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Temptation

March 27th, 2014 at 03:59 pm

Long story short, DW is borrowing her parent's 2013 Chrysler Town & Country minivan for a couple of days. She will be hauling several pre-teens to Lansing tomorrow, and their van is roomier (and nicer) than ours is.

I drove our girls to an event in it last evening, and I'm telling you - this thing is loaded - leather heated seats, digital everything, touch screen radio, DVD - front and back, back-up camera, automatic opening side and rear doors, it rides like a dream, etc. All are luxuries you can get used to. All are temptations.

Before you ask, yes, they paid for it in cash. And they will drive it until it nearly dies.

Sometimes I wish I didn't even know those luxuries existed.

I'm guessing we'll have our van for about another year and a half. Then, we'll be in the market. And, we'll remain true to all of the guidelines I've learned here on SA - finance for no more than three years, with monthly payments not to exceed 10% of take home pay. Actually, I will shoot for monthly payments of more around 6-8% of monthly take home pay. But, yes the purchase will most certainly be financed for three years.

If anything, experiencing these more high-end features will strengthen my resolve to save more for a down payment, so we can actually afford some of them.

7 Responses to “Temptation”

  1. doingitallwrong Says:
    1395936339

    The Town & Country is my dream car. I'm so glad it escaped the chopping block, where it was rumored to be in 2012! I've rented one a few times, before I had a multiple-critter-hauling-friendly vehicle, and never found one thing not to love about it.

  2. creditcardfree Says:
    1395936348

    The thing to remember is that there are heated seats and leather in older vans, too, so maybe a new to you used one with some upgrades will be in order. Our van is 7 years old, no back up camera or blue tooth/usb upgrades, but we do have those leather heated seats, dual sliding doors and DVD (which we only use on long trips). I'm not saying that to brag, but so you can keep your eyes open for the used vans with some of those amenities.

  3. Mooshocker Says:
    1395942937

    Walk...it's cheaper. Regarding heated seats....well, try some of those hunting hand warmers in your back pockets.....lolololol...hahahahahahahahahahahahahahah....

  4. Petunia in a Flower Garden Says:
    1395944602

    I hear you. I am driving a 20+ year old Toyota. I love my car, but. . . I've driven a friend's much new Toyota mini-van a few times. Very nice ride.

  5. Buendia Says:
    1395959440

    I sometimes wish I never knew about those amenities either! I love the heated seats, and I would be so happy to be able to hook my iphone up to the car so that I could play songs from my playist or listen to podcasts. Those and more safety features are the only things I want. But my car is only 6 years old (and only 44k miles), so I hope to be driving it a lot, lot longer.

    I found a heated blanket that plugs into the car's electrical outlets. That seems like it could work draped over my seat. (They make seat covers that will do this, and I tried one, but it drastically changed the shape of my seat and it wasn't comfortable).

  6. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1395964660

    Until I got my current car, every time I drove a rental car or one of my parents vehicles, I would start thinking about how nice it would be to have an updated car.

    (I had a 97 Honda Civic. The windshield wipers didn't work right, the cruise control didn't work, the radio didn't work, the electric locks didn't work ... etc.)

    When I put my Honda out of it's misery and upgraded to my Toyota Yaris, I was extremely happy with it - even though it doesn't have many extras (a place to plug my iPhone into is about the only "extra") - it was a major upgrade from what my Honda had devolved into. 9 years or so from now, my next vehicle might have something else extra ... who knows. Smile

  7. MonkeyMama Says:
    1396037775

    I don't know - I just don't get excited about that stuff. Automatic doors - I don't really get it. DVD player - meh. I don't really want that in the car. (Though I could see the advantage if had problematic kids and drove a lot, etc.). Heated seats are completely unecessary where we live.

    That said, we just got around to getting our stereos upgraded. I mentioned in a recent blog post that we have never skimped on our car stereos. I share because picking one luxury probably goes a long way. Especially if it is the one that you most desire.

    Also agreed with ccfree - buy it used and get everything your heart desires. Wink

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