Hi all - own my ‘17 Santa Fe outright, it’s our second car only drive it like 4k miles a year getting sick of it. It’s a limited ultimate, it has 60k miles
Primary car is a Mercedes GLS ‘21, has 40k miles on it, probably driving 6-7k miles a year. Paying $1100 a month and have just over two years left on this car, financing it.
originally, was going to just stay with the Mercedes and Santa Fe - have the Mercedes paid off in two years, turn that into the secondary vehicle and then get a new primary vehicle in two years.
we have three kids - 12, 9, 4 - still using a car seat for youngest.
I always thought just buy a 1-2 year old car, get it paid off and rinse and repeat. I’m learning more about leases and some of the EV specials now. We could do a lease, we could do nothing, we could do ev or plug in hybrid. I keep going in circles in my head on this. I’m starting to realize that buying even a 1-2 year old car may not make more financial sense than a lease considering residual value, specials and money factor. And some of the PND here on LH are interesting
the car I was most tempted by was the new ‘26 ix but effective monthly cost on that is $800 plus the $1100 on the Mercedes - spending $1900 a month seems bananas to me for how little we’re both actually driving.
Then my wife asked me if we should just get out of the Mercedes now, it probably has $5-10k of residual, then could parlay that $1100 payment plus potentially the value of the Santa Fe, probably worth like $8k - into two new cars like ‘26 Hyundai Palisades. I was reluctant to do so because the next two years we should earn likely another $5k+ per year in residual that in two more years the GLS will like be worth at least $20k, seems like the wrong time to get out of it.
On the Hyundai, it’s probably depreciating $2-3k a year - so kind of indirectly paying $200-250 plus some maintenance - still could likely justify $400 a month and it would likely be similar to current state
We live in Allegheny County.
if anyone has advice or recommendations on what to do it’s all appreciated!!!
- should we sell Hyundai?
- Should we get out of Mercedes Finance early?
- If we do either - what car // deal would you recommend? Could def get 1 or possibly 2 ev or plug in cars or go all gas? I think one car needs three rows and the other car if it’s it’s a 5 seater it needs to be very comfortable my kids are a mess and a second three row car could make sense.
- Have some flexibility financially to make a good deal or capitalize on a good moment.
Thx again!!
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