It’s been about two years since we sold our 2000 Honda Accord to my sister and bought a 1996 Toyota 4Runner from a friend of mine. We originally did this so that we could all be comfortable driving out to the lake while we were towing our Seadoo (we’ve since sold the Seadoo to help cover the cost of the property we bought). Well, now that I have a newer, larger truck that my wife, daughter and I can comfortably sit in, we really no longer need the 4Runner. My sister is going to sell the car back to us for $2000 cheaper than we sold it to her (with more miles on it, of course) and we should be able to sell the 4Runner for about $2000 less than we bought it for so it’s a “wash”.
Why are we doing this? Well, for a couple reasons. The Honda gets much better gas mileage than the Toyota and my wife is getting really tired of driving the 4Runner. It’s older, and has a lot rougher ride to it. She really has been sacrificing a little while driving it. (Yes, I know it’s all relative. There are far worse things in the world to sacrifice for). Anyway, we really don’t want to spend the money on a new car because of the depreciation and our budget is a little tight right now as we build the cabin. So, while we all sat around at Easter yesterday, my sister mentioned that they were going to sell the Honda. I realized that it would benefit both of us if we bought it back. (We have been trying to figure out an economical way to get my wife in a newer car). The good news is that we know the entire history of the car and know that we aren’t buying a lemon. It helps my sister out because now she doesn’t have to deal with people coming around looking at it.
The only hassle about doing this is that we need to cover the cost of the car up front and then will reimburse ourselves once we sell the 4Runner. This basically ties up some of the cash we have been keeping to cover costs of construction on the cabin but should be manageable.