One of my most recent decisions in my personal life was to buy a new
vehicle. One of the largest quantitative factors was the price of gas. I
had a large, V8 SUV and my boyfriend has a diesel truck. Both were
getting decent gas mileage for their size but with my boyfriend
driving one hour both ways to work, we had to come up with a better
option. The second reason for looking into a new vehicle was both of
our vehicles are older and needing more work. All together, we have
5 kids to transport, so we need something that will seat 7 but was
better on gas than our current ones.
We first discussed buying a new car because I was pregnant and
wanting something a little better than the 15 year old vehicle I had
and gas prices were increasing and we wanted to lower that cost. We
shopped around for pricing and looked at the specs of all vehicles
fitting the criteria we were looking for. We decided we didn't want
anything too old but something that was low in miles so it would last
us a longer time. I work from home, so I can run around town in one
of the larger cars and my boyfriend can take the new one for the
longer trips to work. After purchasing a new car, I recognize that the
price of gas and the payment made on the car even out for the extra
we would have paid in gas in the older vehicles. Overall, I wanted it
for my daughter so that we have a reliable car to transport her in.
One opportunity cost of this decision is that the oldest child will be
able to inherit one of the larger cars and will be able to transport her
siblings if needed. We have also saved on gas (I've been trying to use
rewards as much as possible) for the most part. The qualitative
factors did outweigh the quantitative because we purchased a vehicle
during a time where used car prices were up and probably paid the
original price of the car in the year it was made versus now.
My boyfriend is always looking for a job closer to home but can't find
anything that pays as well. If this would have happened, we probably
would have stuck driving the gas guzzlers for a while. Like I said, I
work from home, so I don't drive my daughter around much. Getting
the car for her is just something I wanted to do so that when she's
older, I don't have to purchase one at that time and can put my money
towards providing her opportunities of her own.
