I am part of the Kia/Hyundai chaos going on in America. When we bought my car, we found the cheapest thing on the lot because we would be having 2 car payments at the time, and we knew our budget would be even tighter. Consequently, we are now in a conundrum of what to do with my car. We are still able to get car insurance and I have heard of the horror of people unable to obtain insurance or have high deductibles. Also, my car is starting to have mechanical issues including the AC not working at the moment. So my question to ask is when do you give up on a car and say it’s time to get a new one. I know many people who get one issue with a car and the next day they are at the dealership trading it in even if they would be financially underwater. Is my car worth all the hassle of getting it fixed? Will I soon be unable to get insurance on it? We park our cars in the garage to help make sure it doesn’t go anywhere without us. I know people like having the peace of mind knowing their car is dependable but at what cost does that come.
My car still gets me from place to place. I am working with people to repair the AC. We have faced this challenge before and it is not financially relevant to replace my car yet. We had a vehicle a few years ago that was worth less than five thousand dollars and the engine went out and was going to be over five thousand dollars to replace. At that point it was clear to replace the vehicle, we are not at that point with my current vehicle.