T-Minus 480 days: Purging Cars

When you move to Florida, will you take your car? What if you have multiple cars?

We have three cars right now:

• 2008 Dodge Caravan with 125K miles
• 2008 Pontiac Grand Prix with only 50K miles
• 2018 Dodge Caravan with 40K miles. 

I decided the only vehicle we will take to Florida is the 2018 Caravan. We will try to survive with one vehicle for as long as possible. So, in 2019 we got rid of the:

• 1997 Chevy Truck with 65K miles
• 1986 Pontiac Bonneville with only 45K miles

A pickup truck is very handy when you need one, but, you don't need one every day. No one ever drove the Bonneville so it just sat in the driveway and rotted away.

We need to sell two more cars. The next car we are selling is the old Caravan. We kept the van so my oldest son would have something to drive. He attends college across the internet and doesn't drive anywhere, so, the van is sitting in the driveway rotting. It is long past time to get rid of it.

I charged up the battery and we spent most of the day washing, waxing, and cleaning it. I took it out for a test drive and, unfortunately, I think the front right caliper is locked due to sitting unused for so long. A caliper replacement is going to be several hundred dollars, but, I don't think the van will sell with a stuck caliper.

The Grand Prix is my car, and we won't sell that until we are nearly ready to move. I like the car, but I work from home and rarely use it. I don't think I put even 3K miles on it per year anymore. When cars sit around, they start developing problems. Right now the car has a barrings issue, the anti-lock keeps disengaging, and the muffler needs some work (although I believe the muffler is under warranty).

The old Caravan is worth somewhere around $2500, which would go nicely toward our moving budget.