So, I find myself thinking of getting rid of my 09 HHR SS after just over a year of having it. I will let you know that this has absolutely nothing to do with the car, I love it! I have been bouncing this idea around, and recently found it may not be as possible as I would like, but wanted some ideas/advice/opinions on this. My payoff quote was for $21100 and I found on KBB that it was listed as a private party price of only $18700. The original idea for doing this was to get rid of a car payment as my wife has an 08 Camry LE V-6 which is almost $500/mo, and my SS is another $425/mo. Another reason was that I could get an older car (non-smog, pre-76) that I could use as my daily driver and fix it up/mod it as I can. Also it would help lower the insurance, and I could use the extra money to try to pay off the massive amount of bills we have accumulated with no end in sight of ever paying them off. I'll post this for now and go from here.

 

Just be warned....there is a reason a lot of people don't drive old cars as daily drivers. They require a LOT of work and maintenance. I tried it for a year.....didn't work so well. And mine wasn't even that old.

Not saying you can't do it, but it's just a lot more work than you'd think. You'd look cool though!

 

No debt is always better than having debt.

You would be hard pressed to put that $20,000 into a pre-73 daily driver without having to resort to gold plating. No doubt you could do it on a specialty car but then I doubt you would drive it daily.

 

Great point. And let me also add that saving all the money in the world won't help you much if you're dead. I say that because these new cars are just so much safer than the older ones (even the ones from just a decade ago) that I'm not so sure I'd want to risk my own (or my families) safety by going this route on a daily driver, esp. in the driving environment we live in today. Something to think about.....

 

This older car would be a daily driver for me just to work and back, only about a mile back and forth. My wife's Camry would be OUR daily driver around town and trip car. I wouldn't be sinking a lot of money into my car, just enough to keep it running until we got our bills down and out of my in-laws house. I would hope that I could find something that would be running well enough to get me to work and back.

 

I applaud your desire to lessen your debt. Unfortunately that is going to come at a cost with the loss of value in your HHR. You know what is best for you so I say do what feels right

 

Doesn't matter how far you drive...if it don't start, it don't start.

I would suggest even something a little older, but still relatively new? Perhaps 10 years or so? My Lumina is 11 years old and still a great reliable car you could take across the country. Not saying that couldn't have issues, but it's not as likely as a very old car. Even get something that's like a 2003 or so.

 

Something to say about "owned" cars (mine, not the bank's).

We just took our fully-paid-off '00 Olds Bravada (92k mi on the odo) from NY to Miami and back over Christmas.

One of the things that was in the back of my mind in using this vehicle for the trip was reliability.

I decided not to take my '08 HHR SS (14k mi on the odo).

Although I haven't had any trouble at all with my SS, after viewing some of the horror stories on this site, I felt safer taking the 10 year old car. It still performs flawlessly.

Nice feeling to have a good running, "owned" car.

 

Well brother, as much as I would hate to see you get rid of that sweet SS...debt sucks!! If you can help your finances by getting rid of it and improve your way of life. You have to do what you have to do! Buy a clunker and a bicycle, your commute is a mile, if the car doesn't start, take the bike! Good luck. Todd (Uma)

 

Walk or cycle is my advice.

Debt and the extra insurance needed to protect the creditor is what permits the bankes and insurance companies to thrive.