Just Bein' Mommy

Columbus, OH Parenting Blogger

So its broken… now what?

by

Wondering why I’ve been so quiet this week? Especially towards the end of the week? Well, I’ve been busy trying to make a decision. And I hope you aren’t thinking I’m announcing a pregnancy because I’m not 😉

I’ve had my Mazda Protege for 9 years. We bought it brand new almost exactly 9 years ago and I’ve been the only owner. I think we’ve taken good care of it… I’m sure we have, otherwise it probably wouldn’t have lasted 9 years. Anyway about 3 weeks ago, the car overheated on my way to work. And it didn’t just get hot, it overheated to the point where it cut off. We fixed the thermostat and the radiator and thought we were in the clear. We weren’t. This past Friday, we found out that the head gasket was blown. That is not a cheap fix. It could be anywhere skyward of $2,000! We were stuck and it was a holiday weekend. Our choice was.. fix the car or buy a new one.

That wasn’t an easy decision. I mean, I love my Mazda and I was in love with not having a car payment. Seriously in love with that. But $2,000 is a lot of money. So we decided to buy a new car. This past weekend we had the chance to rent a pretty awesome SUV (with the compact car rate because they were out) and took our time looking for what we really wanted in a car. I mean, did we want used or brand new? another compact or something bigger? How much did we want our payments to be? Those were all the questions running through my head and more.

Since my old car was brand new when we bought it and it lasted 9 years, we decided to go brand new again. I mean it served us great in the past right? If we bought new, we were sticking with the compact car… lower car price means lower car payment. Anyone like dealerships? Cause I don’t. I also don’t like shopping for new cars. But we knew which one to go to that would help us pick exactly what we wanted and have a wide variety of cars. It took us until Wednesday to finally agree on something and a price. I have a lot more car then I wanted (all they had was the base model in an ugly to me color or the top of the line) but I finally have something I don’t have to worry about for a while.  So now I am the proud owner of a Hyundai Elantra that looks something like this:

new cars

My favorite part is not having a new car, it is having something that will help us save on gas and that is safer for me and my children.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Yipperbear says

    cars should last more than nine year. ours is 15 yrs old, a full size sedan and gets 27 mpg. did you consider a program car. these cars generally have 3-1/2 to 4 yrs remaining on the warranty and the "new" car price drop has already occurred. with a new car the minute u drive it off the lot it's worth 20 to 30 % less than you paid for it. a program car, not so much.

    • Ashley T says

      I never said that my car wouldn't make it another 5 years, we just decided to sell it and let someone else reap the benefits of the car. Someone who could fix the blown gasket on their own, unlike us. And the price of the car dropping doesn't matter to me considering our last brand new car lasted us 9 years before we sold it.

      • Yipperbear says

        is their a reason you didn't allow my comment that our 15 yr old car was a chevy didn't make the cut. i'm sorry i didn't realize it was a sponsered post

        • Ashley T says

          who said this was a sponsored post? and I only had one other comment from you and that was the original one.

          • Yipperbear says

            no sorry there were 2. i replied to my comment because in the initial i forgot to mention it was a chevy. it is a nice car i just think people should take weeks not days to invest in a vehicle. a new car is nice but the reason for mentioning the program car was u seemed concerned about taking on a payment. also, the 2000$ quote for a head gasket seems high. you should have checked around. from experience i know that selling a car AFTER a repair can recoup the cost of the repair and then some. people only pay bottom dollar for a car needing a repair.

          • Ashley T says

            Some people who have jobs and need cars to get around don't have WEEKS to figure out whether or not to buy a car. But I'm guessing you don't get that? I'm not a stay at home mom as it says in my bio. I need to get back and forth to work. But I'm guessing you don't get that either since every time I explain our position, you tell me something else we "could have done." I'm not a teenager and I know what our options were, we made a decision based on our position.

  3. Sandy VanHoey says

    Looks like a sharp looking car I think. Congrats on that! I had the blown head gasket happen to me on a car several years back. I ended up getting it fixed and it stayed great for a long time. I too didn't want another payment so I lucked out this took care of my problem.

    • Ashley T says

      Thank you! We had a hard decision and I think the main reason we went with a new car is because after everything that happened, I was scared to drive the car again. We sold it to someone who could fix it and drive it for a while so the car could live out its life :)

  4. Dede says

    Love your new car! We recently went to a van (again....after downsizing) and I realize how much that space and safety meant to me.

  5. Maria (Mammahomemaker) says

    I love Hyundai, and I adore the Elantra, my dad just upgraded to the Sonata, and I don't like it nearly as much as I did the Elantra. That's going to be our Brand New Car too! Congrats! I know the feeling of no longer feeling safe in a car.

  6. Ashley Montgomery says

    That was a tough decision. I'm kind of in that place myself right now. My motor blew up and we can't find one to even get a price quote.

  8. Paul L says

    That's a solid choice. But since they are a Korean rather than a Japanese manufacturer, I remember when they first made their debut people had the view that Hyundai was lower quality. We are far from those days though with other Korean companies like Samsung proving the point.