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Car advice for a soon to be dad
Hello, I am looking for advice for my personal situation. Any advice would be much appreciated!
I am currently driving a 2006 Pontiac G6 GT Coupe with about 117,000 miles on it. I found out about a month ago that my fiance is pregnant with our first child. I like my car and it has no mechanical issues, but it is old and I'm not sure if I can get a car seat in it. My fiance has an SUV so I wouldn't have to drive the kid much, but I want to have the ability to do so.
So my question boils down to this, should I keep the car or sell it when the baby comes? The next obvious question is if I sell it what should I buy? I would not feel comfortable spending more than $20,000 on a new or used car.
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Forgot to mention that according to KBB the trade-in value for the vehicle is about $5,000
First of all, congratulations!
Is your vehicle paid off? If so, now is a great time to consider keeping it and spending the extra $$ on saving for the baby & all the stuff that goes with having one. Unless there is a real need to sell now, or you dislike the vehicle or it's not reliable, I'd probably keep it.
As for a car seat, you might be surprised. My daughter owns a 2006 Cobalt, which I believe is smaller than the G6. She has a now 16-month-old, but has had the vehicle since the baby was born. I'm not going to say it's awesome to climb into and put the baby in the back, but it's workable. And, same as in your case, it's not the primary vehicle (the other is a sedan), so it's OK every once in awhile.
If you do decide to sell, narrowing down what you do or don't like in a vehicle will help others come up with recommendations for you. For example, if gas mileage is a primary consideration, you don't want people recommending a low MPG vehicle that would otherwise be a practical fit.
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Thank you for the response. I definitely have the car paid off so I'm only thinking about selling it because of my concerns about the baby seat. I definitely am a sedan person and not an SUV person. This would be my daily driver so of course MPG is important so I would hope to get at least 25 MPG combined.
Again, I would first see about the car seat, and see if I could live with it. If not. that's completely understandable, and in the long run, a sedan is going to be easier than a coupe. It's really just a matter of WHEN you make that switch - now or later.
If you're thinking of buying new, there are just a ton of great options right now. Might try the carfinder on our site and narrow it down by price range and limit to sedans: http://www.edmunds.com/finder/car-finder-results.html
We also have a longstanding discussion called "Help Me Choose" for Sedans: http://forums.edmunds.com/discussion/2444/general/x/help-me-choose
and another called "Midsize Sedans": http://forums.edmunds.com/discussion/7526/hyundai/malibu/midsize-sedans-2-0#latest
You might see some ideas in there to help narrow your options, and you can either return to post here in your own discussion, or solicit ideas in one of those threads from members who post there regularly.
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Okay, I will pose the question to the folks on those forums. I know there are a lot of good new options out, but unfortunately that makes the decision harder and not easier, haha.
I hear ya. I'm delaying the replacement of my own vehicle for that reason alone - I don't have time or feel qualified to sift through all of the options!
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