Stranded in Houston

Bedlam wrote:
Part of trusting your truck is trusting the people that work on your truck. If you feel that a job was done sub par or the competence of the mechanic is questionable, how can you feel comfortable about its reliability?

Start by learning about the issues your vehicle is currently having and then discuss them with your mechanic. You will want to address how to resolve the current problems and how to mitigate future problems. Getting satisfying responses from your mechanic will be the start of trusting your truck again. Remember that you have owned it for a while and it has performed well for you in the past. Just because it failed and the repair was not done correctly the first time should not be indicator that this is the trend.

If you had issues with your vehicle before and this was just a string of continuing repairs, I would be advising you to replace rather than repair. I too am debt adverse and have fully paid for my vehicles instead of financing. I keep a contingency fund for unexpected accidents or repairs and I build a reserve fund for eventual replacement. So far this worked for me, but others have different ideas on how to manage finances.