Repair or Replace

In Tennessee??? Gues it means if getting a different car, you'd better first measure the back window to see if it's big enough for your gun will fit across it! Don't want it sticking out the side window cuz it will rust! haha

Thanks folks,

The Town & Country Minivan is a 2014 and is my wife's DD/family hauler/tow vehicle

My car is a 2000 Lincoln Town Car. 165k miles...perfect motor, transmission, and rear end. suspension needs 100% rebuilt. So I am talking about a 2000-2500 repair.

I do prefer a Tahoe, Crew Cab Short bed truck. But having two car payments would be a pain...

Aargh...rock and hard place.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

2014 in need of that much repair? Get rid of it!
Are you really towing the signature trailer with that rig?

Exactly how old is this town car? Surly not the 2014 in your sig.

Depends on how much you would be driving it, and how far, under what conditions. I have a 2000 Minivan that I use around town, and I intend to keep it running as long as possible. Runs good, drives good. new brakes, new water pump, new battery. Dosn't have but 130k miles. No payments makes maintenance worth it. Water pump replacement was less than a months payment on a new one. Besides, they don't make anything like it anymore. Same problem with our toad. Hard to find towables any more.

At the end of the day the $$ spent on repair may be easier to stomach than the larger cost of replacing the vehicle. In both cases you will not get your $$ out of the vehicle if you were to sell it next month so It's up to you.

The vehicles that you've mentioned being interested in buying have been trucks or SUVs. The latest was a Tahoe I think. Given that you're interested in a different type of vehicle that you can use as a tow vehicle, if you can afford it I'd replace the Town Car. If the Town Car fit what you wanted to do with it my advice might be different, but it seems to me like you're wanting to switch to a vehicle with a different set of capabilities.

For me, if the repairs are less than 50% of the value of the vehicle, I'd consider performing them. I would only consider paying more than 50% if the vehicle has collector value.

I too would baulk at paying twice the value of the car for repairs. But, if that would be all i could afford, then I'd probably do it. Of course, with older vehicles, you fix one thing today and tomorrow you'll need to fix something else. Pretty soon you've put so much $$ into it that you could have replaced it with a newer one.

Ron

If you paid 1-2x the value of the car for repairs then a week later the car gets totaled in an accident, your insurance is only going to pay you the low end of the value. Personally, I would not put that much money into a repair.