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[RC] I couldn't afford NOT to (was: Towing Vehicle) - Michelle Aquilino

I work in insurance (the mathy / anslysis side), keep detailed records of expenses each month (so know how much my car that I would have kept as a commuting car had been costing me), made a detailed analysis comparing keeping two cars and only having one, and believe I thought of every financial aspect involved.  For me, it wasn't even a close match, and the commuting car I had at the time was 100% paid off, so the only expenses were maintenance, gas, and insurance.  Granted, I don't have the experience tables to compare the maintenance expenses of keeping an F-150 versus a 250 or 350, etc...
 
The value of selling the "commuting car", having less insurance, maintenance, and registration costs, far outweighed the cost for me of the gas savings.  Of course, I have a very short commute (2.5 miles, at the time of analysis, my commute was more like 12 miles), so maybe once I live further out from the city, it will be more worth it, but not now.  Maybe I don't know that much about the prices of what's out there, but I felt that the options were either to get a "cheaper" 150 (I work in insurance, so didn't want to have anything earlier than a 2004, for the F-150) or a really nice diesel.  The price difference to go up to a "cheaper" 250 or 350 was already going above my budget for the truck, so I didn't really want to stretch myself unless it was going to be for a truck that I would keep and be happy with for a LONG time, and I simply couldn't afford that.
 
I don't plan on towing two horses except for random short drives to local trails, and was planning on keeping this truck for 3-5 years, so hopefully it will suit for that period of time...  I'm also going to try to avoid mountainous drives like the plague, and mainly do rides that require north/south travel, lol.  I don't deny that it's not the best rig there is, but I'm sure I'm not the only person who has limited options in this area :-/  Also, I had my horse for almost a year before I got my truck and trailer, so I really would like to avoid being back in that situation as much as possible, ha ha (in response to the renting option).

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"Don't breed or buy while shelter animals die"