Hi /r/frugal,
I've come to a bit of a financial crossroad regarding my car, and I'm trying to determine what is best in the long run. It's worth noting that I do need a car and something more frugal like biking around is not an option for me. Also, I own the car and it is fully paid off.
I took my car in to get serviced the other day and they hit me with about $2500 that needs to be done in maintenance. The car is an '06 Honda CRV with about 82,000 miles on it. The $2500 accounts for a new rack and pinion (that was a big chunk of it) and a few other misc maintenance things that add up quickly once you factor in labor and tax.
The car is only worth about 5-6k, and $2500 is a sizable percentage of what the car is worth. I'm trying to decide whether it would be best in the long run to just eat the maintenance cost and keep trucking, or try to trade in my car for a newer car for a lot less miles. For example, I found a 2015 Honda civic with less than 1,000 locally at a dealer for $16499 (online list price, so I assume there's wiggle room in that price).
My biggest hesitation towards just getting the maintenance done is that if I'm paying $2500 in maintenance for parts that aren't even major like engine/transmission, 1) I can't imagine how much something major like that would cost and 2) how long before something major like that breaks down and needs to be replaced.
Thank you so much in advance.. I'm 20, pretty new to adulting, and have never really had to tackle a problem like this before. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
April 14, 2017 at 07:38AM
