Transportation

Transportation. Everyone needs it to some degree, but what do you do when something unexpected happens such as an ice storm, tornado damaged areas, deep snow, civil unrest etc? I have been thinking about that quite a bit lately and am getting ready to make a plunge into a new, expensive 4x4 vehicle. Now don't get me wrong, when I say new, I mean 12 years old, and when I say expensive, I mean more than the cash that I have in my pockets. I like to think in these terms as it usually (but not always) keeps me from getting into trouble. The vehicle in question is a 96 cherokee, plain as can be with no power anything except brakes and steering, still has the original factory steel crap wheels on it, but it is a fleet vehicle from a conservation department and you can tell that it was obviously very well maintained with an average of only 9500 miles per year. One of the best things about the vehicle is that it comes with the heavy duty stuff on it and the much lower gearing so that will save money in the long run since those things will not need to be addressed when preparing the vehicle for eventuality use.

My only quandry is the payment. I do not have enough cash to buy it outright, I called several banks and the are quoting me interest rates starting at 14% because of the age of the vehicle, so that leaves only my credit card...hmmm.

The card that I use for emergencies (I am trying to decide if this could classify) has a low fixed interest rate of 6.5% and a credit line so large it scares me sometimes, so I am seriously contemplating just using this and making the payments to these folks instead of my local bank. May not be a big deal to most people, but I have not had a car payment in about 8 years, so the thought of getting back into one makes me a bit queasy.

I am leaning toward doing it since I would hate that this is one area where my preparations are lacking and winter is approaching, and if something happens during this time, my transportation ability could be seriously affected and could hurt me more than a couple of thousand on my card.

Anyway, just figured that I would post this in case anyone else that might read this (if anyone is reading this) might be in the same predicament might gain some insight and additional thoughts along the way of their decision tree.