Well, bit the bullet and purchased the wife a new Escape yesterday! Got her a nicely equipped Ruby Red SEL model with two-tone leather seats and the exterior appearance package that provides upgraded 19” rims and tires and some other minor goodies like painted mirror caps, etc.

I’m not going to lie - I haven’t had a car payment in almost 10 years and am not real crazy about going back down that path - I’d have preferred she just kept driving her ‘08 Taurus (only 29,000 miles on the clock) and search for something clean and used to replace my daily driver (the wife’s old ‘05 Escape with 225,000 on the clock) that is approaching the end of it’s service life.

Instead, I’ll take over the Taurus and run it as my work vehicle for as long as I can - based on the number of miles I have been putting on the last few years I would hope to get another 5-7 years of reliable use out of it......

 

I'm in the same boat as you.

No vehicle payments for several years now. I've made a 2007 Jeep Compass do over 300k miles. I'm very proud of that.

Though, there's going to come a point when I'm going to need to replace that thing.

Was thinking of replacing it with a lease of the cheapest vehicle I can find. Though, doing some research, if I choose something like a Yaris, after tax, tags and misc, I'm looking at $10k for 3 years when the vehicle is worth ~$15k cash brand new on the lot. So in hindsight, it's really not worth it. Save $5k, big whoop. Not to mention my insurance would likely go up because it's a "newer" vehicle. Still can't believe a base Yaris is $15k... if you've ever driven one, they are worth like $5k brand new, definitely not $15k. LOL

I might just keep fixing it, and use it as a "spare" vehicle and keep it parked unless I (or someone else) needs it. I'm looking to replace the F-150 with a SD of sorts, so I'll be using the new vehicle as my daily driver.

 

I think I’d be more excited about the new Escape, but when I look at all the “touch screen-whiz bang-technological bulls**t” that’s on the car all I can think of is how all this crap is probably going to be nothing but a bunch of expensive repairs about five years down the road.....

 

it’s kinda brutal going from no payments to having one...

 

What you might consider is allowing yourself six months or so advance notice and scour eBay for a 10-year-old low-mileage “gem” that you could snag for significantly less money than buying something new. The Taurus I mentioned is the perfect case in point - I picked that up on eBay three years ago with only 4000 miles on the clock and when I bought it, it was for all intents and purposes a brand new vehicle that just happened to be 7-8 years old. I paid over market for it, but the way I viewed it, I was buying a brand new, full-size American vehicle for a shade over $10,000 dollars! The fact that it was already several years old made no difference to me because I was buying TRANSPORTATION - not trying to make a social statement about what a big shot I was!

I am looking at cars on eBay all the time and routinely come across vehicles just like the Taurus (low mileage, garage kept, pristine) that I think would make outstanding daily drivers that you could pick up for far less than a new vehicle and still have extremely reliable transportation for many many years!

 

Been considering this too.

 

Might not go up as much as you think. Newer vehicles are much safer, so less likely for injuries. So insurance companies know it's a lower risk, so the cost for personal insurance offsets the higher repair bills

 

the OP should have been saving some money so that he could pay in cash. Instead now the bank will take a big bite out of his payments. Personally speaking, I drove cheap used junk vehicles for years so that I could avoid having to make payments. Now I can afford to pay cash and keep the banks from taking a big chunk of the total payments.

 

Here is a perfect example of what I am talking about: https://www.ebay.com/itm/2000-Buick-...kAAOSw0D9c31aL

 

I’ve bought many cars with cash and could do so now if I was so inclined - but why would I withdraw money from long term investments making 8% interest to avoid a short term loan at less than 4%.....??? It makes ZERO sense unless you’re one of Dave Ramsey’s mind-numbed zombies.....

 

I wouldn't worry all that much about the new Escape. The wife bought a new 2017 Titanium Escape 2.0 EB and it has all of the bells and buttons and technology BS. It's a wonder the thing doesn't drive itself. It'll darn sure stop itself if you get to close to something and it'll park itself. With all of the monitoring it does it's incredible that the 12Volt system is strong enough to run all of it. But she's only had it back to the dealer for oil changes, nothing else. Assuming yours is like hers, I wouldn't worry about changing the oil yourself. Unless you have a shop, it's a chore to do with removal of the aero plate that's on the bottom of the car. Wait until you find the battery! They apparently don't think it'll go bad or you'll have a battery issue considering it's under the dash in the engine compartment. They tell me it's easier to remove the cowl on the body than remove all of the crap in the engine compartment to replace it. Like I told her, it's one of those things where you buy the best battery and change it ever 4 years regardless cause you ain't jumping this one. A dead battery means calling a wrecker. Her factory battery is a glass mat unit. That's how hard all of the "bells and whistles" are on the electrical system. Best of luck with yours. The wife in stop and go traffic is getting 24 mpgs. She drives 12 miles one way and takes her a little over an hour. I guess there's something good to say about the auto start/stop after all. FWIW, the wife claims the car runs significantly better and gets better mileage with 89 octane than with regular 87 unlead gas. Says it screams with 93 octane but mileage is no better. I'd like to give you my personal opinion of it but I've only been allowed in the car once since she bought it, Driving it is out of the question. I think she likes hers.

 

Yes - checking the battery location was something I did at the dealer lot since it seems that the batteries on a lot of modern cars are placed in inexplicably strange locations - let’s just say the Escape ranks right up there! I don’t think jumping it will be too bad, but I’ve already got it in the back of my mind that I will need to be proactive about battery replacements since it’s not a “do it in the driveway in ten minutes” kind of a thing.....😂

I’ve already had the lower engine shroud off to check the location of the filter and drain plug. Getting it off really isn’t that bad - loosen a handful of Torx screws and it slides right out. The one thing I thought was strange about it was that it was made out of a “bed-rug-like” material - you’d think regular black plastic would have been a better choice given it’s location underneath the car......

 

I believe the new body Escapes have a positive jump post in the engine bay fuse box

 

I haven’t checked that yet - I know there is a little plastic cover that pops off the battery and you can see the terminals back in there - it just seems weird that they would put such a commonly accessed and serviced item like the battery in such a inconvenient location.....

 

Yer being FAR too nice. The battery location reminds me of 2 drunks. One says "I can put a battery in a car where nobody can find it ". His name is GM. GM managed to hide the thing under the intake filter box which had to come out of the car using tools in order to access it. Best of luck with that on the side of the road. Then the other moron named Ford said, "No, I can beat that". So they used an Escape to hide the battery in the engine compartment under the dash. In either case, no intelligence was ever considered or used in the application of location. I would say this also reminds me of the bloated pigs we're driving called pickup trucks. They're all but worthless since you have to be 8ft tall in order to reach anything in the bed. I carry a rake in my truck bed just to reach small items and I'm 6'4".