My MINI makes me car poor

I took my MINI into get fixed yesterday, and picked it up today. $2500 this time. That fixed the power steering pump, replaced the oil pan gasket which was presumably leaking, and fixed the rocker panel that got moofed up when my jack broke whilst changing tires. They did wash the car and re-align my windshield washer jets for me, free of charge. What swell folk.

I added up the amount of money I have spent on the MINI since it was paid off went off of warranty (happened at the same time), then divided it by the number of months between now and then. Guess what? It still averages out to me making the same car payment. Plus the service folk advised me that my clutch is, on the outside, going to need replacement in 15k miles.

The major problem with this car is that in all of the Phoenix Metro area, there is only ONE place to get service on it. MINI of North Scottsdale is co-located (as most MINI dealerships are) with its big-sister brand BMW, and is surrounded on one side by Porsche of North Scottsdale and Land Rover of North Scottsdale. I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this.

So what to do? Kelly Blue Book guesstimates that I have a potential “fair” trade-in value of $10k which isn’t bad for a car that’s 5 years old (as of March 6th!) with about 73k miles on it. Ideas running through my mind so far: trade in on a new car that’s tiny and inexpensive like a Yaris or something, or; trade it in on a more expensive new car (but still inexpensive overall) with a good trade in value and rack up the extended warranty and make $100-200 payments on a new car, or; buy a used motorcycle or scooter and just drive that for the short in-town things and only take the car when its raining, etc.

Right now the least expensive option is a scooter or used motorcycle. I can pick something like that up for under $3000 nicely equipped, and living in Phoenix there won’t be many times during the year where I couldn’t drive it. But then what about when I move from Phoenix? sigh

Any suggestions y’all?