For the past 10 years I have always leased my cars. It started when I was in college, and I always just continued with the leasing because it just made sense. I liked having brand new cars every few years, and because I was leasing, my payments were lower. That’s really the beauty of leasing a car…lower payments, brand new car every few years. Obviously there are some drawbacks, and one of the big ones is the number of miles that you are limited to, but it’s always worked out for me.
Lately, though, I have been reconsidering this whole car-leasing business. The more I thought about it, the more I realized what a waste of money it was. True, my payments were lower, but I was never making any progress financially. Don’t get me wrong, I know cars are not an investment, and that they depreciate substantially the moment you drive them off the lot, but if you can hold onto them for a while after they’re paid off you can eliminate your car payment which in our case would save us a substantial amount of money. With the kids getting older we are realizing just how much money they suck out of the budget, and it has only increased the older they get, so the idea of not having a car payment is sounding really enticing.
All of this sounded good in theory, but the only problem was that we were locked into a lease through February of 2011. We did have the option to buy my car at the end of the lease, but in all honesty, it wasn’t what I saw as a good long-term family vehicle. Don’t get my wrong, I really did like my Toyota Highlander. Even though it was the absolute base model, it still felt very luxurious. However, it was starting to feel cramped with 2 kids in the backseat. When we had originally leased it, I had been thinking I wanted a minivan, but after going to the dealership we realized we could afford a Highlander (which we didn’t think would be in our budget), and since it was 4-wheel drive it just made sense.
So, after all of that thinking David and I started to research what our options were. Could we get out of the lease? What type of car made sense for us long-term? and Could we find a good deal? Thankfully the lease we had didn’t have any early-termination penalties, and basically they just wanted you to pay off your remaining payments, as well as the purchase price at the end of the lease. When we added those 2 things together they equaled about what the car was worth. So, it looked like maybe we could make it work, and I began researching vans.
I found a van that looked promising, and after talking on the phone to the salesman about it he said he thought it would work to trade in the Highlander, and buy the van. On Saturday we drove into Oconomowoc to take a look at it. We had decided that buying a used van made sense for our budget, and to be honest when I hopped into the van to take it for a drive I was pretty underwhelmed. I know owning brand new vehicles for the past 10 years might have made me a car-buying snob, so I tried to have an open mind, but I just wasn’t feeling it. The whole idea was to hold onto this van for a decent amount of time, and I knew that if I was already feeling very underwhelmed by it, over time those feelings would probably grow.
After the test drive was done we were walking back into the dealership, and I spotted a few more vans similar to the one we had just looked at. 1 van caught my eye and I told the salesman we wanted to look at it. From the moment I looked in the window I loved it. It was very similar to the van we had just looked at, but the color and interior were so much nicer, and it looked better taken care of as well. This was a van I could see myself driving for a long time!
Thus began the long, arduous process of buying the car. Thankfully our salesman wasn’t too “used car salesman” in his behavior, although we did have to play the game to a certain extent. I completely deferred to David at that point, because I loathe the going back and forth on price, payments, and interest rates. I just wanted the whole process to be over, but it honestly took a solid 3 hours of negotiating after we had decided to purchase it. David spent his time checking in on the college football scores with the salesman while we waited for the sales manager to run numbers, so he was mildly entertained and I spent my time obsessively checking Facebook and every blog I could think of on my phone wishing someone would update so I would have something to entertain me!
After we had finished up the price negoations, we had to wait for the finace guy to secure a rate for us. That whole process drove my nuts as well. I’m fairly certain he did a great job at getting us a good rate, though, so I can’t complain too much. (We did manage to lower our monthly payments, so we considered it a success). I just knew that it was Halloween, and we needed to get home to take our kids trick-or treating, so I really wanted to cut the fluff and just get it done.
We finally did drive away in our new van after spending 5 hours at the dealership. We were exhausted, but got home just in time to take the kids trick-or-treating. Thankfully Steven and Jessica had spent the date with them, so we didn’t have to drag them with us. They even braved the mall with them for some early trick-or-treating!
I know minivans have a certain reputation and a lot of people would rather die than be seen driving one, but I just have to say all of those people have never had the pleasure of driving one, or else they probably don’t have kids. I’m fairly certain having kids is what drives people to set aside all of the negative connotations associated with driving a minivan and embrace it. With a push of a button I can open both sliding doors that they sit next to, and another button will open and close the trunk area. Those little buttons make getting the stroller out of the car, and my kids in and out of it SO much easier! Especially with cold weather upon us, every moment counts in getting us in and out of the car quickly.
Of course Madline thinks it’s pretty cool too. She loves pushing the button to open and close her door, and Anthony is excited about how easy it is to see out of the windows. Madeline had told me to buy a pink car, and was only slightly disappointed when she realized it was blue. I keep trying to tell her that she will need to sell Mary Kay one day if she ever wants to drive a pink car, but she has convinced herself that pink cars are easy to come by. Thankfully, for now, the cool buttons have satisfied her and she just thinks the van is really cool. So do I!
2 Comments
November 4, 2009 at 8:06 am
I love my highlander, but a van sounds soo much better. However, it IS paid off so we’ll be driving it until it dies or we absolutely have to have more space.
November 4, 2009 at 3:19 pm
I have a friend who has FOUR kids, and she still refuses to get a minivan. I think she’s crazy. Welcome to the club!