I have a 2003 Kia Sedona. I don’t need such a large vehicle or one that has not-so-great gas mileage. BUT the vehicle only has 54,000 miles on it and I’m afraid if I sell it,the only vehicle I will be able to buy with the sale proceeds (I can’t afford to pay any extra) will be an older vehicle with double the mileage. What do you think?
If you find the right buyer, there’s no reason that you shouldn’t be able to sell it for enough to buy an equivelant sedan. It’s true that it does have the depreciation curse of Korean cars, but that’s become much less of an issue lately and I think you’ll be pleasantly suprised by how much you can get for it if you take your time selling it to a private party.
You could also try posting on craigslist an ad for a straight trade-- there might be someone out there who just had twins or something and is in the opposite situation.
Edmunds says that you could get about $6200 if it has ABS and only normal wear and tear. You could bet a year or two newer Rio or Spectra if you can get the average price to a private buyer. If you owe anything on the car, pay it off before you sell it.
While you may have a strong emotional to change to a different vehicle, there is no economic reason to do it. You can probably buy a lot of gas with what you will loose on the sale, buying another one, and the taxes you will pay.
What do you expect to improve your mileage by to make this boon doogle worth it? A very efficient but mostly tin box will get you at most 10MPG while the bulk of cars will maybe yield 2-5MPG. Hardly worth the hassle.
I have a 2000 Blazer that gets about 17 - 18 mpg that I just paid off. If I bought a car that got ~25 mpg I would save about $45 - $50 a month, a car that got 35 mpg would save $90 a month with gas at $3 a gallon. That’s a lot less than any car payment I’ll end up with if I trade an SUV in on an economy car. When I was riding my bicycle to work last summer a few times a week I was saving about $50 a month easily.
Ed B.
A lot of people won’t buy a Kia. If you need a car like the Echo, it would have been better to not get something bigger. Now, you have to consider other options such as the very one you brought up: an older car with higher mileage. It’s almost easier to get a better job. A good shopper can find a deal. A thrifty person will carpool. I hope you find an option that works. When I wanted to save money, I started cooking instead of going out. People who drank would try to stop drinking. If you have bad habits, you have a lot of options but some of them seem impossible.