Speaking of stressful subjects - just beginning to think about this, and I’d appreciate any thoughts or advice. Not to mention prayers for wisdom...
The van feels bumpy again to me. And likely it’s all in my head, but it makes me nervous.
I just had a lot of work done to it, as you guys may recall. My first inclination is to drive it until I “get my money’s worth” out of that repair...but I’ve also been thinking that it’s getting to an age where the next part that wears out could render it more or less valueless. At the moment, it’s at a point where I could probably get a few thousand bucks out of it as a trade-in...that wouldn’t be the case if the transmission is the next thing to go, which could happen, ya know?
It’s been really, really nice not having a car payment, and I don’t want to do that, but I also am so afraid of something happening (almost certainly irrationally, but still, there it is) that I don’t go places and do things I’d like to do, because I don’t want to get stuck. The reality is that more than likely I could drive the thing across country again without an issue, but I still worry.
I’m starting to think maybe I should, relatively soon, trade the van in for a slightly newer, slightly lower mileage vehicle, most likely a boring little sedan as that’d be a lot cheaper than anything else. It’d be less convenient in some ways, but I’d feel more OK about, say, going to music stuff that’s not right in town...or even about parking in town, for that matter.
Discuss....
Sounds reasonable. You need a reliable car. I say go for it. :~)
You need a car you can trust. Maybe even something better on the roads in bad weather. Get something you can mount a bike rack to (my car doesn’t work so well for that!) and maybe with better mileage.