Is your truck a sedan with a 6.5 ft box. If so, dump it and get the accord. No reason to have a 1/2 ton truck and use it for a people hauler. Is there a time when you need a truck? More than once every few months? Then it might pay to keep it. Otherwise you could rent a u-haul pickup for $19 per day. Gas in the accord would be less. and so might the insurance. 17K left on an '04 IMO is impossible to get. Maybe I'm wrong, but I know that I would never pay that. And I'm not sure where you live, but here in Houston 8 bills is half of a mortgage payment.

Good luck with whatever you decide and I fully support your decision either way.

Ox

 

Let me rephrase that then, do you want to live and have a family. Put that seatbelt on. Remember the old cliche' that quoted? Need it and not have it?

 

I don't use it as much as I thought I would but I can't seem to, not, have a truck around if you know what I'm saying. The 800 would be for rental property.

 

I totally get what you're saying. I think I would be crippled without mine. You're in a tough place and I completely sympathize with you. No easy solution. Driving less is not an option. The only thing I can think of is a refinance and that only depends on your circumstances. It would lower the monthly payments but extend the life of the loan. Or you could check with CarMax where you live and see what they would give you for it. Could give you a ballpark figure. Just a thought.

ox

 

I bought my truck for 3 excellent reasons:

1. Excellent reliability.
2. Excellent crash results.
3. Excellent for hauling.

 

I spend anywhere fom $800-$1300 a month in petroleum alone. I drive 3 states for my job and am on location 5 days a week. Typical day is 100-200 miles of windshield time. All to often is 400 miles in a day of windshield time. I get 16 mpg sometimes a little better, sometimes occasionally 15.... I cant get rid of the truck becasue I use it and need a truck, to haul firewood, sometimes cattle trailer, metal and building supplies plus my boat, jet ski, etc etc etc.
I was thinking about getting a mid to full size sedan for work, (I need the room to haul my gear for work, it wont fit in a compact) With my gear my truck is just a one seater..... Enough room for me and me only. When I did the math, then even if I found something dependable enough for $2K, best I could hope for was 25 mpg out of mid to ful size car, then it would take me 23 months to get the $2K back from the gas savings.

If you drive less than 1000 miles per week I think you will find it will take even longer and if your buying something for more than $2K you likely will never beable to see a time when you get to enjoy a savings before the car has to be replaced.

 

I would save about $75 a month in gas but my motivation is to park the truck and keep the miles down, I average 30,000 a year.

 

That was my main motivation too.

At $75 a month it will take 26.6 months to save $2K worth of gas to pay for the savings. Thats not counting the additional insurance. So lets say insurance on another vehicle is $25 per month, so a savings of $50 per month, makes it 40 months (3 years 4 months) 90K+ miles before you would have a savings.

Your truck will depreciate more for age than the mileage and is likley going to be cheaper to maintian. Economically, finanacially the numbers just don't add up.
Trust me when I was facing this decision, I crunched the numbers every way I could trying to make the numbers agree with my logic, it just wouldn't come together for me. If I could find something dependable for $800.... I might ignore the numbers and just do it. Other wise I'm just going in the hole.