Our original plan for buying a Prius was to sell my '06 Chrysler 300C AWD. However, we have had ZERO success selling it ourselves and any dealer willing to take it in trade has offered us a totally crappy price. We still owe money on it and it's gonna be a pain in the rear to jump thru the hoops required in order to sell to a private party. We do have an '04 Dodge Durango 4x4 SLT that IS paid for which my hubby drives. My new plan (haven't run it by hubby yet, he is golfing so CAN'T bother him now!) is to sell the Durango to buy the Prius and let him drive my Chrysler, which he LOVES anyway. He does use the Durango to go camping a couple of times a year but I believe where he goes would be accessible with the Chrysler, especially with its AWD. He also goes skiing a few times a year, but again, the Chrysler has AWD and even with the Durango he would have to carry chains. The Chrysler gets better gas mileage than the Durango. Also, he has had a few close calls with other drivers due to the lousy visibility in the Durango. My Chrysler has the back-up parking sensors and better visibilty all around so perhaps I could have fewer panic attacks when riding with him. I figure that after we pay off the Chrysler we could always get him a HiHy if he really misses having an SUV. What do you think of this plan? I would especially love to hear from the men and get their point of view. Thanks very much!
There's a song called "Pickup Man" by Joe Diffie, if you have never listened to it, go to YouTube and look it up. You will understand your husband's, and most mens relationship with their Pickup Truck. -Don
If you are wanting to save money your best choice is to live with what you already have, pay them off and drive them for several years with no car payments. If the 04 Durango is paid it makes no sense in getting rid of it now assuming it has no problems. As far as the Chrysler you may be able to walk away with a straight payoff on it. I had a friend several years ago take his 1 year old Pontiac Firebird to a Used car lot and asked the dealer if he would be willing to buy it off of him (he couldn't afford the payments), he was offered what he owed on it. Everyone was happy. Remember that if you keep the Chrysler and get rid of the Durango you now have 2 car payments.
He loves the Chrysler a lot more than the Durango. Obviously, he considers the Durango more utilitarian but I doubt that outweighs his love for the Chrysler. He's not really a truck kind of guy.
I did take the Chrysler to a Toyota dealer that has a Chrysler sister station (so to speak) and they just were not interested in giving me a fair price. You think I should take it to a Chrysler dealer or a generic used car lot? I realize we would have two pmts but we are able to throw a good bit of money extra at our pmts each month and I would anticipate having both cars paid off within two years.
You can't afford, it you wait, rather than jump about with creative ideas that will backfire. Wish they would learn that in Washington, D.C.
when my friend did it he took it to a Generic Used car only lot that said on their sign buy, sell, trade.
If you mean by "can't afford it" that we can't pay cash for the Prius, you're right. If you mean we can't afford two car pmts, you're wrong, we can and have enough money to make double pmts on both. I am thinking it's easier to sell a car we own outright rather than one we don't.
Do you live near any military bases? I've sold a couple of cars that way. Pay MWR $5 or so to put it in their "lemon lot" with a sign on it for a little more than you actually want and a contact number. Of course you do lose the use of the car while it's there. Semper Fi.
No bases here other than small reserve bases, such a bummer as I REALLY miss the commissary! Besides, I can't lose use of the car.
We are already on Craigslist, local paper (online, too), and AutoTrader (mag & online). What I really want are thoughts on my plan, especially from the male point of view.
Pay off the Chrysler with quadruple car payments over 1 year and keep both cars for another year or 2 past that then trade which ever and get a third generation Prius. If you save the quadruple payment over 2 years you could buy 2 new cars with trade-in taken into account and pay cash!
For an uneducated Aussie he is pretty smart. I like his idea the best. Bottom line though is that I think it is very unwise to trade in the Durango because it is paid for. I think you said its a 2004, it would be reasonable to assume that the vehicle has at least 6 more durable years as a daily driver. That means basically 6 years of free car, plus it can actually complement the Prius (heavy duty stuff like towing, hauling, off road camping and fishing, the trip to Home Depot or the furniture and appliance store). If you can't unload the Chrysler to a private seller or a dealer I would rather take the negative equity on the trade if you decide that you "need" the Prius. You may even consider taking a lesser equipped model to make up the difference such as the (non touring) Package #2 which costs about $22,000. Just my thoughts though.
Yep, hubby said he definitely does NOT want to ditch the Durango. So, we are back to square one in trying to unload the Chrysler.
