Job frustration leads to impractical purchase?

[DaemonCorax]

Hey all -

 

So I'm frustrated at work. May be switching jobs in the next 6 months. Recently married. Might have a kid next year. Who knows.

I currently live off of half of my take home in come. I hardly drive. We currently have two cars: a lifted SUV that is in beautiful condition that has a sleeping platform built into the back, and an old Protege that runs great but has some "quirks."

 

Can someone please talk me out of dropping $3k on an El Camino from 1980 that has a v8 swap and a lot of common sense mods (new radiator, hoses, etc).?

Because financially I could care less, but a little voice in my head knows I just want a fun (expensive-ish) project to give me something to be excited about that isn't work.

And I've always wanted an El Camino. It's a muscle car that I can put mtn bikes in the back of.

 

Auto mechanic husband is going between "it's super impractical" and "it would be fun." The Protege would probably get sold...

[Sloth the Enduring]

I won’t. That’s my dream car (or a Ranchero).


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[james452]

I guess you need to ask yourself, are there better, more fun, more important things you could spend the money on?

 

You say you might have kids soon. It could be worth keeping that money to spend on them. Or you could use it to hire a Nanny once a week or so which will let you go out to a restaurant with your partner and do those things which people miss out on when they have kids.

[Guest]

If you can't fix the "quirks" on the car you already have first, what are you doing impulse shopping another vehicle for? 

[Baldilocks]

Not enough passenger room.  Especially if your thinking of a Kid.  My trucks have all had extended cabs since I got married and my current one is a crew cab.  You can always stick a bike rack on your current car.  Once you have a kid, you will start driving more. 

[DaemonCorax]

Well life happens -

 

As for the "quirks" in the Protege. There a limit to how many quirks are worth fixing in a $500 24 year-old car. It still drive great, and one day it will die a noble oil-burning head-gasket exploding death.

 

I didn't buy the El Camino. I changed jobs instead. Right move for sure.

[DaemonCorax]

Coming back to this almost 2 years later. The Protege went to a friend for $500. Which is what we bought it for. Twice. It's quirks were a door that didn't open, and auto seatbelt that you had to leave locked, a bouncy speedo, it burned oil so much we called it a "hybrid", and it had enough rust to easily change the meaning of the word "crumple zone." It wasn't something I would put a baby in. It was and still is a great car with something north of 206k miles on it. We replaced it with our "Dad car." Not my dream El Camino. We bought a 2007 Honda Accord with 156k miles, a 4-cyl and a stick shift. We put studded snow tires on it, and it's a great utilitarian car. It was $6k (yes, the CO used car market is insane), in great condition, and will be paid off this month. Definitely safer for the kiddo that arrived May 2019. We'll build a project car later (Rally Miata?). For now we need cars that could be driven to Alaska and back with no fear of reliability. My 2000 4Runner (manual, V6, 210k miles) and the Accord fit the bill just great.

 

On 1/26/2018 at 7:31 AM, Guest said:

If you can't fix the "quirks" on the car you already have first, what are you doing impulse shopping another vehicle for? 

Sometimes the quirks aren't economical to fix. Our friend that bought the Protege is getting great use out of it.

[Sloth the Enduring]

I’m sorry you weren’t able to get an El Camino. Maybe one day.