Test Drive Tomorrow

Test Drive Tomorrow
I have convinced The Little Woman that we should go and test drive the new Tacomas tomorrow. Not that we plan on coming home with one then, or even soon, but we do want to know what to expect and whether it will even fit the bill (like we think it will).

I should actually be more specific, though: I didn’t actually talk her into it. She was scheduled to work, and I planned on going out to the dealership whilst she was making me a down payment. However she saw my schedule get a new appointment, and managed to get her shift covered so she could go with me :-)

We’re making it make sense, though. Getting the Tacoma, that is. See the way we figure it is, the 4Runner is currently 11 years old. The difference in monthly expense for the New Tacoma will be around $250-300 a month. But what happens if we don’t buy it? What happens when the 4Runner suddenly needs $1500 in service & repair? Well that’s $1500 that has to be spent to get it up to running, that also makes it worth less, and also means we’ve kept it longer which also makes it worth less as well, compounding the issue. And then? Well we have to keep it, and hope nothing else goes bad, as well. Because at that point, it wouldn’t make sense to keep it.

Here’s what I mean. Sell it now, get $5k out of it. Keep it 3 more years, we incur the further loss of value in the 4Runner (say about $2500), and the potential repair costs that WOULD be lost funds (we’ll estimate a repair schedule of $1500 in that time). So in three years, we lose about $4K in value in the 4Runner. That’s cost that cannot, no matter what, be recouped.

However, if we sell it now and get that $5K out of it, yeah we’re paying more per month over that time, but honestly? When the 4Runner goes, it’s being replaced by one anyways, which means that over that 3 years we’re paying $300 more a month, it’s not wasted – it’s going to the same bottom line as it would anyways, it’s just that we move it forward and apply that $4K value in the 4Runner towards the purchase price. Fiscally, it makes sense. Really. It does.

So maybe White? Maybe we come home with a silver one tomorrow? Eh? Eh?

Oh I’m just kidding. It’ll be at least a week before the one I eventually order comes in ;-)