What should I do in this situation (broken cars and need to get to work)?

Tk8398 wrote: Life is too short to drive a Nissan versa lol.

Life is too short to walk because the crappy cars you get excited about are sitting in the driveway.

You are selling this idea short.

A brand new Versa vs a 20 year old E300D? The Versa will match the performance in almost all counts (except fuel economy- the Versa wins in a landslide). Maintenance: Versa $0, Mercedes $Your Firstborn.

Unless you get turned on by 20 year old leather seats, it's a perfectly reasonable suggestion.

You'd have a perfectly reliable car to get to work (that you'd NEVER have to work on), could repair and sell the Merc within a year (paying off the Versa), you could finish the Subie as a fun car (which is the car you love anyway), and when you are ready, you can sell the Versa for not much less than you paid (because it is nearly at the bottom of the depreciation curve when brand new).

And the Versa is a FAAR better autocrosser than the Merc.

Have you driven one, or just decided it's E36 M3 because its not talked about on your favorite internet forums?

Sounds to me like your pride means more to you than getting to work reliably.

markwemple wrote: But the Versa is a horrible drive. Sorry, but it is. It's the modern Hyundai Pony, but without the character.

I don't hate it. Is it as spirited as my old cooper s? Lol nope. Does it have the power my ms3 does? Nope. Can I still find enjoyment chucking it into corners? Yeah. I mean, it's a penalty box class car to be sure. But it starts, runs, drives, has cold ac, and can hold a E36 M3pile of cargo. Idk. Mayne I've stopped being worried about stuff like that, but it does do what a car is supposed to do. I have toys for toys sake. But i go to work in a versa.

Wow, I thought my post would've gotten flamed on GRM.

Buy moar cars!! What is this two car BS? Hell, I'm an amateur around here and I have five. Only one isn't entirely ready for some level of road trip at the moment and only one cost anything resembling payments. Otherwise the purchase prices for the cheap 4 were $2,400, $1,600, $1,200, and $750. Sure, they aren't shiney new fancy shmancy rides like a Versa but the $1,600 Suburban has hauled my family to Florida twice and Massachusetts 4 times. It's a workhorse.

My $.02 worth. I live 42 miles from work. I will buy a carefully chosen sub $2000.00 car and drive it for 3-5 years then junk it and start over. Brakes, tires and exhaust are my usual replace items. I've had a 80 chevette for 5 years bought it for $600.00 with only 49000 miles on it. Several sets of brakes and tires and an alternator were my only problems. Your looking for a car that was owned by someone who always goes to a mechanic and does whatever the mechanic tells them.

yupididit wrote: Wow, I thought my post would've gotten flamed on GRM.

The only car I've ever seen not get defended was the land rover freelander.

Get the Jetta, it has stability enhancing suspension.

In reply to mndsm:

My neighbor has one of those just sitting. Maybe I should make an offer lol

In reply to yupididit:

Yeah, maybe if he pays you to take the poor thing....

I think I managed to get the fan to work in the Subaru again (used sensor, used crush washer, etc but it isn't leaking and the fans come on lol) so that maybe have solved the problem at least until the throwout bearing finishes disintegrating it's self. I honestly don't think buying a new car is worth it, it's too expensive ($350 or so a month for payment and extra insurance) to drive a car I don't even want, worst case if both other cars died at the same time I'd rent a car for the rest of the week and buy another beater the following weekend. I do think it's time to replace the Mercedes though, I actually haven't had to spend that much money on it in the 3 years I have had it but lately stuff has broken a few times that takes too long to fix with only the weekend to do it.

I went and bought a CPO Honda Fit a few years ago and my payment is $220/mo with about $40 extra in insurance. I paid $15500 so not sure how a $9500 Versa would be more monthly. I was in a similar situation to you at the time but ultimately decided I was done driving "cool" cars every day and worrying about getting to work, as $260 a month was a drop in the bucket compared to losing my $50k a year job. There are times that a car payment makes sense even for us enthusiasts and it sounds like yours is one of them. Even if you don't go the payment route you should take that $4500 and buy something dependable, I.E. a Honda or Toyota made in the past 10-15 years. Project cars are for evenings and weekends, if you need to stress out about getting to work every day you are doing it wrong.

I rented a Hyundai Accent a while back. It was surprisingly fun and did amazing hand brake turns.

If I needed a cheap appliance, I'd go there. Hondas & Toyotas hang onto their value too long.

pointofdeparture wrote: if you need to stress out about getting to work every day you are doing it wrong.

This x 1000

In reply to Tk8398:

I respect your decision, but your math is terrible.

A $9500 Versa less your $4500 down payment would mean only $5000 financed.

$5000 for 3 years at 10% would only be $161 per month. If you got 5 year financing, it would be $93 per month.

Nowhere near $350.

In reply to SVreX:

(just reinforcing your point)

Well, let's assume he's got to pay sales tax and various fees as well, so make it $760 for tax (8%? I don't know where the OP is at, but at least in my experience, that's a high rate) and let's assume an aggressive dealer adding $500 in "fees", so that total comes up to $10,760 minus his $4,500 down = a note for $6,260. For that small amount, rates should be between 4%-6.5% depending on credit, but let's go worst case again on a 60 month at 6.5%, so $121/mo.

I'm not sure what the OP's driving record or credit is, but to go the rest of the way to $350/month on the Versa with insurance would be an annual premium of over $2,700. Maybe if you're high risk and have a hard time qualifying for that 6.5% rate, that might be a reality, but it seems like that's way more for insurance that it should be. If you've got great credit, you could even qualify for an unsecured note on the car and you could drop your insurance premium by raising your deductible (or, I guess, even go with legal minimums on liability and no other coverage, but that always seemed a little foolish to me, given the cost - but if you're really $2,700/yr in added insurance then you're only about 4 years away from paying for the car outright in just premiums, so maybe paying that premium to yourself in a separate savings account might make sense. But then, if your premium is that high, there's probably actuarial evidence that you're either really going to need that insurance or maybe you should just stick to Uber and stay off the road...)

So, even at a bad credit rate for 60 months, unless you are a really bad insurance risk, you're nowhere near $350/month. And even if you are: $4,200 annually to be able to show up to work. We're at $10 per work day (fine, make it $15 to include fuel and maintenance).

But, it's awesome that you've got the Subaru running! That's certainly going to be the cheapest option in terms of acquisition cost.

In reply to wae:

Umm, I agree with you, but OP specifically said $350 payment PLUS extra insurance.

There's no way that payment is gonna be anywhere near $350, unless the lender's name is "Vinny" and his services protect you from getting your knees broken.

Tk8398 wrote: ($350 or so a month for payment and extra insurance)

I took that to mean the 350 included both. But if it didn't, you're even more right!

Now imagine if, after he buys the versa with that handsome dp of $4500 (which would drop your rates) he then turns around and sells the Mercedes for $5000. He could be debt free with a new car. From there he could save his money or waste it on cars and still not worry about getting to work.

Or, if his credit is crap he could put that 5k in the bank and let the loan pay out monthly so his credit score can go up.

Anyway it looks like op got it figured out. Glad you can get to work again.

The Subaru runs for now so yeah that seems to fix the problem at least for a while . I did look into getting a new car a couple years ago, and I figured about the best deal I could find (Ford Fiesta 1.0 was one I had looked at) would end up being $250 or so a month plus an extra $100+ for insurance (I currently pay about $1400 a year to insure the Subaru and Mercedes and I don't anything in my driving record increases the premium). I had a mk4 jetta TDI for a while that I ended up selling partly because the insurance (even liability only) was like $2200 a year.

The rates on that jetta is crazy. I think I pay about $2300 a year to insure about 4 to 5 cars.

After seeing so much cool, oddball, orphans and builds on grm, almost any car has potential to be cool. It's the owner that makes it so. Dodge work van - people race them. Box truck - yep been raced. Yugos, wartburgs, cheap ass hundai.,. All considered penalty box cars, yet someone here made a cool one. Look at the nameplates fit ITA/ITB - a bunch of econo cars. About all would leave my old car in the dust.

Geez. I have not yet paid more than $4600 for a car and we've had a whole bunch of reliable ones. You'll be fine.

I think you should change the water pump on the Merc, the throwout bearing on the Subaru, and then put them both up for sale.

When one sells, go drive a bunch of late-model or new cars. $10,000 should get you a fun, reliable car.

1) How far is your 20 minute commute? Have you considered a bicycle? My commute is around 20 mins. If I can't get a ride from a friend or something, I can make it in 37 mins on my bike.

2) Versa is not a bad option, nor is any number of "penalty boxes" available for <$10k with very low miles, reliable, and under warranty. Everyone likes to hate on them, but Versas aren't bad to drive if you aren't used to a high end car and don't have a superiority complex. They are a E36 M3load better than taking the bus, losing your job, etc. because you have two broken cars that can't get you there.

Versa? Gross. I'd go back to a w126 before getting a Versa. I can't stand penalty boxes though. Just because I hate a boring, bland, point a-b cars doesn't mean I have a superiority complex.....it just means I hate boring, bland, point a-b cars.