Well, you haven't really said anything about your income, other than that you put into an IRA bi-weekly.

What is your annual income, and what do your current expenses per month look like?

Honestly, it sounds a lot like you're getting caught up in FOMO with this car. Is there any reason why you can't wait until the apparent public hysteria about this model dies down, and then see if you're still 100% into the idea? This will give you more time to save, as well.

You said yourself it's an impulse purchase, meaning that you don't actually "need" it right now. Do not leave yourself with no emergency savings for this.

Then you MAY benefit from filing jointly. You could try running the software filing MFJ. You'll probably still come out owing, but it might be SLIGHTLY better. Here, give this a read:

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mfj.asp

> My husband and I both file - currently are set up to be filing separately due to the amount of income we make together.

Are either of you on some type of income based repayment plan for student loans? If not, then you should probably be filing MFJ.

Sounds like this car is at a dealership. Take it out of there, and take it to a well reviewed, independent mechanic. Do not tell them what the dealership told you.

I do not know why they would need that, and I would ask them why they need that. You're holding all of the risk for this one, so you kinda call the shots.

Also, the usual advice is to not loan to family or friends, but it sounds like you're past that.

You should try to find a well-reviewed independent mechanic near you. They are almost certainly overcharging you a good bit for the brakes, if you even really need them at all.

If it's already paid up in full, you could keep it or you could not. $30k isn't a whole lot as far as life insurance policies go, but it will at least allow your dependents to pay for funeral costs and maybe some months of bills if you die. On the other hand, if you DID cash it out, and put that $3,500 into an index fund and let it ride for a few decades, you MIGHT come out over that $30k. Really up to you.

AWD helps you "go." It does not help you with turning or braking, so I wouldn't let that be a deciding factor here. Winter tires on older car should work just fine:

https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/09/do-you-really-need-awd-in-the-snow/index.htm

I would cash it out and be done with it. You basically have Whole Life, and here is why it is bad for the vast majority of people: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/debunking-the-myths-of-whole-life-insurance/

> It would cost $900 to repair at the dealership.

Unless the car is under warranty, and you're going in for a covered repair, you don't take it to the dealership if you can avoid it.

Anyway, everything you have mentioned here is relatively inexpensive to fix, and tires are a "wear item" that you'll eventually have to replace on ANY car.

I would keep driving it until you have an ACTUAL problem with it, like the engine issue that you mentioned. The car shaking when you go over 80mph is likely because you need an alignment, which again, is something you'll need to do periodically on any car.

> and my sibling would be completely on the hook for rent.

Well, if you do this, YOU'RE on the hook for it as well. If your sibling fails to pay, the landlord will be coming to you, and could sue you to recover the back rent.

I looked this up. Intuit DOES say here that 2 people in the same house can file as Head of Household. But, from reading the bit about both of them having to supply over half of the cost of keeping up the home and caring for the dependent, I'm thinking the only way this makes sense is if we're talking about 2 different dependents. You both can't be Head of Household with 1 dependent between you.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/family/guide-to-filing-taxes-as-head-of-household/L4Nx6DYu9

> Two people can both claim head of household while living in the same home however, but both will need to meet the criteria necessary to be eligible for head of household status:

> You must both be unmarried You must both be able to claim a dependent as a closely related person That dependent must reside at the same residence for more than half the year (or, in the case of an elderly parent, they can live elsewhere but you must still have provided them with at least half of their support) They both must have paid more than half of the cost of of keeping up the portion of the home for themselves and their dependent(s).

Understood. Just try not to panic. As everyone is saying, it's highly unlikely that you actually got screwed here (well...not more screwed than a dealership is normally expected to screw, anyway). The "missing" $4,000 is almost certainly various taxes and fees, and possibly some type of warranty. The taxes and fees you can't do anything about, that's a part of buying a car, but if you did sign up for some sort of warranty, you may be able to cancel that.

When did you finance, and why do you not still have your own copy?

Anyway, the numbers should all add up very clearly. There should be a line by line breakdown of what it is that you're paying for.

Most of the time with threads like these, it turns out that the OP signed up for a warranty plan and didn't realize it. Those can usually run a few thousand, so that may very well be what happened. If that turns out to be what happened with you, you can usually cancel those warranties.

> my vehicle is manual and she cannot drive a manual transmission.

...This sounds like an easy problem with an easy solution. You could teach her how to drive stick in a couple of sessions over a weekend or two, and you have about 6 months to do it.

> Partners current car is old and beat up, and our concern is that even if their vehicle survives the trip up there,

What about the car specifically makes you think that it won't survive a trip one state over?

"Issues" such as? Frankly, at 60k miles, you're most likely just running into normal "wear" items that will periodically need to be replaced on any car (brakes, shocks, tires, etc.).

That said: You make plenty, so if you want a new truck then go for it. It's just not the best practice to have a car payment in perpetuity.

Yep, fine point, those will certainly add to it as well.

> My brother in law got his house for almost $300,000 and our house payments are almost the same.

You can't use that as a comparison. What was the actual financed amount of his house? What is the rate on his mortgage? What are the property taxes like in his area? Does he have certain features in his home that would help lower the insurance premiums?

Your escrow amount will increase for 3 basic reasons:

You have an adjustable rate mortgage, and your rate went up (fairly rare these days).

Your property was reassessed, and your property taxes went up.

Your insurance premiums went up.

Or it could be a combination.

I would take it somewhere else and see what they quote you. The dealership is very likely ripping you off.

> Am I wrong for being excited by the prospect?

Quite possibly. You didn't say anything about your current credit rating, income, outstanding debt, emergency savings, etc.

I would also say that if you have to withdraw from retirement in order to make a 3.5% down payment, you are PROBABLY not in a position to purchase a house.

Lol, yeah I know...I just like to challenge people when they post myths like that.

> Many states have a 10-15 day cool down period that lets buyers return cars and essentially cancel the deal

That is not really true. If you happen to have a link to a source that says otherwise, I would definitely be interested in seeing it.