Sell my truck???

[PrisonHack]

  I have a 2009 Tacoma , according to KBB and NADA the "good" trade in value is about 4K more than I owe on it. I was thinking of trying to sell it and buying a cheap work and back car/truck to drive and be able to dump the money I am spending on payments every month into my savings account. I  pretty much only drive the truck to work and back about 10 miles round trip a day, anywhere else we go we normally take the wife's ride.

  I just wonder if it's a good move, I owe two more years on the truck and it only has 45K miles on it so I could most likely drive it for a long time to come once paid for. If I buy a 3-4K dollar compact to drive to work it will have well over 100K miles on it and I will possibly only get a few years service out of it. 

[myk]

I say stick with the truck.  You've only got 2 years left and this is a vehicle that you know and trust.  Why give up that security for an unknown vehicle that may or may not last the month?  Selling the truck won't inflate your savings account enough to make you a millionaire, but you may just find it impossible to live without the truck that you've come to depend on...

[b5blue]

I'd detail the truck and try to sell for a good profit. If it sells well you can pick up something trustworthy like a Cherokee in good shape and just stay out of debit all together. 10 miles a day MPG is not a factor, reliability is. (Grated I HATE loans/interest/full coverage insurance...and being broke.)   

[PrisonHack]

 So one for and one against. About 50/50 that's where I'm at with it too 

[draftingmonkey]

How much will you be able to save over by getting rid of the payments? If you are intending to save because you do not have an emergency fund in the bank or are trying to save for a home down payment, then not necessarily a bad idea. On the flip side you may end up spending the money you save on repairs to keep am older, higher mileage vehicle on the road.

My opinion is that if you do not have to save the extra money, keep the truck. It is lower mileage and I am sure you have kept up on all the maintenance items and have kept track of the repair/maintenance history of your truck. It would be sad to save two years worth of payments only to turn around and possibly have to buy another vehicle in a couple of years.

One thing I would do that I learned from my parents, keep on making vehicle payments even after the truck is payed off. Open a separate saving account to make the payments into. Down the road when you do need another vehicle, you will have the money in the bank. I learned from my first car, my '74 Charger, that I do not like making car payments. Of course when I made mine the interest on the car loan was 18%. Since then I have saved and payed cash for every new vehicle I have purchased. Have done the same thing with the new appliance fund.

[70 sublime]

Do you need a truck as in moving stuff too big for a car or towing a trailer ?
I would think in the long run just going 5 miles at a time is hard on the motor as it is not really getting warmed up then just shut off again

I would get a car if you do not NEED to use a truck