Okay, so. I'm a guy in my 30s. I work from home (for now…) and don't do much driving outside of the usual runs to the grocery store. Through various twists of fate I have found myself in the possession of not one, not two, but three vehicles. Here they are:
- 2013 Kia Soul Base, ~99k miles. 28 mpg combined.
- 2023 Ford Maverick XLT hybrid, ~8k miles. 40 mpg combined.
- 2008 Toyota Avalon Limited, ~205k miles. 22 mpg combined.
I try to live a thrifty lifestyle and am not afraid of a little DIY auto repair. I can sell the Maverick to Carvana today for nearly $27,000 which feels crazy but I guess they're still in high demand and of course a hybrid is pretty nice to have with gas trending north of $4 a gallon.
While I can easily come up with reasons to keep any one of them or even all of them it makes zero sense to pay taxes and insurance for three cars at once so at least one of them has to go. What would you do in my situation? Do I keep the (practically new) Maverick and sell the other two, or do I keep the Toyota and trust that it has another 100k miles in it? Thanks.
Currently own three cars. Barely need one car. Which one should make the cut?
byu/rubbercat inpersonalfinance
Posted by rubbercat
7 Comments
I’d keep the Kia.
Sell the Ford for max gain.
Sell the Toyota for minimising repair costs.
I’d keep the Maverick for the long life ahead and the MPG, plus it’s the most versatile of those if you don’t have to drive into the downtown of a large city.
If you have to drive into the downtown of a large city, then keep the Kia.
Hard to say without know what you owe on each. Assuming you own the Soul and Avalon outright and making payments on the Maverick. Still, I’d keep the maverick and drop the other two. That little guy can do a lot for you.
Toyota, dont ever buy another kia/hyundai or Ford unless you like burning money
If it were me and I had to keep one car, it would be the Maverick. If I had to keep two cars, it would be the Soul and Avalon.
Soul would be the daily car, fairly reliable, cheap and easy to work on. Avalon would be the road trip, hauler and backup car when the Soul needs to be worked on.
keep the car with < 10k miles instead of the ones at or well into six figure miles? what am i missing here?
The Toyota and the Ford should have a good market value and be worth selling. I hate to say I’d keep the Kia, but I probably would. They had some serious engine problems, but I think if it hasn’t happened yet it’s probably ok, and they aren’t bad to maintain. If you have to replace it at least that will have been offset very well by the proceeds from selling the other two, which again have a pretty good market value. The Kia isn’t worth much, but you might well get another good 100k out of it.
If you had a lot of daily driving planned then I’d keep the Maverick instead, but if driving isn’t a big priority then the Kia.