Truck Buying SItuation..Advice Please

[semperfidoordie]

Here's my situation...want some advice

I'm in the Marine Corps..21..have 2 years left in...getting back from Iraq in July...paid off all my bills except my car which I owe 7300 on...will be able to save a lil short of that before I get back...car payments aren't bad...223 a month...wife is getting her license soon and is a full time student with a part time job...she wants the car which is fine by me but I want a truck so we have two cars cause both of us driving one just doesn't work...found my dream truck for 6500 bucks...i'll have that when I get back...should I buy it and have little in savings? Or should I pay almost all the car off and have nothing in savings? Or what else should I do? i'm in a awkward situation as she doesn't care she's happy with anything but I really want this truck...well honestly i want a truck preferably older and reliable with no car payments..help!

[special-K]

From your choices I`d take the "keep the car and buy a truck" option because you need two vehiles,it sounds like.Where do you stand with that car on value vs pay-off?If you could come out ahead,maybe you could sell the car and run two older vehicles.But,I`d look at fuel economy.Because $220 a month ain`t a hard pill to swallow these days and if that`s an economical car,I`d keep it.All I can say is you sure deserve to get want you want once you come back from the sand pit.And,thanks for doing that.Come home safe.

[semperfidoordie]

Special K thanks man...I appreciate it. The car is fairly economical...it gets 20 MPG which is good enough and yeah i'm still upside down a bit on the car...owe 7300 and it's worth about 5 so it'd be hard to sell it without eating the diff. Hey speaking of you have any pics of your 71 for sale? I mean granted I really want that 72 on here i'd much rather buy a $3500 truck than a $6500 ya know? but it's hard to find anything close to the People Republic of CA

[ed2552]

What is the car?

[semperfidoordie]

Originally Posted by ed2552

What is the car?

It's a 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GT...nothing crazy..I read it is a Special SLP Edition but haven't been able to find much info on that. So basically I'm upside down on the car right now....can't sell it and pay the loan off even..I mean the people who owned it before me put a LOUD expensive stereo system in it about 3k worth of stuff so it's decent but not sure what to do with it..

[Primered_69]

With you job being stable paying cash for your truck would be a good decision in my opinion. That way you will not go any further in debt

[c10addict]

Your young... Keep the loan on the car and keep making the payments on time.. Establish credit... Credit is a good thing... I am 33 and have great credit due to paying bills on time since I was young... I can get any loan I want at anytime.. Take care and good luck over there!!!!!

[tcb-1]

Originally Posted by c10addict

Your young... Keep the loan on the car and keep making the payments on time.. Establish credit... Credit is a good thing... I am 33 and have great credit due to paying bills on time since I was young... I can get any loan I want at anytime.. Take care and good luck over there!!!!!

So true. Great advise c10addict. Also helps that my wife is an accountant!

Be careful over there Marine. We want you back, safe and sound. Thank you for your sacrifice!!!!!

[semperfidoordie]

Thanks guys. Yeah I did the same thing the first time I was over here dieselarmy...I bought one sight unseen and it turned out great but the MC gave me the green weenie on that one as I had to sell it cause I couldn't get a base sticker cause it wouldn't pass smog...but definitely not going through that again and waiting till I get back. I'll keep checking CL cause it's hard to find something decent over here as I want to keep some money in the bank and anyone who's been to SD or knows the area at all understands it's not an easy place to live haha. I heard a rumor that their looking at letting us roll over GI Bill over to our spouses so we'll see if that works cause I have two years in the Corps left and she has 3 years of school left :/ and wants to finish it where she started..can't blame her..but I don't think we could afford to live in SD working a regular job ya know? So i'm kind of not sure what to do cause she wants me to not deploy and i'm Intel so to that in my job and stay in SD is damn near impossible...So on the truck thing I'll just suck it up and buy a 2wd and keep paying on the car. and the wife and school issue..not sure yet. Thanks for being a great sounding board boys!

[special-K]

Ah,you don`t want that wrecker for a driver.It has a 5.13 rear.She`s a stump-puller.You can find a 1/2t in CA for that price.You have to July,if not a bit longer with some inconvenience of sharing.Take your time and find just the right one.Check the San Diego Craigslist all the time.

[dieselarmy13]

Just don't do what I did, and buy something while you're over there, sight unseen, just because you have a pile of cash to do it. Don't get me wrong, I love my truck, but if I would have seen it first, I wouldn't have paid what I did for it. Good luck over there, brother.

[special-K]

Somebody find this man a decent $5,000 truck in SoCal.

[dieselarmy13]

I know for sure that you can let your spouse use your GI bill. I had a pamphlet on it, but can't find it now. My wife only has about two years of school to get her doctorate, and I'm thinking that's a pretty good retirement plan for me

[semperfidoordie]

Tim,
Thanks for being the commanding type and getting the boys looking for me. I found one that looks alright. http://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/car/681008034.html if you all would take a look and let me know..I have some more pics he emailed me too. As for the boys thanks for helping and hope you can find me some good stuff.

Dieselarmy thanks for the info bro. Hope you can find the pamphlet about it cause that would be awesome. I'm in the USMC so I hope it's the same for all the services but that would be awesome if so.

[sleric77]

Good luck to you on finding your truck, but just make it home safe and sound to your wife. I'm sure that you will find a truck it always seems to work out like that when you really love these trucks. Thanks for all you guys do for us and God bless you .

[semperfidoordie]

sleric thanks man. I appreciate it...I've only got till about mid July left so I'm getting there slowly but surely. And yeah like you said I'm sure I'll find one eventually.But the good thing is since we're still young (I'm 21 and Melissa is 19) she actually thinks the trucks are cool and has only begun to learn how it goes haha...like with my last truck the blue on in my pic when I said "15 more minutes babe..only like 15 minutes" it generally meant 3-4 hours haha...cause you guys know how these things work but she's loving and deals with it

[HoupPhotography]

I can't emphasize enough how correct C-10 is, KEEP THE LOAN ON THE CAR AND ESTABLISH YOUR CREDIT The second part of that is, DO NOT ABUSE IT! Meaning, auto loan, mortgage and an EMERGENCY credit card....that's all!

If you need some help looking, just say the word! Good luck over there and be safe!

[semperfidoordie]

Houp thanks man. I appreciate it and yeah I need some help finding a truck. I found one in San Diego I like but I'm waiting for the guy to write back so I can have my bro in law go look at it for me. But if you could keep your eyes peeled i'd appreciate it. anywhere in CA would be fine I mean if I could find one in San Diego of course that'd be more appreciated. Thanks man and I'll keep the loan then and just buy something out right. I currently have a 3000 dollar credit limit on my credit card with no balance on it and 3000 in savings...should be about 7k by the time i leave. Just gotta keep paying on the car. Thanks man