Okay, on to business. No, I have not purchased my mother a new car. Yet. She's being stubborn about it. I could say that this started a week or so ago when she had a complaint about her current car, but honestly this started back when I helped her pick out her current car in 2014. I never intended for this to be the end all car for her. Cars age. Cars get better each and every year. Car payments go away. Put those together and I just figured that after 5 years I'd look and see what her current car payment could purchase at that time. Now I didn't share that sentiment with Mom as she's like me... stubborn. She doesn't like things being given to her and would rather 'do without' so that she can give to others. The fact that I'm taking my money and spending it on her is a sore spot with her.
Understand, she's not actually angry about it... but she'd rather me be happy than spend any of my money on her. Each and everything I or my brothers do for my mom involves this back and forth. It's not a surprise that it's happening again, but it's more than a little frustrating.
Mom's complaint last week was that she'shaving trouble getting in and out of her car. She's used to driving Minivans for the past 25 years or so, and those were all Chevy Astro vans. Unlike your typical minivan like the Caravan which rode like a car, the Astro rode more like a full size van. You had to get UP into it and then drop DOWN out of it. So moving to a Dodge Caliber was quite a change for her. Well... it turns out that it might have been asking too much. She now sits so low that she's having trouble swinging her left leg into the vehicle. She honestly has to grab her leg and pull it in after her. Add that to her breathing problem and that fact that she's normally out of breath when she gets TO her car and sometimes she just has to sit there out of breath half in and half out of her car.
Not cool.
Me, being her son a nurse and a decent human being came up with the conclusion that I should fix this. We could fiddle around with her car seat. Raise it up higher (it's already maxed out), add a cushion or seat lift, or add a swivel seat. But those just aren't really all that easy and act as a bandaid instead of a real fix. The real fix is getting a car that she doesn't have to sit 'DOWN' into.
So without consulting her, I started to do just that. The Chevy Astro is no longer being made, but there is the whole small SUV style vehicles that could probably work. With the current intrest rate on used car loans and considering the trade in value of her current car, I could spend upwards of $15,000. Doing a quick search on AutoTrader showed me that there were plenty of small SUVs out there that I could get for that price, but most of them were around the same age as her car. And that makes sense.... we're jumping from a compact car category to the compact SUV category... that's a more expensive group. I just hate the idea of having her make a lateral move. It'd be getting her a six or seven year old vehicle and I was already upset at those years before because it was just before some great features started working their way down to the price we could afford. Stuff like heated seats, push button start, and remote start.
The next step then was to get more cash. I could probably squeak some more money out of my budget but it would be close. Instead, I went to my brother and asked him if he could throw in between $70 and $100 a month. That would bring her payment up to the $300 a month level and could get us a $18,000 car loan!
R agreed to kick in, and I started the car search again. Now we were getting into some nice vehicles. I quickly started to build up some parameters. Here are a list of the needs and why I believe they are required for Mom's new whip:
SUV: The seating position. If getting her a new car doesn't fix the original problem then we've just wasted a bunch of time and money for no reason whatsoever.
All Wheel Drive: Since getting Isabella and finding out how great AWD is in the snow, I want Mom to have that confidence too. It's worth the $1000 upgrade that it generally costs.
Remote Start: Mom currently has that on her car (my brothers and I spent like $700 last christmas to get it installed!) and she absolutely loves it. We're not getting her a new car and taking away a beloved feature.
Push Button Start: Having her pull her keys out of her purse each and every time she gets into the car seems just silly. It's not an expensive upgrade and is available on a lot of cars.
Heated Seats: If she's starting her car to warm it up in the winter, having heated seats just makes sense. It actually will feel warmer when she gets in as the seat isn't cooling her down as soon as she sits on it.
Rear view Camera: Mom doesn't twist and turn all that well and this would really help with her vision.
Power Seats: Right along with the first feature.... this helps fix the original problem.
Those are all 'needs' or right next to it. Really the only NEEDs are SUV and Remote Start. But I want her to have an upgrade, these aren't difficult to find, and I'm sticking with it until someone tells me not to!
Other wants include Heated Steering, Power Lift-gate, hands free lift-gate, navigation system, automatic headlights, rain sensing wipers, adaptive cruise, a built in garage door opener, and the newest safety features like blind spot warning, cross traffic alerts, and lane keeping assist. Some of those are reasonable (auto headlights), some are possible but rare in the age we're looking at (power lift gates), and some probably just won't happen (the newest safety features).
The only other thing I wanted to do was make sure she wasn't getting into a car that would break down soon. Age was one thing but getting a two year old car with 175,000 miles made it useless. So I put a limit of 42,000 miles on it. Having a $18,000 price, no more than 45,000 miles and any of these features narrowed down the search options quickly. The biggest winner seemed to be the Ford Escape. I saw multiple AWD Escapes in the 2013 to 2015 range in Titanium trim (meaning all of the needs, and much of the wants), for that price. Other vehicles in the early running included the Jeep Compas and Patriots, Jeep Cherokee, Buick Encore, Chevy Equinox, Honda CRV, Kia Sportage, Hyundai Tuscon, Toyota Rav4, GMC Terrain, and then dream list entrants were the Cadillac SRX and other luxury rides.
But on all of the cars outside of the Ford Escape AWD Titaniums, there were compromises. Some didn't include needed features, some included no wanted features, some had high miles or were priced well below value (which to me means it's broke and they're getting rid of it).
And then it hit me. We're talking about a $300 a month car payment. I already admit that I don't want that to stop.... as soon as a car is paid off we can just get a new one. What about Leasing? I mean, I LOVE having my car lease! A new car with more options for less money and the guarantee that I'll get a different car every three years and that the car I drive will never run out of factory warranty! In other words... Peace Of Mind!
I ran with it. When looking at used cars it was useless to see what a car COULD have as it just depended on what cars were on the lot at that moment. But with a lease I could look at all the options, price out exactly what's right, and then move on from there. So my spreadsheet currently includes 15 various SUVs and trims and all the options at a particular price.
Now admittedly it's a 'one step forward, one step back' problem. Yes, it's new and yes that means peace of mind... but a new Ford Escape AWD Titanium goes for almost $400 a month. Now I'm already having an uphill battle on spending ANY money for a new car, so I don't want to get that extravagant even though my brother and I COULD afford it. No, I want this to stay as close to $300 as possible.
There's plenty of options, but the one I like the best is a 2018 Ford Escape AWD SEL trim. It has all the needs except for the push button start. Yeah, she'll have to continue to pull her keys out and stick them into the ignition. First world problems indeed! It also includes the power lift gate that's hands free. Being a Ford, I can walk Mom through all the options and show her easily how to use them. I even have a sales guy that can help find a perfect ride. It's easy as pie to search for this trim on a lot as the only option it needs to add is the Remote Start itself. The monthly price (as is listed on Ford's Build It Now website) would be $306. That's before any negotiation. I'd bed we could find one with a few extras and still keep the price right near $300 a month.
A few others stand out. A Ford Escape in SE trim with remote start and an appearance package has all the needed functions for only $275 a month. It lacks the power lift gate and the Sync 3 system though, and I personally think that's worth $25 a month. The Jeep Cherokee in Limited trim is only $311 a month and those look pretty sweet. The Jeep Compas in Sport trim with the Cold Weather and Technology group packages would meet all the requirements including Push Button Start for $283 a month, but it doesn't have power seats so I"m leaning against that one. The Honda and Toytoas are out as for some reason they are VERY expensive in lease form. Like $450 a month for the basic 'needs' package. Fuck that noise!
So as I see it, the next step is finding out which one Mom likes. I know she already likes the Escape as I showed her a Youtube Video that showed off all the features of the 2015 Titanium. But if she likes the Cherokee or the Equinox better then we can simply focus on that. We also need to decide if we're going to Lease or Purchase. This will all be done in Mom's name so she's the final decider in this. I think it's a no brainer to lease, but she'll be an uphill sale on that. As will my brother.
Once we have which car and which purchase price, it's a matter of getting Mom out to give it a test drive. Remember, this all started with her having a problem and that needs to be fixed. So all in all this means... Mom has to accept this.
Sigh
I had a talk with her yesterday and she's still incredibly reticent about moving forward. I can't think of any reason to wait, but Mom still wants to wait. She set a date of my vacation. She says she doesn't' want it to affect my vacation plans. I explained that it wouldn't affect my plans in any way... but she still insisted. So we're now in a holding pattern until February 16.
It probably doesn't help that we had that talk after getting her new dryer installed. The old one was dying quickly and we went out and bought one that matches the Washer we got for her last year. My Brother and I paid for the dryer and say it's her Birthday gift (her Bday is in February), and she paid for the pedestal. So yeah.... my brother and I more or less just forced a $700 gift on her and now I'm trying to force a $300 a month car payment gift on her that includes a brand new car.
Oh.. did I mention? She hasn't had a brand new car since she was in her 20s. Her and Dad always got used cars. Sometimes they were only 1 year old and only had a few thousand miles on them... but they were still used. If we do this, it will be her first brand new car that no one has driven in over 50 years. That might be making her hesitant too.
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