with that.
To me, buying a car that's two or three years old with low mileage is the most economical way to go. The value (and therefore cost) of the vehicle drops dramatically after the first couple of years so you're getting a vehicle that should last close to ten more years.
Let me know what you decide to do!

Steve...LOL... I actually do the sameing everytime I purchase a car it's a huge expense

Steve -

I've always done it your way. My boyfriend was just arguing the opposite way - that by buying new you get the full warranty and the zero financing and incentives. He feels that dealers have a lot of benefits they throw at you to get those new cars out. So from his point of view you don't gain much in a lower price by buying used, your interest rates are higher, you lose the warranty, and the no-damage state of the car. Someone else could have treated the car in a way you don't agree with.

We were just on a Toyota lot and used Priusses with 80k miles were going for pretty much the same price as new ones, and with none of the same "new car" financing / benefits. So maybe this car in particular holds its value.

I was recently looking at buying a new car and thought about buying a hybrid. (Hubby currently has a Prius and loves it). I was told that while a hybrid saves you money in the first 5 years, after that it starts to cost because it gets expensive to fix an older hybrid.

Anyway, 2 years ago hubby leased a Prius because he said that technology is moving so fast that he didn't want to buy the Prius, but change it when the 3 years were up.

I hope that helps.