I had a bit of a windfall in January when I sold the Tesla stock I purchased 1 month earlier and made a nice percentage gain of 50%. Although I had hoped to use the proceeds from the Tesla stock to actually buy a Tesla, I had no where near enough money to get one of those cars and didn't want to hold the stock long enough for that to happen since I have no idea how long it would take. (looking back I now realize that if I had held out for another month, I would have gained 100%, oh well)
I started looking for a replacement car for my wife and was thinking either Mazda CX3,Toyota Prius, or Toyota RAV4. CX3 are too new to hit my price range without high miles, but not many available for sale. RAV4 is surprisingly also hard to find since people must be holding on to their cars for a long time due to extreme reliability. I thought a Prius would be easy to find since I live in truck country and nobody really cares about saving gas when it's selling for $2 a gallon but Toyota Prius seems to be fairly difficult to find also. I knew I wanted something as new as possible since the batteries typically last 10-15 years before needing a replacement.
Clicking around to various car selling sites, I found a 2015 that had just been traded at a local Toyota dealer. It was Grey with tinted windows and was a model four which means it had more bells and whistles than the cheaper 2014, I was scheduled to test drive later in the week.
I stopped by the dealer during lunch and took a quick test drive. It was bland and slow, the driving position was odd with the steering wheel feeling slightly askew to the seating position and the right armrest was a different height than the left armrest. I was surprised after a quick trip on the highway that I didn't hate the car and decided that I could live with it. With the reputation of extreme reliability, this could be a car to last us until we can actually afford a Tesla (though we may never bother to spend the money on one).
The financial struggle in my mind: is spending $12k a good/wise frugal move? I had $14k from the stock sale but only moved $12k because I was expecting to spend less than $10k for this next car. Are the bells and whistles for this particular car worth the money and the heartache I was sure to get from my wife from spending so much cash that could be used to pay extra principal on the house?
I'm not sure why, but I enjoy tooling about with this car. Maybe the thought of a reduced carbon foot print or the easy smooth and quiet ride lends itself to a low stress easy cruising experience. It's quite a departure from the excitement I get when I drive my Miata and I kind of wonder if that makes me a little psychotic.
I started looking for a replacement car for my wife and was thinking either Mazda CX3,Toyota Prius, or Toyota RAV4. CX3 are too new to hit my price range without high miles, but not many available for sale. RAV4 is surprisingly also hard to find since people must be holding on to their cars for a long time due to extreme reliability. I thought a Prius would be easy to find since I live in truck country and nobody really cares about saving gas when it's selling for $2 a gallon but Toyota Prius seems to be fairly difficult to find also. I knew I wanted something as new as possible since the batteries typically last 10-15 years before needing a replacement.
Clicking around to various car selling sites, I found a 2015 that had just been traded at a local Toyota dealer. It was Grey with tinted windows and was a model four which means it had more bells and whistles than the cheaper 2014, I was scheduled to test drive later in the week.
I stopped by the dealer during lunch and took a quick test drive. It was bland and slow, the driving position was odd with the steering wheel feeling slightly askew to the seating position and the right armrest was a different height than the left armrest. I was surprised after a quick trip on the highway that I didn't hate the car and decided that I could live with it. With the reputation of extreme reliability, this could be a car to last us until we can actually afford a Tesla (though we may never bother to spend the money on one).
The financial struggle in my mind: is spending $12k a good/wise frugal move? I had $14k from the stock sale but only moved $12k because I was expecting to spend less than $10k for this next car. Are the bells and whistles for this particular car worth the money and the heartache I was sure to get from my wife from spending so much cash that could be used to pay extra principal on the house?
I'm not sure why, but I enjoy tooling about with this car. Maybe the thought of a reduced carbon foot print or the easy smooth and quiet ride lends itself to a low stress easy cruising experience. It's quite a departure from the excitement I get when I drive my Miata and I kind of wonder if that makes me a little psychotic.
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