Keeping 3rd vehicle for two people?

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I live in the country. Commute to work is 19 miles one way. Wife drives more like 30 miles one way. We have a 17 Honda Crv that my wife drives. I have a 16 f150 single cab with 2.7l turbo (avg 23mpg). The third vehicle is a toyota camry 18 (avg 34.5 mpg). My wife must drive the crv due to her job requiring her to carry things occasionally. The camry wont work for her. We did just drive the camry and crv but we recently moved to the sticks and I bought the truck because it's very useful. I have about 8 acres of land. The camry is comfy, gets great mpg, and we only owe about 11k on it with 0% interest financing. We like to travel and the camry would be the vacation vehicle as well. I have been wrestling getting rid of it because I believe I can get 200k miles out of the camry no problem. I figure as far as we are out that we will be putting the mileage on the cars whether it be the truck or the camry. Insurance is an extra $370 for six months to carry the third vehicle. Registration and inspection is about $110 a year. We don't pay taxes on vehicles yearly in texas. Just looking for some other opinions.

 

[Thump553]

I think you are on the right path towards your analysis. You are looking at roughly $900 per year holding costs (not counting repairs, maintenance and car payment) to keep the Camry. Probably cheaper than renting a car for the vacation. Nice thing about keeping it is you have a backup vehicle in case of a breakdown.

If you keep it, wouldn't it make more sense to use the Camry as your daily driver rather than the F150? Talk to your insurance agent to see if that reduces your insurance costs more.

The other thing to look at is cashflow-would you net out selling the Camry and eliminating it's payment.

BTW if you can't get at least 200k out of a Camry you got a lemon (g).

 

[IronWing]

Your commutes are similar to mine (we also live in the sticks, from a car repair point of view) and I understand the value of having the third car around. On the other hand, all three of your vehicles are relatively new and the likelihood of breakdowns is low (unless you already know you got a lemon). I'm skeptical of vacation use as a reason to keep the third vehicle because rentals are so cheap now and you can adjust the type of vehicle you rent to the type of vacation you are taking. Until we got a comfy wagon again, we were renting for our long haul vacations just to save miles on the FJ (when we weren't planning any offroad vacation use). At one point we had three vehicles, all paid for. We sold the third that we weren't using much to save the ~$350/year insurance cost. If it were me, I'd sell the Camry.

Like Thump553 said, I'd also give thought to using the Camry as your daily driver and save miles on the truck.

0.02 coolcoins

 

[thedarkwolf]

Well I'm single and have three cars but at least all three of mine are paid for and none are really worth anything. Sell the camry and invest the money. You don't drive far enough back and forth to work to worry about gas mileage and the CRV is good enough for trips. I need to sell one of mine but the one I would sell needs some work to make it worth anything and I've been too lazy to do it.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Ugh. Registration is, functionally, a tax.

For your question, I'd say it can make sense:

My parents live out in the sticks and have three cars for the two of them. The "mileage" car for the long commute (an '07 Prius with 400k+ they've had since new) a supposedly more reliable 2012 Camry when my stepmom is driving alone, and a Highlander* for "truck" stuff, or giving rides to cousins/nieces/nephews and their broods. (I am broodless.)

*I know, I know. It's not a REAL truck. My parents are college professors. Taking the lawnmower to the repair shop, towing a minitrailer, or buying a couple bags of mulch is the extent of the truckiness that happens here.

The Prius is the one they'd ditch - my dad jokes about scraping the VIN off and calling an Uber if the thing ever breaks down. And with him retiring, who knows, maybe they will get rid of it now that he's not driving 600 miles a week to get to work and back. But insurance/registration is pretty cheap and it does save on gas. And they've also loaned it out to friends/family - it's the car I borrow if I fly in and want to go do tourist things or whatever, and my brother used it for a couple weeks when his car broke down last time.

Bird in the hand, basically. Or the appropriate tool for a given job.

 

[mindless1]

Keep the Camry if having an extra vehicle allows you to suffer a longer downtime on the other two, in order to DIY repairs to them.

Granted none are yet old enough that you should have a lot of repairs to do, "yet". With that in mind, I'd think about whether the extra vehicle is going to be garage kept so it doesn't get the environmental abuse and grime buildup while it isn't used. That can make a 3rd vehicle a burden. I never cared much for using car covers though, some people are okay with them.

I think I'd get rid of the Camry because it's not done with its early life depreciation yet. If I were keeping a 3rd vehicle it would be one older so it doesn't have that loss per year, or that provided some unique utility which the other two do but the Camry not so much.

 

[killster1]

Well I'm single and have three cars but at least all three of mine are paid for and none are really worth anything. Sell the camry and invest the money. You don't drive far enough back and forth to work to worry about gas mileage and the CRV is good enough for trips. I need to sell one of mine but the one I would sell needs some work to make it worth anything and I've been too lazy to do it.

yea i have 5 cars each with a different use, all of course paid for with cash when purchased. i will donate 2 of them with a good tax write off soon as i see the next promotion going maybe you can get 2000$ in write off. I wouldnt keep a extra car that im making payments on sounds crazy or better yet sell the crv unless there is a good reason to use that one.

 

[skyking]

That's what my wife and I do. Right now we are at four vehicles, because I did not get the one I wanted to sell ready in time.
Now I am laid up with a shoulder surgery and I'm perfectly happy having an extra car or two. it takes all the pressure off.

 

[nOOky]

We have 3 vehicles and live in the country also. Our third vehicle is a 2006 Hyundai Tuscon that we call our dog-mobile. We have 4 dogs, and I refuse to allow them in my vehicle. The Hyundai is worth practically nothing though, other than routine upkeep it has been cheap to drive. My wife has a short commute, but she is a vet and likes to keep certain job-related things in her car, a 2016 Honda HR-V. When the Hyundai dies her car will turn into the dog-mobile, unless we buy a different one. I drive a 2019 Ford Edge ST, which she calls the "doctor's car" since I keep my cars clean. I drive mine about 45 miles a day to work and the gym, and we use it for long drives or vacation since it is roomy and a lot more comfortable then her Honda.

If we didn't have the dogs I might get rid of the third vehicle just to avoid the insurance, registration, and hassle of parking it as we have a small turn around and a long narrow country driveway. I don't post photos here, but if you knew the damage 4 dogs could do just cosmetically from one ride in a new vehicle, it's incredible. Our dog-mobile over time has parts of the back seat chewed out, the seat belts are all chewed off, and there must be 50 pounds of sand ground into the carpet and seats from them hopping in wet and muddy.

I would add rental car insurance on my policy if I didn't have a backup car though, and put money away for major repairs if I got rid of the third vehicle.

 

[Scarpozzi]

We have a 2009 F150 regular cab (35k), a 2011 4Runner (72k), and a 2016 Odyssey (39k).... The truck is our 3rd vehicle. It also allows me to run trash and recycling....move furniture, my mower, haul boats,etc....and it's a backup vehicle.

All costs aside, it's convenient to have 3.

 

[RLGL]

OP, no worries, I also have three vehicles for 2 people. Honda Accord for wife, Honda Civic for myself and a '96 F150 for the chores etc on the property and hauling. The Accord is a '12 with 97K, the Civic is a '13 with 47K and the F150 has 127K. The Accord was bought new. The Civic had 10K on it when purchased in late '13 and the F150 had 18K when purchased in early '98. I took the F150 off the highway in '02 and drove a Neon (200K) until I purchased the Civic.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

The extra registration fees should just be chump-change to someone in need of a spare vehicle. Monthly car payments plus full-comprehensive insurance are a burden.

I anticipate a strategy whereby I pay for a new vehicle outright and pay the full insurance bill; an extra vehicle would not be a new one, but rather old enough to risk the minimal legal insurance bill. I'd consider alternative strategies of a minimal car payment, or simply limiting myself to a "pre-owned" vehicle paid in cash. The choice of insurance would be a matter of mileage and the blue-book value at risk without full-comprehensive.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

We ended up selling it to a Toyota dealership. I got a couple grand less than I would've selling it myself. It was beginning to be a headache trying to make a decision on it so I just got rid of it. I need a tractor to take care of the property and those things are not cheap. I can't justify having so many payments. I typically like to have one payment at most, besides my mortgage. We owe 5k on the truck and CR-V is paid off. After the truck is paid off we will probably take on a small loan on a tractor. I just can't have 2 or 3 payments going on besides a mortgage. We could afford it but it's risky to do something like that. Thanks for your opinions on things.

 

[KK]

What kind of tractor are you going to go for?

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

What kind of tractor are you going to go for?

I'm leaning towards a yanmar 424 4wd with a loader attachment. It's around 15k. The Kubota equivalent L2501 is around 18.5k. I would prefer Kubota due to resale probably being better and there are a million Kubota dealers around here. 3k plus difference in price is too much too swallow for the Kubota name. I'm also going to get a box blade for the driveway and a 5 foot rotary cutter for the mowing.