Ok, I know, I always talk about S cars on this forum.....but.....

My wife needed something with better back support than an 11 year old S car driver's seat so I bought her a VUE XR, not sensing the end of Saturn was so close.

Anyway, it's worth 1/2 of the price we paid for it, will likely tank in value in October when Saturn is fully toasted, the parts prices from the dealer for anything Saturn are already jacked up, and aside from 10 yrs expensive parts support, it gets crap mileage.

It does ride very nicely as any 4000 lb SUV should. And pretty comfy for what it is.

33K on it.

_________

1) Keep or trade in -- pls indicate why (I need some points of view other than my own jaded one)
2) If trade, give me some ideas

 

Well - for five of those years, you'll get warranty coverage, and there are after-market companies that offer additional extensions for parts and service warrantees. Your original reason was for a cushy ride for your lady --> one with better back support than a ragged out S-car ... what is her comfort worth? As for mileage, well, you can't have everything.......

 

Should I;
Well, you probably should all things considered. Two ways to look at it. If it was financed and two years old it is probably worth less than what you owe on it. Why pay some one to make it go away.
If you have a good warrenty, major repairs are not going to be a problem. If it is paid for now, than the longer you drive your mileage out of it, the more cost effective it becomes. No two year old car is a good investment for trading. A lot of 5-6 year old cars were a pretty good deal figuring cost per mile to own and enjoy it and private sales for a decent running used cars that some one can pay cash for is a good thing too.
Unless it is a dog, dollar wise I'd keep it for another 3. Gas mileage is not justification.
You can put a lot of gas in a paid for car before it cost justifies dumping the car. Your not even close yet.

 

nice down payment -- worth twice what I owe.

5/60 bumper bumper and 5/100 powertain

not a dog

won't the reseale tank in Oct when Saturn shutters permanently?

 

Not necessarily, Derf -- now you got a "classic"

 

SNIP
won't the reseale tank in Oct when Saturn shutters permanently?
SNIP
Probably, it's probably pretty much tanked now. It won't get better. My 2007 T&C has a cash value of some where around $12 or so at the moment. Money wise we all take a bath buying new cars and trading 3 years or so afterwards. 'Specially if you did a 5 year finance, you are probably still upside down.
But
if you have been putting 15 K a year on it, 5 years from not you'll have 75K on the clock and for a lot of cars that is just broken in. I put about 175,000 to 250,000 on my good cars just because.
At some point in time when the actual cash value tanks and if it is good shape cosmetically what it becomes is Transportation value. As transportation value some one will pay something more than for cheap for a car that looks good, is not tore up and most if not all of the options are still working. I drove a 1992 Eagle Summit Wagon for 275,000 miles, a 5 speed car with A/C. This is a Mitsubishi Expo LRV, a baby van.
When the clear coat died, I repainted the car. The windows were tinted, and I had it done 3 times to it always looked nice. I used the car for service work and drove it 16 years. The interior was not tore up although starting to show wear, the transmission was a bit notchy but still shifted and the A/C worked. With a wax job it looked good and I bought new plastic wheel covers for it. BLING! Well, maybe not.
Ibought it for 12K out the door in 1992. 16 years later I sold it for 1000 cash, trade in was zilch. That was transportation value.
The wify thought it looked good, the husband was happy and it ran.
3 years later it was still running.
Your Vue if kept up can run alone time and be a good car and for the 1st 100,000 miles miles be covered by a GM drivetrain warrentee. After tht it is your dime. When it gets down next to nothin and it is still serving you well, you should have saved enough money to buy something new cash by not making payments and out there some where is some one that can afford to buy a high miliage beater that looks and runs good no matter what make or model it is.
If it becomes a maintainence problem than dump it. But if operating costs are reasonable (read that to be cheap) no reason not to keep it and run it almost into the ground and get rid of it then and stash some money in the bank every month rather than pay payments.
At least that has worked for me.
I paid cash for my T&C that way.

Actually I guess that is why I still have my 1994 Saturn SC2. I drove it until it started to deteriorate. The car was a good car, had a few problems, cosmetically ugly and I liked it. I could not bring my self to just make it go away. It was worth more in parts than some one would pay for it. So it sat in the drive way for almost 4 years. I just kept plates and minimum ins. on it.
When the gas hit $4.00 a gallon I could not justify the 20 k plus for what was being offered when that sorry looking Saturn would get 33 mpg on a trip when it was in good shape. So $1500 later and a few (well many, but it is a hobby) hours work got it looking good and running good and Hoseppi just sent me a new instrument panel I have to pay him for yet, it is a turn key nice car with a $6000.00 paint job and a $700.00 interior repair along with about $800.00 worth of parts to fix the broke stuff, all for $1500 cash and some work. Did I put more than it is worth in it, Yup, it is transportation value. The alternative was a $25,000 nissan I didn't buy. It wasn't $23,500 better than my Saturn.