Anyone Regreting downsizing?

Gatordoc

Adventurer
I'm not 100% sure this is the right sub-forum for this, but since kids are relevant, and this is family adventure planning, here goes.

I feel my mindset and philosophy on life shifting to a more simplified, minimalist view. We (the wife and I) decided last year to prioritize experiences over things with respect to spending, and it's proven to be a very nice choice, so far, but we aren't quite where I'd like to be, yet.

I have a car loan about to go away, and it has me thinking about a serious revamp of my current fleet of 5 :Wow1: vehicles. Two are motorcycles, one of which will be sold, and we currently have 3 cages. One is the DD, which is about to be paid off and will be purged. The second is the wife's play car/summer DD. The third is my truck, a full size 4 door pickup.

My inclination is to take all of that mess and reduce it down to one older midsize SUV or 4-door pickup and one whatever my wife want's that is winter friendly and fits the budget. Overall goal being lower cost of ownership (the diesel pickup is great, but expensive to maintain), lower insurance premiums, less dollars invested in depreciating assets, and an end result of more discretionary $$$ to spend going out and doing things.

The truck I have now is actually pretty great, and would probably be a dream expedition vehicle for some folks, if a huge domestic diesel pickup works for them. I don't *need* to get rid of it, and in some ways don't really want to because I fear I will have post-sale regret. I like the room and relative comfort afforded by a fullsize and have gotten used to it in the 10 or so years I've had my truck. Its comfy, capable, utilitarian, gets 18+ MPG mixed on 35" tires, etc... We've moved cross country several times, including living in a travel trailer for a year, and all of that makes me wonder if I could go back to a relatively smaller vehicle.

For reference, I've also had a 1st gen 4runner and a 3rd gen regular cab pickup, and loved both. Having recently (last week) ridden in a buddy's '86 4runner, I don't know if I could do that again, especially with almost-adult-size kids. It (edit: my huge truck, not the 86 4runner) barely fits down many of the trails where I am now (Michigan), it's costly to maintain/repair, it's still valuable enough that I feel it's necessary to carry full-coverage insurance (very expensive in MI), and is also worth enough that I could sell it and purchase two, less valuable, arguably more capable vehicles, or one and build it up nicely.

I am purposefully leaving out makes and models because that isn't really the point, and I don't want to start a manhood-measuring contest. Also, if I am being 100% honest with myself, I will almost certainly buy with my heart, not my head, and end up with whatever turns me on, not necessarily what makes the most sense. I have never been happy with the vehicles I bought when I've been thinking rationally.

What I would like is input from folks who have been in a similar position, and made the decision to downsize/downgrade.

Are you happy with you decision?
Regret it?
Any other feedback or points to add?

Intended use is DD, weekend adventuring, and possibly 1-2 week road trip vacations once a year. I am OK with getting a small cargo trailer if storage proves too tight with the fam all packed up. No rock crawling, NF trails, some gnarlier than others, and lots of sand.
 
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Flagster

Expedition Leader
My wife and I decided to after working full time in healthcare for 10+ years...and downsized...

I can tell you that you won't miss the "toys". Once things were gone we didn't need we moved on quickly and I rarely think..."boy I sure miss that"...especially vehicles. I had a mentality for a few years that I wanted to accumulate a different vehicle for every type situation you might encounter...we had a subaru outback, two land cruisers, a full size domestic pickup, motos, van ...and could only use one every time we road tripped somewhere...insurance/registration/maintenance/it all added up and was such a waste if not a drain on our budget/income...

We thinned out our belongings (still own a condo/townhouse that we use as a basecamp type situation as it is nice to return to a home every 3-6 months to recharge)...and basically spend as much time traveling in our van as possible. We work as our time and finances allow (she can work from the road, I still contract with hospitals here and there)...

Whatever fits in our 144" sprinter seems to keep us happy:)...although a small cargo trailer might be in the works...
 

DaveInDenver

Middle Income Semi-Redneck
Vehicles are tools, use the ones that work for the purpose. It's about experiences and memories. For me a full size truck would never work, small garage and tight trails prevent it. Not to mention I don't need a full size for anything. But if it's working for you having interior and storage space is awful nice. There's no one right answer here.

I do miss a couple of vehicles I sold over the years. Maybe more regret selling is the better way to put it. There's logic to eatSleepWoof's point about thinking it through. It's generally easier and cheaper to work with something you have now than to move to another or, worse, have to replicate something you had and sold.
 

southpier

Expedition Leader
one thing you can't buy is "time". but you can redistribute what you already have. so if you're working less to acquire more and support what you're already stuck with, you can restructure that time into something which you may enjoy more. like each other's company and your children. isn't that why you're married?
 

AggieOE

Trying to escape the city
minimize the things you're still paying on or 100% don't use or really want. For the truck, I'd say keep it since it isn't critical you sell it AND you still like it! I'm assuming you worked hard for the truck because you wanted it. As long as you still do and it isn't breaking the bank, keep it!
 

Kyle Kelso

Adventurer
My wife and I are in a similar situation. I've been driving new trucks for work purposes for the last several years and I let myself splurge and buy my dream truck last spring. I loved it. I made some money off it from work but I planned to drive the wheels off it after at least 10 years. Then work slowed down and combined with us moving we had to make some changes. After I thought about it for a while I realized that the depreciation over the life of such a vehicle is about the equivalent of going out and buying a decent, old and used vehicle and scrapping it every year to buy another. So if you buy an older vehicle you like and keep it for even 3 years, then sell it for only a small loss because all its major depreciation is over, you are way further ahead financially even if you have some breakdown repairs to pay.
To each their own, but I sold my 2016 truck after less than a year. I took a hit on depreciation but I escaped several years of truck payments and bought an older full size SUV with cash and I couldn't be happier with my decision. It helps though that my wife's car is only a few years old and paid off so if my old girl dies on me at least we have 1 new car to rely on.
Plus driving a 3/4 ton suburban doesn't feel like I downsized much :)

I also had a couple of dualsport bikes that I've sold previously and have a couple sleds that I will be selling this fall. Do I miss the bike when my buddies are going riding? Yup. Do I know I'm going to miss my sleds? Yup. Do I urgently need the money from selling them? Nope, but it will free up more money from insurance, maintenance, etc. and more importantly as mentioned previously, free up time to do other fun and cheaper things with my family.

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk
 
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Pax2525

Adventurer
After buying and selling too many vehicles in the last 5 yrs I would have to say if you have one that fits the bill, is paid for, and works....keep it. If something changes you can sell it later but for now if it ticking all the boxes and already owned, keep it. You can always justify whatever you want or need. Don't make drastic decisions in this mindset, ha. Breathe a little and make a pro/ cons list and go from there.
 

nwoods

Expedition Leader
Have you considered a mid size truck? If you like trucks, try a smaller one. Rent a Tacoma or Frontier or Colorado for a weekend and see if that will work for you. Or try Turo.com
 

Hummelator

Adventurer
Based on what you are saying, I would suggest keeping the truck. If you've owned it for 10 years I would assume its payed off.
I've owned 3 cars, 2 SUV's and 3 trucks. My wife drives one of the SUV's which is a 2016 and we have a payment on.
It's nice having a vehicle that's good on gas and for her it's a great vehicle but for my lifestyle I need a truck. I bought my dream truck a couple years ago and had it payed off in a year (bought it used and higher mileage). Ended up starting a business and used the truck for business for a while until I finally caved and decided I needed something with a heavier weight rating. Went and bought a brand new diesel. I had recently decided to shut down my business and got rid of the diesel. Don't get me wrong it was nice having a new truck but the payments really suck. Over $1000 a month with insurance and payments for the next 8 years. I kept my dream truck luckily though and I'm happy I did. It may not be new or fancy or get great mileage but I love the truck. While I can't park in parkades with it I can do everything else. It's comfy for long trips to boot. Trucks have so much utility and while there are higher costs asscoiated with running the truck, I think the utility of the vehicle will even out those costs. We are back down to two vehicles and I'm happy with that.
Your second vehicle I would suggest picking which ever vehicle plucks your heart strings. I'm like you, I've always bought vehicles with my heart and not my head. And I've enjoyed my vehicles more because of that. No matter how poor the mileage may be.
 
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Gatordoc

Adventurer
Thanks for all the helpful feedback, everyone. Sorry for the tardy response; apparently I need to be more diligent in following up on threads and comments. Yes, I know how to; I'm just bad at it.

In any case, I am following everyone's advice, generally speaking, and taking the purge slow in order to minimize lifestyle shock, and to keep going too far all at once.

Last month was my last car payment, which is an awesome feeling, even though the circumstances weren't ideal (the car was totaled).

Our plan going forward, at least for now, is to sell the wife's summer-only car and one of the motorcycles in order to fund a mid-size SUV or crossover of some sort. I'm leaning towards a 3rd gen 4runner, older Forester, or something similar, at the moment. This will be a good, functional and winter-friendly vehicle for the wife to DD for the foreseeable future, and will also give me the opportunity to evaluate whether going to a mid-size will work for us, longer term. Edit: NO MORE CAR LOANS UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!

Upon reflection, I believe that a big part of my indecision with respect to the truck is a) lack of using it for my intended purpose and b) grass-is-greener syndrome.

In an effort to combat that, I've elected to keep the full-size, at least for the moment, for many of the reasons y'all mentioned, and to make a concerted effort to actually put it to use so I'm seeing what it can do, instead of only seeing what it costs me doing something it's not so good at (inexpensive DD duties).

I know it's history, and know that the work done has been done correctly (or not so much, but at least I can only blame myself at this point). Its huge and heavy, but that's both good and bad. Having gotten into a car accident recently in a much smaller vehicle which fared poorly (the car, not the people. Crumple zones did their job admirably!) is likely influencing this, as well. Recently took a trip and averaged about 19 MPG overall, mostly 55 mph backroads with a decent amount of FS roads and a little bit of highway, on 35" mud tires, which fit without any suspension modification. It's also paid for, and in good shape with very little rust for this state since it's only been here a few years. If I sell it, I might net a couple grand in my pocket after finding a suitable mid-size replacement and base-lining it, but I can't help but wonder if it's worth all that trouble just to free up a relatively small amount of cash. Also, and ultimately the deciding factor, I like my truck and it works for what I like to do.

We camped out of the back of it over the holiday weekend, ventured down FS trails and dispersed camped in Manistee NF and it worked out quite well. It fit and went everywhere I wanted to go, and was relatively comfortable as-is, so with a few choice and not terribly expensive modifications it should be ready for just about anything short of full-time travel, which isn't in the cards for at least another 9 years or so, when the kids get out of school. I will eventually need to add a RTT and/or trailer to have room for the kids without having to pitch a ground tent, but for the moment I think it will work just fine and I intend to use it as-is; the last think I want to do is become one of those guys who is holding off on doing stuff because his setup isn't finished yet. That may be a somewhat legit concern if you're going on a no-kidding expedition, but for weekend-warriors such as myself where the worst-case is discomfort rather than death or dismemberment there's no reason *not* to use it WIP.

I suspect that in doing so I will find that what I think is necessary from behind the keyboard in my office far exceeds what is actually needed out in the field.
 
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Peneumbra2

Badger Wrangler
I suppose you could downsize by having ferrets instead of children, but ferrets will NOT host Thanksgiving dinners or anniversary parties when you get old and tired and are glad to have family to help carry the load.

Of course, you don't have to spend millions of dollars to send ferrets to college...
 

calicamper

Expedition Leader
Keep in mind your camping style vs kids factor. Before kids we rarely stayed in one spot more than 2-3 days at most. With kids we learned the hard way that setting up base camp for many days and doing small side trips from camp was the best approach. Just took way too long and too much effort packing up camp with kids stuff and more complex accommodations. Which case the tent trailer base camp has been great. Terrible for the short stay travel model.

By a combo of events we have 4 vehicles. All paid for and really of not much value so we've kept them. Grandpa lived less than a mile away and shuttled our kids around in a 05 Sequoia I picked up from a soccer mom a few yrs ago. Grandpa's dream car was a barn find literally 05 SLK 350 with 13,000 on the clock so we got that for gramps. My DD was our 2010 Subaru OB and my wife runs a plugin hybrid Fusion. Gramps suddenly and unexpectedly punched his ticket. So now we have 4 cars. Though I have managed to use all of them pretty regularly👍

Having said that I'd love to replace the Sequoia and the Subaru with a diesel Canyon 4dr but my wife is so anti truck it's going to be a multi year effort on my part to sell the idea.
 

Accrete

Explorer
Not the same situation as we downsized within a couple years of being empty nesters...my wife and i downsized back in ~2007~ when shopping for an adventure rig and purchased a 2007 TACO (which would have been a 3rd vehicle). Then the light went on... swap the family station wagon (a volvo x70 cross country wagon) with something we could get out in and explore (both kids had then left for the US Air Force). One of the best decisions i made concerning vehicles is let the "Cool rig" be my wife's daily driver. I can find bling for it and it is an easy sell to the wife : )

Bling, bling... her daily driver for the past seven years

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Thom
 

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