I say breakdown and purchase a newer vehicle. A realtor needs to have a decent car. It's a good business investment.

Hmmm ... It is a big internal debate on my part. I wonder if others have the same opinion. Be very interested to know!

Keep the car as long as it continues to be reliable, Sylvia. Ignore peer pressure! Accountants who own their own businesses usually have nice cars, but not me. I too, have a wonderful, reliable '02 Dodge Caravan, and even though we don't have the daily need of the bigger car (2 out of 3 kids in college), it's more economical than buying a new car. Keep your sensibilities and dream of that next car when the time is right.

Keep the car until the time repairs exceed what payments would be on a new one (that is the rational way)...that, or just go and get that Jaguar you are itching for!...but you will be paying for it!!

Cute story, Sylvia!

Wow, Sylvia your car looks great! You must keep the van, as we always know it is you.

Thank you, Regina, always love a sensible advise from a reputable accountant!

Several friends have told me since how they kept their own cars because it's the practical thing to do. Guess I attract those kind of friends.

Bob - My van actually works great because I follow the maintenance schedule + change oil every 3,000 miles. So it will be a long time (knock on wood) before the repairs exceed payments on a new car. Not having payments is a luxury in itself.

Jaguar was love at first sight. Probably remains a dream, knowing the practical side of me; unless, of course, I win a lottery - there is always hope :-)

I love my Dodge Caravan too Sylvia!! Nothing wrong with our reliable mini-vans!! Easy to see everything on the highway - easy to park - easy to get in and out of (for those of us over a certain age!! - HA!!!)

Will Rogers once said " The way to cure the traffic problem is to take all the cars off the road that aren't paid for"
I have a 1988 one ton chevy pickup that pulls a trailer with pods for my business.
It'll pass anything on the road but a gas station. It has 400,000 miles on it(2nd engine, 3rd tranny)
What do I drive everyday? I little S10 pickup with no guts(slow lane on the Waldo) but good mileage.
Forget image. I'm the king when I get out of the truck, not when I'm driving. Having owned big rigs on down, one looks for the easiest vehicle to drive, and let the people outside think whatever they want. I hate seeing young kids in expensive SUVs and off road monsters that their parents bought so they could impress their friends.Their parents are just as bad.
Half of my business now is short sales, but they always drive a better car than I have. They blame everyone else for their plight, but they would never consider taking back the car to save their house. Don't let your associates pull you in. They're so underwater Jacques Cousteau couldn't find them.

Hey! I just wrote a whole essay without saying "illegal" "affordable" "low income" or "Jerome"! This could get to be a habit.

Car payments are way too expensive! Your car looks great in the pics and if you change the oil as you mentioned then it makes no sense to add a car payment to a list of montly bills. I just bought a car in 07 and plan to keep it for a very long time. Remember with a new car comes an expensive registration fee and higher insurance.

Thanks for the support, Craig.

I am fine with people who own and enjoy driving nice cars. I think it's great and more power to them! Plus, somebody has to support the auto industry!

I, like you, also have problems with kids driving expensive cars and not respect their privileges. I have witnessed two kids driving expensive cars racing down the street, accidents waiting to happen. I told them to stop. If only their parents knew, they would take those cars back, I would!

Short sale is a much more complicated issue. It’s true that some people do choose to sell their homes short even though they can afford it. However, most people do want to keep their homes but for one reason or another have to sell their homes short – some real hardship due to health, medical or death of family, the market value drop (difficult to refinance or sell if they have to sell for reasons such as relocation), tightened lending practice, stock market crash, loss of income as well as lenders refusing to modify a loan are all reasons one had to sell their homes short. Some can be quite heartbreaking.

Just want to share that with you,

I see all of the various kinds of short sale Here are a few true stories of moves I've done:

1) We put $250, 000 down on a $1,700,000 home (not our first), we both have good jobs and credit, but it's only worth $800,000 now. We're $650,000 under water. We can't spend the next 30 years making up the difference. We have to send kids to college, plan a retirement, etc. We're going to start at the bottom again and buy a short sale, while this one goes back to the bank.
2) My parents lived here for 40 years, and now the bank is taking our house.(They drove away in a Hummer)
3) We bought 7 years ago, and this was our first home. We lost our down, our dream, our credit, and our faith in the system.

For every person who bought with no down, refinanced to the max, bought toys, didn't make payments for over a year, and stripped the house when they got cash for keys, there's a sad story like the last one. They all have one thing in common.

Grandma in Kansas cooking chicken from scratch will have to pay for it.

Just want to chime in - I LOVE my 1982 Volvo with 275,000 on the original engine and original transmission. Sure I wouldn't mind a newer car, but I will never make a car payment again, and I will never buy new again.

My house is still under water though.

Craig - I can write a whole article about this. The system had/has a lot of problems, unfortunately, many people are suffering the consequences.

When the market and economy were going strong, most people did not see this coming – we can always get another raise, another job, refinance, get equity loan to pay things off. Even with the talk of bubble bursting, I don’t think people really envisioned all these.

Yes, every house that’s under water has direct and indirect effect on both the immediate neighbor and others far away. Strategic defaults (ones that can afford but chose not to) can artificially depress the value, in my opinion.

Hopefully one good thing coming out of this down cycle is that people learn to go back to the basics and live within their means.

I guess that’s what this post is about.

One of the problems is that people treat houses like stocks. They look for appreciation. They should treat them like cars. Cars are underwater the minute you drive them off the lot, but we use them, pay them off, and look for the day they're paid for when we can use them without payments.Since the average American moves every 7 years, that means that many of the people I see bought 7 years ago, and if they didn't have a big down payment, are under water.
But their cars aren't. The crazy lending practices that came to real estate didn't apply to cars. We had to live within our budgets there, even if we wanted a better car. The only way to make our friends, neighbors, and associates think we were doing well was to pay with equity from our house.
The stock market has lost 45% of it's value twice in the last 10 years.
Housing prices have gone down many times before..
Gold was fallow for 20 years and even went down for awhile.
Car prices haven't.
Go figure- We're probably driving our safest investment.

Sylvia, your comments align with my feelings. My van, affectionately known as the White Whale, is a 1997 and I said I would keep it until the last one was out of college. Oops! That deadline's passed. I still find it useful to have a van, especially when I buy a desk for my son's apartment and it won't fit in his or his brother's sedan; so I have to drive it to the city in my handy ol' van.

Crap
I drive crap, eat crap, wear crap, and get treated like crap, Thomas, but I was talking about the jobs I've done, not me. (I should have used quotation marks). My own house is 3 years from payoff, then I won't give a crap.

Sure hope that's not the kind of day you have, Craig, especially the get treated part.

But being able to pay off your house in another three years is huge!!!

A few years ago someone came to my street and threw "0"s on all of the property. A few years later they came took them back. The people who cashed in and bought shiny toys had to leave. I'm okay, with no respect. He who laughs last laughs loudest.

Its not even 10 years old ! Good car should last you 20 years at the very least.

Thank you, all; and my other friends who emailed, facebooked, or told me in person and supported me and my Old Faithful!

Guess I now have a famous car :-)

I also want to thank Steven for giving me his opinion on how it might be better to have a nicer car as a business investment as I suspect many others might have the same opinion.