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What would you do? (buying a car)
I'll try not to make this long. I tend to get wordy when explaining things.
Here's the situation:
I drive an eight-year-old Hyundai POS. It has just over 100,000 miles and last time I took it in, the shop said the transmission was leaking (approx. $1k fix). There are no puddles under the car or anything when I park it, though. Even if they were lying, the car is just falling apart and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a major issue with it in the next year.
My husband drives a company car, but is looking for a new job. If he got a new job, we would need to buy a car ASAP.
So basically, we don't currently need a new car, but could possibly need one soon.
Our friend's father-in-law has a truck with 195,000 miles and a busted engine that he's offered to give us for free. After doing research, my husband and brother-in-law have determined a new engine would be about $1,200 and they have a friend who would put it in for $150 to $200. So, this car would be about $1,400, but could there be other problems with a brand-new engine? I'm not sure.
At the beginning of the year, DH and I started putting money away into an ING account for an emergency fund. We don't make much, so its current level is just about enough to cover the cost of the truck.
I hate the idea of depleting everything we've saved in the past six months.But I also know that if and when we do need a new car, we probably wouldn't be able to buy one for $1,400. But I also know that this is a crap-shoot and "buying" a car (getting it for free, but putting all this money into it) could end up being a disaster.
My husband wants to do it. I'm super-hesitant. What would you do?
Re: What would you do? (buying a car)
Even though you have the money, could you go to the bank for a personal loan of like 2K to cover what might need to be done? You could repay the loan over the year and yes you're paying interest but you're still keeping your emergency fund.
And yes I'd also say it would depend on the make of the truck. Also do you have a mechanic you could trust to look at the truck? Either way it's free, right? So there is no harm in taking it and keeping your car now. You could slowly have things done to it (if possible) until you needed the 2nd vehicle.