My in-laws were visiting us for the last few days, and just left this morning. They were in town for my husband’s cousin’s wedding last night. They arrived on Thursday afternoon, bringing with them a new car for us!!! They recently bought a 2004 Acura MDX, and offered to give us their old car. It’s a 1990, same vintage as our current cars, but it’s an Audi (we have an Oldsmobile and a Honda) and it only has 100,000 miles on it (as opposed to the 200,000+ miles on our cars). We are stoked! My husband said that he feels like a yuppie in it. But I reminded him that it’s 17 years old, so he doesn’t have to feel like a yuppie, just a slightly spoiled kid with really generous parents. His dad has had that car for about 10 years, and has always taken amazingly good care of it. It really looks almost brand new, and you’d never know how old it is. For us, 100,000 miles seems like nothing, so we figure we’ll be able to drive this car for another 10 years.
We’re going to sell my husband’s Oldsmobile, we’ll be posting it on Craig’s List soon. It’s blue book value is about $900, so we’ll ask that and see what we get. Whatever it sells for will go into my husband’s Roth IRA so that we can max that out for the year and move on to our HSA.
We are feeling very spoiled right now. We’ve both been paying our own way for at least 10 years, and are not used to taking gifts from our parents. This car is a huge gift, and we’re very grateful. I know it makes them happy to be able to give us the car, but I feel a tad bit guilty at the same time. I cooked them dinner on Thursday night and a big pancake breakfast on Friday morning. And I took two vacation days to hang out with them. I’m feeling really lucky and fortunate this morning.
Fabulously Broke says
That is really generous of his parents to do so..
Gives you a real warm fuzzy feeling huh? And makes you appreciate it more.
Husband’s parents are also the same way, and any little thing they do for us, like help us move, and help us fix up the car, is completely appreciated. Their doors are always open to us, and they know that even though I make a lot of money now, it’s not a lot when you consider how much debt I’m shouldering, and trying to pay off ASAP.
If it was a rich spoiled kid, I bet he would’ve said: I don’t want your 17 year old car. Buy me a new one!
100,00 miles is nothing :) I hope it lasts the full 10 years!
basil says
Congrats!
Better to feel a yuppie in an Audi than a hobo in a Neon, he said from experience.
basil says
I think I forgot to include a “like” in my previous post that may lead some to believe I may be fond of doing inappropriate things with yuppies and hobos in cars.
Just to clarify.
FrugalBabe says
Basil, you crack me up :)