The cheapest 2014 Cayman on Autotrader right now has 109k miles and is listed for just under $30k, so even needing suspension work it would probably be worth at least posting it for sale and trying to get 25k for it before selling it to a dealer.

Is 36k the payoff amount quoted from your bank today? Or just the sum of all the future payments. At 11% interest the payoff today is likely thousands less than the sum of all future payments, and is actually what you need to sell the car.

If you don’t want to take the personal loan and don’t need the space you could try selling the minivan and using that money to pay for suspension repairs on the Cayman if it looks like the car is otherwise reliable. Front struts are a pretty common replacement item on most cars around 100k miles, especially performance cars, so this doesn’t seem like it’s an indicator the car will be problematic.

If your credit is good you could try refinancing the Cayman to bring your rate down, it probably won’t drop a whole lot but even 7-8% is better than 11%. Then just pay it off aggressively until the loan balance is below the value of the car and sell it, or if you sell the minivan to fund the suspension repairs keep it until it’s paid off and keep driving it.

At 5.85% you could go either way, but personally I’d take a mortgage. The 7% number you hear is inflation adjusted, the actual historical returns of the S&P500 have been 10.8% so that’s the number you’d want to compare. Mortgage interest is also tax deductible

You said your sibling has enough savings to cover the rent? If so, they should just offer to pay for the entire year upfront with those savings. Alternatively, if I was in your shoes I would consider co-signing under the condition the sibling gives me 1 year worth of rent, and I’d keep it in an HYSA and use it to start making payments if they stop. Once the sibling moves out you can give them back the money, and if they don’t trust you with their money then you shouldn’t trust them with your signature as a guarantor.

Honestly if you can find one for MSRP I’d say do it, they’re awesome to drive and very reliable from what I’ve heard.

You can afford the car, but it may negatively impact your debt to income ratio when it comes to buying a house. If you only need a car for transportation and you happen to kinda like a new luxury SUV that costs 80k, I’d probably pass. However if it’s a car you’ve been dreaming about owning for awhile and makes you smile every time you see one on the road, I’d say go for it. A car for me is a purchase too expensive to be something that doesn’t make me turn around and smile whenever I’m walking away from it in the parking lot.

Not sure what car OP is considering but that last one depends on the car I think. If he’s trying to buy some luxury SUV to fit in at the school kiss and ride then probably, but my bmw M6 is a couple months from being paid off and still makes me smile every time I peek in the garage.