Why did we want a minivan? At the time, I had a 2004 Chevy Colorado crew cab truck. Karissa drove a small 2008 Saturn VUE SUV. Neither was particularly practical for having two carseats. Neither got great gas mileage. And neither vehicle had a future in our fleet. We knew we were going to dump my truck for a bigger one for our upcoming RV adventure. And Karissa’s car was equally on the chopping block.
We almost bought a 2010 VW minivan. It was in Florida. We had Karissa’s parents go check it out for us. It drove fine and had low enough miles. But when it came to numbers, the $10,000 van was going to cost us nearly $16,000 by the time all of the taxes fees were added up. That’s just nuts! Minivans at that particular moment were either new, bunched together around the $10,000 mark, or junkers. We decided paying $10,000+ for a vehicle with 75,000-150,000 miles was nuts. And we didn’t need a new, fancy van. So to the “value” arena we started looking.
What made this particular van stand out was the clean interior and the extremely low miles. 68,000! On a 15 year old family vehicle! The rust was ugly, but at the right price….
Long story short, the price was lowered to $2,000 from the original $2,500. That was low enough to get us to drive it. It drove great. As good as any minivan (new or used) can. Smooth shifts, tight turns, and bumps weren’t even noticed. We knew it was our vehicle and after zero negotiations, we agreed to pay $2,500 out-the-door. That’s basically like paying $1,900 for the vehicle by the time you account for dealership fees, title, plates, and taxes. Not the best deal ever on a rusty minivan…but we were happy with it.
Running total: $2,500.
The first month we had it, we drove to the zoo. In the parking lot, I hit a big pothole and heard a bad sound. Turning the steering wheel made a strange, terrible sound. We got home later that day and determined that the sway bar had cracked in half. Our trusted mechanic replaced it and the sway bar links for about $400.
Running total: $2,900.
Another month later, the check engine light came on. NOx sensor. Two of them were bad. I got a few quotes and got it fixed for $330.
Running total: $3,230.
We had another month or so of carefree driving before a flat tire on the way home from the lake house. I put on the spare. After deciding having new tires would be a good idea, we got cheapos put on from WalMart for $360.
Running total: $3,590.
Now, I see what you’re thinking. It might seem like we got a bad deal. Over $1,000 of repairs in the first few months!? Yeah, not good. But the engine ran great. It carried 7 people many times, and got great MPG. 22-ish around town and 26-28 on the highway.
We had no issues through the start of our RV trip in December of that year. Left it in the garage for our entire trip. It had a dead battery (as you’d expect when sitting for 6 months) when we got home. I jumped it with the truck and it ran like normal. We had no issues during the summer of 2018. No issues in the fall of 2018. And all of a sudden after the Polar Vortex last week, the rear brake lines rusted through and spewed brake fluid. Brake pedal to the floor. Unsafe to drive. I took it to a quick-lube type of place hoping they could cut out the bad part of the line and patch it – just like I’d seen on YouTube. They said that doing that wasn’t safe because the lines were too rusty. It needed both rear brake lines fully replaced. So I got it to a mechanic shop. They said in addition to both rear brake lines, it needs one new wheel cylinder. Total to fix the three items was $440 after taxes. Which is a bit below what Google said it should cost.
So we had a tough call to make. Do we fix the brakes for almost half of the value of a running vehicle? Do we junk it for $300 and buy another beater minivan?
The deciding factor in what to do was simple math. We could junk it for $300. Or fix it for $440 and have a vehicle we could sell for $1,000. Spending that $440 increased our value from getting rid of the van by $260. Fixing it, while it might seem crazy, actually provided a positive return!
Running total: $4,030.
So here we are, just over $4,000 invested into our “cheap” van. Has it been a good choice to purchase it? Would we have been better off buying something newer? Let’s explore the math!
We’ve owned it for nearly 24 months. So our monthly “payment” has been $168/month.
$4,030 / 24 = $168
Had we taken out a 5-year car loan, we could have bought a vehicle for $8,700. That’s assuming no repairs. And we’d still have 3 years of payments left. If this repair gets us another 6 months of trouble-free driving, our cost/month drops to $134. If it buys us another year, the cost/month drops to $112! That’s some cheap motoring!
To see if the van has been a good choice for us, let’s see how much our Saturn SUV cost. We paid $16,000 out-the-door for it with 38,000 miles in the fall of 2011. It had literally zero repairs while we owned it. Just oil changes. We sold it for $3,500 in the fall of 2017 with 83,000 miles. So in 6 years of owning it, we lost $12,500 and put on 45,000 miles. It cost us $173/month of ownership. That’s eerily similar to our minivan cost/month…but the van will (hopefully) become cheaper every month we drive it.
How much did my truck cost us while we owned it? That’s a tougher computation, but we’ll try. I traded a prior vehicle for it, straight-up, in the fall of 2010. That prior vehicle was a 2007 Chevrolet Silverado “Classic” that was purchased new for $17,000-ish out-the-door in the fall of 2006. It had zero costs while I owned it. The Colorado cost me $300 to replace a window switch/motor after a neighbor hit the car and the repair shop claimed the collision didn’t cause the issue and $75 for a new timing belt. No tires or any other repairs along the way. I sold it in the fall of 2017 for $4,000 to Carmax. So 11 years of ownership at a cost of $13,375. That’s $101/month!
Conclusion:
Was fixing our van the right choice? Do you think it will buy us another year or more of trouble-free driving? How much does your vehicle cost you per month? How does it compare to our costs?
| … | Total Costs | Sales Price | Years Owned | Cost/Month |
| Chevy Truck(s) | 17,375 | 4,000 | 11 | 101 |
| Saturn SUV | 16,000 | 3,500 | 6 | 174 |
| Minivan | 4,030 | 0 | 2 | 168 |
If you’re more of a cost/mile person, here’s that math too:
| … | Total Costs | Sales Price | Miles Driven | Cost/Mile |
| Chevy Truck(s) | 17,375 | 4,000 | 94,000 | 0.14 |
| Saturn SUV | 16,000 | 3,500 | 45,000 | 0.28 |
| Minivan | 4,030 | 0 | 20,000 | 0.20 |
*I purposely omitted costs of fuel and oil changes. We would have gotten oil changes in the same frequency and at the same cost regardless of vehicle. Same goes for renewing license plates/stickers/registration. I included the original purchase of plates, title fees, and sales tax because that’s what it takes to get a vehicle on the road. Also excluded is cost of insurance. Our van costs next-to-nothing to insure. The other vehicles were probably an extra $200/year.