As you know, I love my Fiona. She's great on gas mileage, has all the bells and whistles I could hope for, has her sexy yellow paint, and just purely the definition of 'mine'. About the only car that has the same emotional impact on me (at least that I can conceivably afford) is the Hyundai Veloster. And after sitting in one of those at the car show earlier this year, the Veloster is just simply a no go.
But, Fiona is destined to be problematic. I simply put drive too many miles per year to expect Fiona to be in pristine condition until I pay her off. At 24,000 miles a year she will have roughly 140,000 miles on the odometer when I make that last payment. Her bumper to bumper warranty is in the rear view mirror and the power train warranty will expire at 60,000 miles. Having 42,000 miles on her already and with my anual driving, that means that part of the warranty will expire sometime around March of 2015. I'll be making 41 payments on her after that.
While I liked the security blanket idea of a warranty when I bought Fiona, it's never seemed quite as important as it does now.
And then there is the decline in her value. With the miles I drive, I'll always be behind the eight ball on that one. I'll owe more than shes worth, but there will be a tipping point where the value drops way faster than the amount I owe. If I could trade her in and take the least amount of debt with me, why wouldn't I? I could get into a brand new car, get bumper to bumper coverage for about 18 months (again, those miles!), and a power train coverage for a couple years.
The idea came to me a few weeks ago. I saw a commercial for the Buick Encore. It's a cute little sub compact that would probably work for me. Being a Buick, I shouldn't have any problem with the interior style or build quality. Sure, I'd be trading in 'sporty' for 'luxury' but that's not a bad thing. And even as tiny and cute as the Encore is, it's still more 'adult' than Fiona. So I took the initiative and started doing some research.
If I got an Encore, I'd lose a bit of mpg goodness. It tops out at 33mpg. That's not bad, but still not as good as Fiona's 37. I'd lose some space as it just isn't as big as a Focus (how often can you say that!?), but honestly I don't use the space I have now. I recently took my brother to pick up his daughter at work and I'm fairly sure she's the first person to sit in the back seat. Feature wise, there isn't a lot of difference.
It has that big touch screen, rain sensing wipers and a backup camera (better than my back up sensors). It has leather, heated, power seats. It has an auto dimming rearview mirror. It has bluetooth and USB. It even has limited voice control (though that is still really Ford's game over the General). But the one difference became THE difference.
It isn't offered with keyless start.
I ADORE my push button start. I love walking up to the car with my keys in my pocket, touching the door handle to unlock it, sliding in and pushing a button to start the car. Reversing out is just as easy; put her in park, press a button to turn off the engine, get out, and touch the handle to lock her up. They key stays in the pocket.
Considering that the Encore goes for quite a bit more (topping out at just over $30,000) than a used Focus, and doesn't come with my favorite feature I stopped my research.
Then last week the idea came to me again like a whisper on the wind.... get a new car get a new car get a new car.
I listened, but put up some ground rules for myself. First and foremost, I wouldn't have the same far reaching search as I had before. I would get this done in town or not at all. Getting it done in town would vastly limit my search (not even a Hyundai dealership in town!), and make it easier to finance. My credit union has standing agreements with all the major dealerships so I wouldn't even need to step into the credit union. I could finance with MY credit union at the dealership.
So... what cars would make the cut. My first thought was for one of the runners up in my last car search... the Chevy Cruze. We have a largish Chevy dealership in town and they have a lot of them on their lot. So I wandered over to their website and perused their offerings. Three of them stood out to me.
- A brand new LTZ model for $23,000
- A brand new diesel for $23,000
- A used 2014 diesel with under 10,000 miles for $19,000
Options wise, these all stood up quite nicely against Fiona. The LTZ had push button start, a back up camera, and a sunroof. They all had leather, power, heated seats. They all had bluetooth, USB, and a touch screen. And while the diesels didn't have push button start, they did have something that would make up for it... 46mpg! Extreme Frugality! I did a quick calculation and that ended up being a $6 a week difference in gas. Not much you say, when compared to the glorious push button start? Well that $300 a year and $1500 for the 'life' of the car.
So with that information in mind, I went to the dealership and took a test drive.
OH MY GOD NO to the diesel. I knew a diesel wouldn't sound or drive like a gas powered car, but it sounded hideous. While driving I kept thinking something was wrong and fighting the urge to pull off the road to check on it. $1500 is NOT worth constantly thinking my car is broke.
The LTZ... well naturally its a different beast when compared to Fiona. Fiona has a 2.0L engine. The LTZ had a 1.4L turbo charged engine. Turbos are nice, but it still doesn't have the horsepower of Fiona. On the highway when doing 60mph I red-lined it to pass an 18 wheeler... and it barely sped up. Fiona would surge and gain speed quickly.
But while it doesn't have the oomph of Fiona, it certainly could get the job done well enough. As a brand new car it would have the full warranty, would include 2 years or 24,000 miles of service (that would obviously be 1 year for me!), and would include chevy's 100,000 mile power train warranty. If I could get a decent trade in value for Fiona (I owe $16,500), and get them down a few grand... well that would be goodbye for Fiona. My heart would lose out, but intellectually it would be worth it.
Those two 'buts' though.... they only offered me $11,500 for Fiona leaving me with $5000 carry over costs. And while they did offer $2500 in incentives, it was off the sticker price of $26,000. To have this financially make sense I would need them to drop their price by almost $8000. And while I love good dicker and deal session, that's just asking to much. I told the salesman that I would think it over and visit my credit union to see if I could get a better deal, but realistically it was simply a no.
Over the weekend I looked at another option. Instead of going with a Cruze which wouldn't make me as happy as a Focus, why not expand my search a bit beyond 'local' and see if I could find a new Focus Titanium. I know damned well that I would love that car even if I couldn't get Fiona's glorious yellow blaze paint (that color was exclusive to 2012 and 2013 non ST Foci). I found one about 70 miles away that seemed right up my alley. She was brand new, had the same bells and whistles as Fiona and even added a backup camera and Nav for $23,000.
I was ready to take the next step and drive out to see what they could offer, but my brother talked some sense into me. What exactly would I be gaining? About a year and a half of bumper warranty. About 2 years of power train warranty. What would I be losing? The color and money. My car payment would likely still go up from $383 to $450. I may still love the new Focus, but I would wouldn't lust after it as I do Yellow Blazing Fiona. And in a couple years I'd be right back where I started. Owing way more than the car is worth ($5000 is nothing to sneeze at), and looking to unload it.
I believe the time to trade in Fiona before I lost too much value has past. I now have lost too much value.
The benefit... I still love my car. I still love Fiona. Now I'll just get to pray and hope that she doesn't have any major defects before she's paid off and I can get.....
Oh I can't wait until 2018!!
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