We went to Calgary yesterday with my car. I want to test out the carseat placement so we put it directly behind the passenger seat. We've already tried putting it in the center of our backseat but it takes up so much space that both front seats have to be pushed way up & it's not very functional for driving or passengering.
Let's just say I felt very cramped the whole way there, we had our dogs too and a few things for the day but no where near the amount of stuff we'll have once baby arrives. Then we ended up spending the night, unplanned as Tyler was too tired to drive home, and we slept on the futon. Well sleeping on my comfortable pillow top mattress can be painful enough right now so a futon made me feel like I had daggers all over my body this morning. On the drive home I had to disable the carseat so that I could put the seat back and stretch out a bit. Something that would basically not be an option once baby is here.
I had been thinking it would be nice to trade in my car for an SUV or van but I am almost done paying for it (January 2010) and was looking forward to being payment free for a while, especially with how our finances are right now. I briefly considered maybe getting a SUV/van instead of a truck for Tyler but if we want to use the Fifth Wheel my parents gave us we need a truck. Suddenly, when we got home it occurred to me that I could sell my car & get a used van/SUV (probably a van as they tend to have better mileage & be less expensive to purchase & insure). Then, it occured to me that if we could buy a van for less than my car is worth we'd have some extra money to put towards buying a truck we'd actually want (as that's been one of the hold ups of purchasing a truck right now). THEN, it occurred to me that we don't really need a truck until spring/summer for camping but we do need a second vehicle. So...if we go ahead & use the money we have now to buy a van that's about a 2000/2001/2002 then Tyler could just use my car as a secondary vehicle until we have the funds to purchase the type of truck we really want. And if we wait until spring/summer for the truck then we won't have to payout my loan on it either.
We have AMA and one of the membership features is being able to use the Gold Book, Black Book & VMR Canada to calculate used vehicle values for free. Each book gives you a low price which is what you'd get if you traded in your vehicle at a dealership, to a high value which is what the dealership would get when they sell it. Private sales go somewhere in between...so I got the following values for my 2005 Saturn Ion II:
VMR Canada: $5375 - 7200
Gold Book: $5475 - 8125
Black Book: $4500 - 6150
Taking the lowest value & the highest value of all three, I get a range of $4500 - $8125. I was pleasantly surprised as I assumed my car would be worth about half that... I figure I could start by asking $8,000 and then maybe have $6,500 as my bottom price (or there abouts). I think I have about $1500 left on my loan so if we do have to pay it off that's about $5000 towards our truck purchase minus what we get a van for. I think we can get a van for $2500 - $5000 range as it doesn't need to be supped up. For features I'm looking for a CD player, A/C & cruise control which seem to be almost standards!
I'm super pumped now as it seems like an ingenius idea and I can't believe we didn't think of this sooner! Maybe it's because the summer is essentially over now so we don't have any hopes of using the truck this year for camping so our eyes are open to other possibilities.
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