Come 2005, I don’t want to get stuck paying for a new car with a six- or eight-year loan. Committing yourself to that much debt for that long of a period is always something you want to avoid. So, the general idea was that we would buy (not lease) a new car to replace the Vibe in summer of 2005, and go with a loan term of no longer than 36 months.

But today, as I priced cars on the Internet, I realized that this was not going to be an easy feat. Since one of the conditions on my wife’s next car was that it be bought rather than leased, I’m finding that’s going to require an astounding investment. Especially factoring in the 3-year loan self-limitation—because even discounting my personal aversion to longer loan terms, I don’t see my Trans Am lasting very much longer than 2008, not without its own substantial investment in repairs and upkeep. And we can’t afford to pay for two cars at once.

The sobering realization that I came to this afternoon was that I may be forced to sell my Trans Am next year to pay for my wife’s new car.

Equipped with the kinds of features we’re going to want if we’re to keep the car for 10 years or more, we’re looking at spending around $25,000 (tax and delivery included) for a new Mazda6. Going for a Grand Prix GT2, that would be closer to $28,000. When you talk about financing that much money over a three year period, even at 0% interest and with $5,000 down, you’re talking about paying $500+ per month just in principal alone. That’s staggering! It’s like paying for two cars! And it’s certainly a far cry from the $217 we’re paying on the Vibe lease right now. I’m not sure we can swing it, especially with our homeowner’s insurance likely doubling this fall, and numerous other expenses that you can always expect to go up, like the goddamn pound-me-in-the-ass association dues.

One solution would be to extend the loan term to 60 months. That would make the payments more affordable, but still quite high at nearly $400/month. But then it would be 2011 before I could afford to replace my Trans Am, and I simply don’t see that happening—worse, by the time the car’s that old, having been driven hard every day of its life, I’m sure it’ll be worth next to nothing. That’s not even considering how much money I’ll have to pay to maintain the T/A over those years, given that the last drop of its six-year warranty expires this June, and a late-model F-body is far from the most reliable car on earth (mine especially).

Thus, I seem to have arrived—by process of elimination—at the only logical alternative. I’ve got to get rid of the Trans Am. I really don’t want to pay all the extra money it would take to prepare it for private sale, so I’d most likely trade it in and take Blue Book value if I can get it—by next summer, we’ll probably be talking $9,995. Then we’ll have to put down $5,000 – $7,000 cash on my wife’s new car, in addition to the trade-in value, in order to achieve a feasible rate on a 24-month loan. (By “feasible,” I mean as close to $300/month as I can get.) I say 24 months because, since I obviously won’t have a car worthy of being driven daily, I need to minimize the time we do without alternate transportation as much as possible.

The Formula, once merely a project car, winds up being a key to this plan. Its existence allows me to have a car to drive on certain days of the week, to and from work. And on the other days, I can drive my wife’s new car. It’ll be a tradeoff, since I don’t want to beat up the new car too much, and I don’t want the old Formula to have to take that kind of constant abuse (else my investment in it may be destroyed!). My wife is talking about working a couple of days a week at a local restaurant, so on at least those days, I could take the Formula to work while she has her own car. This process would have to continue for two years until the new car is paid off. Hence my opting for the 24-month loan term.

After that, I’d be able to buy myself a new vehicle in 2007. With my wife’s car paid off and good for many more years of the inevitable light use she would give it, I could focus my attentions on getting myself a next-generation Mustang or some other sporty car which would inevitably retail for around $30,000. I pretty much guarantee that I’d need to opt for a longer loan period on it—probably at least 48 months—but it would be a necessary evil that I could live with, given that my wife would already be outfitted with a nice car that was fully paid off. And by 2007, I will hopefully be making more money in my career that will help make it easier.

It hit me pretty hard to think that I’ll have to get rid of my Trans Am that quickly, but at the same time, I don’t really feel bad about it. Maybe it’s because I’ve had a lot of trouble with the car, and I’ve been unable to get good service on it to keep it maintained the way it needs to be maintained. Additionally, I have a heavy conscience because there have been some abuses I’ve committed on the car which I regret, but which I am now paying for nonetheless. Some of these abuses have been a result of not being able to spend the kind of money on the car that certain maintenance may have required, while others were due to my paranoia that the car would be damaged if I took it in for service, such that I wound up not having the service performed at all. Both cases have resulted in component degredation which will be costly to repair—not to mention that I don’t have a clue where to take the car for any kind of work.

So my only choice seems to be to turn in the Trans Am while it still has a decent amount of value left. I should be able to swing an acceptable trade-in value using the low mileage, various upgrades and good cosmetic condition of the car. After that, I’d have to rely on the Formula for my V8 fix, until I could fill my garage with a brand new Mustang Mach 1, or whatever special models the next-generation pony car may bring.

Part the reason I wouldn’t feel so bad about this is because I have the Formula. I’d still have one black Firebird at home, one that I’ve become admittedly more in-tune with, spiritually, in the past few months. And given that the current condition of my Trans Am makes it little more dependable than the Formula for anything other than trips around town, I see nothing to lose in that realm. Sometimes in your life you have to make sacrifices to get the things you want. This may be one of mine. But I’m confident that in the end, I’ll be reaping the rewards. That’s the important thing.

What was it I was saying in my last entry…the times, they are changing…