The other morning the wife suggested we spend the day shopping for something to replace our 2006 Tahoe to take advantage of zero percent financing manufacturers are shilling these days. After the initial shock wore off and my panic attack about spending any more time than we need to outside simmered down, damn it's been cold and snowy, it dawned on me that this could be a painful time suck since we have no idea what we would be shopping for.
While our paid off in full Tahoe has just under 120,000 miles on it, not bad for a 12 year old vehicle, it's a tad rusty underneath, it's terrible on gas, the check engine light is on and lastly and probably most importantly, it's looking horribly out of fashion with other vehicles that my wife sees in the parking lot of the Cleveland Clinic facility she works at literally around the corner from our home here in Cleveland. That reason enough to ditch it? After all, two kids in college and no car payments. If you ask me, hell no but it is the wife's ride. Happy wife as they say, happy life.
My greatest concern in replacing something for the sake of replacing something is ending up with another "soul less rental car" like the Ford Taurus we bought back in 2002. We bought that car thinking "value first" and we thought we did quite well dropping nearly $23,000 on what we considered a luxury car back then. It quickly fell out of favor not because it wasn't reliable, it was bastion of yeoman like dutifulness, it was because it quickly failed to ignite any emotional response in my wife and I; we found it boring. While that car became my daily driver for a while years ago, I got rid of it first chance I could replacing it with my current Monte Carlo that I'm as in love with today as the day I brought it home for the first time. I probably should have held onto the Taurus for another couple of years if not more but such was my contempt for it. Shame too, again, considering what a stalwart it was.
My job in the eventual process of replacing the Tahoe is to gently and lovingly inform my wife of any and all options. Of which there certainly is no shortage. What'll it be? Another Tahoe? Perhaps a lovely little sports sedan? A crossover maybe? These days deciding on what type of vehicle to purchase is more important than which make and model of the type of vehicle you've honed in on.
Like many women, my wife is partial towards today's swankily styled crossovers, not hard to see why considering that vehicle segment has some of the best looking designs on the road today. The other day I was in the Chevrolet dealership near our home, I was picking up the hood latch for the Tahoe, and I was transfixed by the new for 2018 Chevrolet Traverse. Although derivatively styled and as hard to decipher as a 1937 Plymouth is from a 1938 Pontiac, I almost passed out when I saw the $48,000 window sticker. My god, who's buying these things anyway? My math works out monthly payments at $700 and that's over 72 months. 48 months you're looking at $1041 a month for a depreciating asset. Where have we been that prices for family cars has more than doubled over the last fifteen years? Yes. Crossovers are more expensive than sedans but c'mon now. This is ridiculous. Not that we'd be shopping "new" but, again, wow. Let's shop these little family trucksters in a couple of years when the values have dropped by more than half.
Her jaw dropped when I told her about the Traverse and she then asked me if I wanted to see a movie that night. Mission accomplished, I got her off the subject. Damn I'm good. Happy New Year.
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