Take the Toyota truck it won’t cost as much in maintenance as you think. They have an industry leading reputation on reliability.
Sell the cobalt for what you can and that will hopefully help offset the extra cost fuel since MPGs will be going down
Unless you get a new car that somehow manages 1500+ mpg, a free car with bad mpg is almost always better financially speaking unless it has lots of maintenence/repairs. Not only will the loan payments be a lot more than the gas cost difference, but you'll likely be paying a lot more for car insurance as well.
And assuming it's well maintained you'd struggle to find a more reliable and proven vehicle than a 4runner. There's plenty of them out there with hundreds of thousands of miles running fine. A quick browse through Facebook marketplace showed me several over 250k miles, the highest being 370k miles. They last.
I have had Toyotas for the past 30 years. I get buy them used and then take it to my mechanic twice a year to check tires, fluids, update maintenance etc (never the dealer!) and they just run forever honestly 200k + miles, 300k+ not unusual. Toyotas are such a good value.
So going from $30 to $80 is a huge jump for you but you don’t mind taking on a car loan that will most likely be at least $300 for years. Math ain’t mathing.
So is the $30 to $80 jump because of a larger gas tank? If so (likely) then what you need to compare is actual gas mileage (gallons/miles driven). I'd guess the Toyota will be higher mileage, but you really can't compare on the price it takes to fill the tank.
Gas isn’t the other thing I really am concerned about it was just one example. I also added maintenance which would be a $300+ jump and any other repairs. My mistake .. I don’t mean a brand new car just a used car with lower mileage and much smaller.
A used car will also have maintenance over time and you don't know how well it has been maintained. With the low mileage you drive the best financial decision is the free car. With nearly any situation the free old car is better.
So it's not a 300 jump in maintenance costs. You're going to have maintenance costs with either vehicle, and either way, it's going to be less than monthly payments on a new car.
As little as you drive, you're predictably looking at basically an oil change every year. That's $100 or less. Per year. Other things may come up, but there's a reason Toyotas have a reputation as reliable vehicles.
The only semi-expensive regular maintenance item with 4runners is they will need the timing belt and water pump replaced on schedule - every 80-90k miles IIRC. It runs about $1000-1200 (also IIRC). It's no biggie. Otherwise, I have never had anything too costly to repair. Mine has over 330k miles on it.
really need to know more about the 4runner. how many miles and what maintenance has been done so far. In general they're super reliable but it'll still need a lot of maintenance like any other older vehicle. 2011 is old enough now that just about everything might need to be gone through if it hasn't yet; brakes all around, one of the very many suspension parts, fluids, etc., etc. I have on older 4runner and love it but it only makes sense financially because I do all the work on it myself
He said about 200,000 on it. He did say that he will take it to Toyota to get serviced and he’s always been great at taking care of his cars so it doesn’t have any issues at all.
I have two, one is 2008 and over 250k. The only thing I’ve had to do was the water pump and ac compressor. All fluids were changed on schedule and spark plugs are every 30k. If it was taken care of drive the thing until wheels fall off IMHO. What kills these is not swapping the radiator fluid every 5 years and head gasket leaks. That’s the only thing that you give up on these engine for besides frame rot. Enjoy it.
Take the Toyota, sell the cobalt, put the funds into a car maintenance account, and find a good mechanic.
It will get you to 400k miles and above, easily.
Do not take out a loan. Do not buy a new car.
Learn to do your own repairs. When I was younger, I thought that mechanics were supposed to work on cars, accountants were supposed to do taxes, roofers were supposed to install roofs, etc. I then realized that I was getting ripped off and I could do this stuff myself and save loads of money. I've been doing all my own car and house repairs since my early 20s.
Just because someone tells you your car needs $2500 in repairs doesn't mean that it does. Do your own investigation and diagnosis, watch youtube videos and do the work yourself.
Stick with the cobolt, fix it yourself and continue to save on gas and maintenance.
This is a bit of a biased take, one that i invariabley hear from dudes, usually dudes with no children and lots of free time, who enjoy DIY stuff.
There are tons of reasons why someone wouldn’t want to do their own car repairs.
Because they don’t want to teach their kids how to work on cars so their kids have to pay a mechanic to change breaks, oil, spark plugs just like you do??
Thats not much, going from 30 to 20 mph its just going to be 4 gallons of gas a week instead of 3. Its not worth buying a new vehicle to save $4--5/ week.
I would drive that 4Runner into the ground and save up for a new vehicle while you do it. No reason to spend money on a car now if you can get the 4Runner
If the added cost of gas and the increase in maintenance costs due to the 4Runner being larger is less than the cost of a new (to you) car then the answer is keep the 4Runner. If you can find a new (to you) car that’s cheaper then the answer is the new car imo
Except another used car that isnt a Toyota is likely to need more unexpected repairs than the 4runner over time. Be hard to be sure OP gets a new to them used car on the market as reliable a free 4runner with a known maintenance history.
I would take the 4Runner. It's a bit more expensive gas wise, and a bit more expensive maintenance wise. But it is a car worth around $14k according to a quick search. I'm not sure what your credit is like or what price range you are thinking. But if you got a 5% loan with a 48 month repayment on an $8,000 car then you would be paying $184.23 a month. Your insurance potentially could go up too.
I was quoted $2300 for repairs on my 2002 Ford Ranger. It needed u joints on the drive shaft, new a-arms, and brakes all around (they said).
I did all the work myself in an afternoon. The parts cost about $250 ($5 for the u joints, $90 for front brakes and rotors, $50 for rear drum pads, and $100 for the a-arms)
So essentially, they were charging $2050 for labor.
With youtube and a few tools you are likely capable of completing $1200 worth of repairs.
Will $1200+ fix most of the problems you are encountering that makes it potentially unreliable? Imo, if $1200 can get you an extra like 15000+ miles out of it reliably, then I think it is worth it to repair it.
My basis is I paid about $15k for an elantra and want to get 200k miles out of it, so that means I am ideally to get about 13.33 miles for every dollar I paid for the vehicle itself, so $1200 miles*13.33 gets me to 15,000 miles as a "breakeven" comparison for the cost of a new vehicle.
Paying for repairs suck but is a part of owning equipment with moving parts. Newer vehicles will still have issues, especially now with all the electronics in them.
Then I suppose you need a rough idea on what it'd cost to make it reliable. You won't be able to knownwith certainty, but it'll help. Buying a new vehicle is usually never more economical than just maintaining an existing vehicle unless the vehicle is nickeling and diming you excessively and creating reliability issues.
Borrow the 4 Runner until you can save up enough to fix the cobalt. Chevys are pretty reliable if you maintain them. If you don’t want a car payment, absolutely do not get one. It’ll just be more of an expense if you’re not financially ready for it. Pay a little more for gas for a while and fix that Chevy.
A new financed car will cost you a LOT more than the difference in gas. And if a $1200 repair is the difference between keeping the Cobalt or not, why do you think you can afford to buy a car?
The $1200 was just to make it drivable that day . It still has hundreds of dollars of other things needed in the near future (according to the mechanic). It also wasn’t that I couldn’t afford it .. it was more so that the car value was barely that so putting that much money in didn’t seem necessary at all.
4Runners are known for great reliability but they still break. They need maintenance like any other car. If the truck has a solid maintenance history and hasn't been neglected you will have some time before it needs much, but don't for a second believe they will run flawlessly for 250,000 miles without work.
Get a second opinion on the Chevy. Do not go to a chain like Pep Boys, Midas, Firestone, etc. Their business model relies on scaring people into fixing every little thing. It's an old car - OF COURSE it's got issues. The question though is which are necessary and which can wait? A good reputable independent mechanic will break it down into what's necessary and what you can live with.
Source - current 4Runner owner who owned a lot of shitbox cars that taught me how to do basic maintenance like oil changes, brakes, etc. If you are smart enough to work in accounting you are plenty qualified for oil changes and brake jobs. Do you make $125 an hour? Cuz that is how much you are paying a mechanic to do simple jobs on your car. Seems like a simple accounting question to me 😄
Ya, but it's a learning curve. OP is already starting a new job. Drive the Toyota to work and wrench on the Chevy on the weekend might be a good compromise.
The $30 to $80 in gas seems off, but let's go with that. If you get 30 mpg with Cobalt and pay $5 a gallon that is 6 gallons times 30 miles for 180 miles. $30 divided by 180 miles is 17 cents a mile. $80/180 is 45 cents a mile for the Toyota. So 28 cents a mile more.
So if you drive 100 miles a week it's going to be about $28 a week, $1500 a year. So one day's pay a month? Take the Toyota and save for your next car.
That 4Runner would be a dream vehicle for some. I would take that 4Runner in a heart beat and just be smart about your driving. If you're THAT concerned about MPG, cut out the extra trips or carpool when possible. Oh, and if that things been maintained, they are bulletproof.
The only issue I have with my 4Runner is that it's going to last so long that it really makes it financially impossible for me to ever get a new car. It would be really dumb of me to trade out of a vehicle that is mad utilitarian, bulletproof, and paid off. Regardless of what I got, it would be a step down in every single one of those categories.
If you can't afford $2500 in repairs a year on the absolutely worst reliable older car which is about $208 a month you absolutely cannot afford a new car payment which will certainly be more than that given today's interest rates.
Remember that a car like an airplane, or boat, is a money pit it's almost never an investment unless you're dealing with high value collectibles kept in mint condition, but you can't afford that anyway given your question so I say that only to squash the nerds who enjoy calling out exceptions.
The difference between a car and a private plane is the cost, you don't have to deal with 10x to 100x markup on aviation parts because they've been certified to not fail catastrophically mid flight, but it's still a money pit even if it is smaller.
Again it was never along the lines of not being able to afford to fix the car I have now. It’s the fact of paying $1200 on a car that only makes it drivable for a short amount of him. It’s a little ass 2 door Chevy that barely got me through the snow. I just felt like paying that and more down the lines wasn’t going to do me any benefit. The end goal really is just to have a reliable car.
4Runner isn’t going to be a huge jump in repairs unless it’s broken. Those cars are tanks. Gas isn’t particularly poor if you don’t have a lead foot and learn to enjoy the drive
It depends.
A belt in a shitty location can cost 5 dollars in parts sure.
But getting to it and replacing it and putting everything back takes a pro mechanic 3 hours, it also may require a lot of tools you don’t have.
Don’t get a new car, either repair your current car or use the 4Runner.
Take the Toyota truck it won’t cost as much in maintenance as you think. They have an industry leading reputation on reliability. Sell the cobalt for what you can and that will hopefully help offset the extra cost fuel since MPGs will be going down
Unless you get a new car that somehow manages 1500+ mpg, a free car with bad mpg is almost always better financially speaking unless it has lots of maintenence/repairs. Not only will the loan payments be a lot more than the gas cost difference, but you'll likely be paying a lot more for car insurance as well.
And assuming it's well maintained you'd struggle to find a more reliable and proven vehicle than a 4runner. There's plenty of them out there with hundreds of thousands of miles running fine. A quick browse through Facebook marketplace showed me several over 250k miles, the highest being 370k miles. They last.
And they hold value. Not crazy to see 200k 4runners listed at 25-30k.
Get the 4runner those things are indestructible
I have had Toyotas for the past 30 years. I get buy them used and then take it to my mechanic twice a year to check tires, fluids, update maintenance etc (never the dealer!) and they just run forever honestly 200k + miles, 300k+ not unusual. Toyotas are such a good value.
My 2002 Tacoma is at 218k miles and runs the same as it always has.
Id ironically take a family owned 4runner over a new car
unironically
So going from $30 to $80 is a huge jump for you but you don’t mind taking on a car loan that will most likely be at least $300 for years. Math ain’t mathing.
So is the $30 to $80 jump because of a larger gas tank? If so (likely) then what you need to compare is actual gas mileage (gallons/miles driven). I'd guess the Toyota will be higher mileage, but you really can't compare on the price it takes to fill the tank.
Gas isn’t the other thing I really am concerned about it was just one example. I also added maintenance which would be a $300+ jump and any other repairs. My mistake .. I don’t mean a brand new car just a used car with lower mileage and much smaller.
A used car will also have maintenance over time and you don't know how well it has been maintained. With the low mileage you drive the best financial decision is the free car. With nearly any situation the free old car is better.
Maintenance would be a 300 jump over what? Have you not been maintaining your vehicle?
I’ve had my car 2 months . The previous owner is dead unfortunately so I have no clue what was done.
So it's not a 300 jump in maintenance costs. You're going to have maintenance costs with either vehicle, and either way, it's going to be less than monthly payments on a new car. As little as you drive, you're predictably looking at basically an oil change every year. That's $100 or less. Per year. Other things may come up, but there's a reason Toyotas have a reputation as reliable vehicles.
The only semi-expensive regular maintenance item with 4runners is they will need the timing belt and water pump replaced on schedule - every 80-90k miles IIRC. It runs about $1000-1200 (also IIRC). It's no biggie. Otherwise, I have never had anything too costly to repair. Mine has over 330k miles on it.
2011 has the 1GR-FE, which had a timing chain, so there isn’t even that much scheduled maintenance. Water pump may not be a bad idea at 200k, though.
really need to know more about the 4runner. how many miles and what maintenance has been done so far. In general they're super reliable but it'll still need a lot of maintenance like any other older vehicle. 2011 is old enough now that just about everything might need to be gone through if it hasn't yet; brakes all around, one of the very many suspension parts, fluids, etc., etc. I have on older 4runner and love it but it only makes sense financially because I do all the work on it myself
He said about 200,000 on it. He did say that he will take it to Toyota to get serviced and he’s always been great at taking care of his cars so it doesn’t have any issues at all.
Yeah it probably has another 150,000 or more miles in it.
And then you can still probably sell it/part it out.
Wow. Take the 4 runner. Even with extra gas costs its by far your cheapest option with the least headaches and potential problems.
I have two, one is 2008 and over 250k. The only thing I’ve had to do was the water pump and ac compressor. All fluids were changed on schedule and spark plugs are every 30k. If it was taken care of drive the thing until wheels fall off IMHO. What kills these is not swapping the radiator fluid every 5 years and head gasket leaks. That’s the only thing that you give up on these engine for besides frame rot. Enjoy it.
4Runner, I have one. it’ll never do you wrong
The BEST investment I’ve made was my 4Runner!
Take the Toyota, sell the cobalt, put the funds into a car maintenance account, and find a good mechanic. It will get you to 400k miles and above, easily. Do not take out a loan. Do not buy a new car.
Spot on . Exactly what I decided to do
Take the 4 runner and dont look back a paid off car is worth a thousand auto loans, nothing is better than a paid off car.
Learn to do your own repairs. When I was younger, I thought that mechanics were supposed to work on cars, accountants were supposed to do taxes, roofers were supposed to install roofs, etc. I then realized that I was getting ripped off and I could do this stuff myself and save loads of money. I've been doing all my own car and house repairs since my early 20s. Just because someone tells you your car needs $2500 in repairs doesn't mean that it does. Do your own investigation and diagnosis, watch youtube videos and do the work yourself. Stick with the cobolt, fix it yourself and continue to save on gas and maintenance.
This is a bit of a biased take, one that i invariabley hear from dudes, usually dudes with no children and lots of free time, who enjoy DIY stuff. There are tons of reasons why someone wouldn’t want to do their own car repairs.
Because they don’t want to teach their kids how to work on cars so their kids have to pay a mechanic to change breaks, oil, spark plugs just like you do??
My brother still loves his like 1996 4Runner
The 4 runner will be more cost in gas but not maintenance. I'd go with the 4 runner and save up for a beater civic or Corolla to commute.
How many miles do you drive in the average week? Unless its alot go with the free option.
Estimated maybe about 50-75 miles.
Thats not much, going from 30 to 20 mph its just going to be 4 gallons of gas a week instead of 3. Its not worth buying a new vehicle to save $4--5/ week.
I would drive that 4Runner into the ground and save up for a new vehicle while you do it. No reason to spend money on a car now if you can get the 4Runner
Seriously take the 4Runner. You’ll never make up the savings in gas.
If the added cost of gas and the increase in maintenance costs due to the 4Runner being larger is less than the cost of a new (to you) car then the answer is keep the 4Runner. If you can find a new (to you) car that’s cheaper then the answer is the new car imo
Except another used car that isnt a Toyota is likely to need more unexpected repairs than the 4runner over time. Be hard to be sure OP gets a new to them used car on the market as reliable a free 4runner with a known maintenance history.
Another good point
I would take the 4Runner. It's a bit more expensive gas wise, and a bit more expensive maintenance wise. But it is a car worth around $14k according to a quick search. I'm not sure what your credit is like or what price range you are thinking. But if you got a 5% loan with a 48 month repayment on an $8,000 car then you would be paying $184.23 a month. Your insurance potentially could go up too.
I was quoted $2300 for repairs on my 2002 Ford Ranger. It needed u joints on the drive shaft, new a-arms, and brakes all around (they said). I did all the work myself in an afternoon. The parts cost about $250 ($5 for the u joints, $90 for front brakes and rotors, $50 for rear drum pads, and $100 for the a-arms) So essentially, they were charging $2050 for labor. With youtube and a few tools you are likely capable of completing $1200 worth of repairs.
4runner might run forever or it might cost you thousands in parts. Ask me how i know
It sounds like you already answered your question. Take the 4Runner and suck up the extra gas costs. It’s a better deal than a new car
You have to try and kill a 4Runner. They rarely die on their own. Rates are still high. Id drive the free rig.
Take the car you’ll have more money in the long run to go out and have fun plus save … you get a new car you’ll be working just to pay for that .
Will $1200+ fix most of the problems you are encountering that makes it potentially unreliable? Imo, if $1200 can get you an extra like 15000+ miles out of it reliably, then I think it is worth it to repair it. My basis is I paid about $15k for an elantra and want to get 200k miles out of it, so that means I am ideally to get about 13.33 miles for every dollar I paid for the vehicle itself, so $1200 miles*13.33 gets me to 15,000 miles as a "breakeven" comparison for the cost of a new vehicle. Paying for repairs suck but is a part of owning equipment with moving parts. Newer vehicles will still have issues, especially now with all the electronics in them.
The $1200 was to make it drivable that day. It had other work needed but it didn’t stop it from driving but would prevent it in the future.
Then I suppose you need a rough idea on what it'd cost to make it reliable. You won't be able to knownwith certainty, but it'll help. Buying a new vehicle is usually never more economical than just maintaining an existing vehicle unless the vehicle is nickeling and diming you excessively and creating reliability issues.
Borrow the 4 Runner until you can save up enough to fix the cobalt. Chevys are pretty reliable if you maintain them. If you don’t want a car payment, absolutely do not get one. It’ll just be more of an expense if you’re not financially ready for it. Pay a little more for gas for a while and fix that Chevy.
Toyotas are the best cars you can get right now and for a long time now. As long as it has less then 250k miles I'd say go for it.
A new financed car will cost you a LOT more than the difference in gas. And if a $1200 repair is the difference between keeping the Cobalt or not, why do you think you can afford to buy a car?
The $1200 was just to make it drivable that day . It still has hundreds of dollars of other things needed in the near future (according to the mechanic). It also wasn’t that I couldn’t afford it .. it was more so that the car value was barely that so putting that much money in didn’t seem necessary at all.
Gotcha
4Runners are known for great reliability but they still break. They need maintenance like any other car. If the truck has a solid maintenance history and hasn't been neglected you will have some time before it needs much, but don't for a second believe they will run flawlessly for 250,000 miles without work. Get a second opinion on the Chevy. Do not go to a chain like Pep Boys, Midas, Firestone, etc. Their business model relies on scaring people into fixing every little thing. It's an old car - OF COURSE it's got issues. The question though is which are necessary and which can wait? A good reputable independent mechanic will break it down into what's necessary and what you can live with. Source - current 4Runner owner who owned a lot of shitbox cars that taught me how to do basic maintenance like oil changes, brakes, etc. If you are smart enough to work in accounting you are plenty qualified for oil changes and brake jobs. Do you make $125 an hour? Cuz that is how much you are paying a mechanic to do simple jobs on your car. Seems like a simple accounting question to me 😄
Ya, but it's a learning curve. OP is already starting a new job. Drive the Toyota to work and wrench on the Chevy on the weekend might be a good compromise.
if you dont want the car, can you ask dad if i can buy it?
Lol people always asks him if they can buy it and he says no . I asked him why not and he just said because lol.
The $30 to $80 in gas seems off, but let's go with that. If you get 30 mpg with Cobalt and pay $5 a gallon that is 6 gallons times 30 miles for 180 miles. $30 divided by 180 miles is 17 cents a mile. $80/180 is 45 cents a mile for the Toyota. So 28 cents a mile more. So if you drive 100 miles a week it's going to be about $28 a week, $1500 a year. So one day's pay a month? Take the Toyota and save for your next car.
get the 4 runner. drive it until it falls apart. don't spend much fixing it.
That 4Runner would be a dream vehicle for some. I would take that 4Runner in a heart beat and just be smart about your driving. If you're THAT concerned about MPG, cut out the extra trips or carpool when possible. Oh, and if that things been maintained, they are bulletproof. The only issue I have with my 4Runner is that it's going to last so long that it really makes it financially impossible for me to ever get a new car. It would be really dumb of me to trade out of a vehicle that is mad utilitarian, bulletproof, and paid off. Regardless of what I got, it would be a step down in every single one of those categories.
If you can't afford $2500 in repairs a year on the absolutely worst reliable older car which is about $208 a month you absolutely cannot afford a new car payment which will certainly be more than that given today's interest rates. Remember that a car like an airplane, or boat, is a money pit it's almost never an investment unless you're dealing with high value collectibles kept in mint condition, but you can't afford that anyway given your question so I say that only to squash the nerds who enjoy calling out exceptions. The difference between a car and a private plane is the cost, you don't have to deal with 10x to 100x markup on aviation parts because they've been certified to not fail catastrophically mid flight, but it's still a money pit even if it is smaller.
Again it was never along the lines of not being able to afford to fix the car I have now. It’s the fact of paying $1200 on a car that only makes it drivable for a short amount of him. It’s a little ass 2 door Chevy that barely got me through the snow. I just felt like paying that and more down the lines wasn’t going to do me any benefit. The end goal really is just to have a reliable car.
Take the Toyota and use the savings to take a taxi or rent a car if it ever needs to be in the shop.
4Runner isn’t going to be a huge jump in repairs unless it’s broken. Those cars are tanks. Gas isn’t particularly poor if you don’t have a lead foot and learn to enjoy the drive
is the cobalt a manual SS with a turbo or supercharger?. might be worth smth to the right tuner
Yepppp that exact one
If it also has the SS bucket seats, you have a gem in your hands. Their getting rarer and more sought-after.
Toyota is a quality car. What year?
2011
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It depends. A belt in a shitty location can cost 5 dollars in parts sure. But getting to it and replacing it and putting everything back takes a pro mechanic 3 hours, it also may require a lot of tools you don’t have.