What should I do with this car? (kinda long)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I have a 2002 Saturn SL1. In December it will be paid off!!! :smiley: :smiley:

Then what?

This car has a sad history. My ex-husband and I bought it after September 11th. (The ex wanted a new car because he “didn’t want to inherit a bunch of problems.” I should have taken that as a sign. :rolleyes: ) Six months later, we separated.

I took my little metro when I left. It was paid off, it held all my stuff, and it had great gas milage.

It took Ex and I two years to divorce. Neither one of us could afford a lawyer, so we were trying to work things out on our own. Ex wanted alimony and for me to make payments on the Saturn - while he drove it. I refused to agree to “maintenance” and I told him that I would make payments on the Saturn if I had it. I was NOT going to pay for something that wasn’t in my posession.

We went back and forth. In and out of mediation. Lots of screaming fights.

“I’ll take you to court! The judge will make you pay alimony and make payments on the Saturn.” Ex said.

“Fine. Let’s go to court. I’m tired of fighting with you.”

The divorce judge didn’t make me pay to support ex (whew!) and he agreed with me. If ex wanted to keep the Saturn, he would have to make the payments. I stated that I would take this car, and the financial burden attached to it. (Looking back, I felt guilty about leaving ex and thought that by taking this vehical off his hands I could make things easier for him. That was stupid. I had also given up all our furniture and most of the books. :frowning: ) The judge awarded the Saturn to me.

After the court date, Ex would not give me the car until I had refinanced it. Post-divorce my credit was crappy - the fact that Ex missed payments on the Saturn didn’t help, so refinancing was not an option. I had to do a “legal assist” to get the Saturn. Basically, I had two cops come with me and they watched us swap cars. I really hated doing this, but I could see no other way to settle this.

The Saturn, when I got it, was in lousy shape. I spent a couple of thousand dollars making missed payments, a tuneup, new brakes and tires. The exterior is dented and scratched. It still needs work done: something may be wrong with the transmission, a new timing belt (it has about 85,000 miles), etc.

I hate, hate, hate this car and all the emotional crud that is attached to it :mad:

Once its paid off, what should I do with it?

  1. Trade it in and get another car. Even though the trade in value of this poor thing will probably be about $5.

  2. Invest in fixing it. Drive it for a couple more years, put my “car payment” money in the bank and then buy another car.

  3. Take this hunk o’ junk to the middle of nowhere and torch the fucker!

What do you guys think?

2

I say go with 2 for awhile, til the car dies, then buy a new one. Then take it somewhere and torch it!

3

The tranny likely has about another 20-40 thousand miles left on it. I was surprised how much simply changing the trans fluid helped. Also, check the headliner now. If you/he smoked in the car, chances are it’s already coming down. a staple gun and some discreet staples will keep it up. Make sure the belt and alternator are both in good shape. Saturns are notorious for shitty alternators.

On the up side, many car dealers are offering 0-3% interest. Sell your used, high mileage car to somebody who needs it (single parents and college students) for a reasonable price and get into a new car. Some dealershits have in-house financing companies that are “no affiliated” with them, but suspiciously have the same address. Maybe you could get into a car for 5%.

4

Eh, if you want to get a new or used car, dealers are usually happy to take your trade-in, no matter how worthless it is.

However, I’m pretty flabbergasted at the nerve of your ex. What kind of man would go to court and stand in front of God and everybody trying to get alimony? Sorry if that sounds sexist, but he should be stripped of his Man Card.

So, I choose option 1. However, if your trade-in value isn’t much, it might be worth it to do option 3, after you’ve blocked in ex’s car with it.

5

From Ex I learned a valuable lession: No one is “owed” a marriage. I try not to be the bitter, bitchy ex-wife but I think he wanted us to get married because I was the one with a steady job.

I will have to check my credit score, it was pretty shity after the divorce (and identity theft by my father. By Cthulhu, I have had some awful men in my life!) I would at least like to get a thousand in a trade.

6

I checked cars.com for the trade in value of a 2002 L100 4 door Saturn sedan with 85,000 miles and no extras. It gives over $4 k for private party value in the Denver area for a car in “fair” condition. A local listing (Aurora, CO) shows a 2001 L300 listed at $7,500which has 90,000 miles on it. If you want to sell/trade in the thing, I’d suggest looking thru local listings and see what others are asking for theirs. You’ll get more money for it by selling it outright than you will from trading in; however; you may want to trade-in just for the sake of convenience.

7

I haven’t braved the Bluebook yet. The car is in Ex’s name and mine. I need to see if I really “own” this vehical outright or if I need to get Ex to sign things over to me. (After the brew-haha over the car swap. I’d hate to see how he would react to me contacting him about selling this Saturn.)

8

Some dealers will take anything as a trade-in. They don’t care; if it’s junk, they sell it to a wholesaler-type person for double what they gave you for it and that person takes it apart and splices other car parts together and such. My mom got five grand knocked off the price of her 2005 Pontiac Grand Am for my sister’s crappy little 1979 subaru that didn’t even start.

Check around, is all I’m saying.

~Tasha