When to repair an old car vs. buy a new one?
I'm currently driving a 2002 CR-V with 130K miles. It's in the shop today because I had a leaking brake line. I'm gonna have to pay the shop almost $300 to fix it, and apparently many of the other brake lines are also rusty and in bad shape.
I'm also going to need need new brake pads, rotors, and 1 new caliper. My dad and I are going to do that to save money, but it's still going to be roughly $200.
All this comes immediately after an incident I had in May where my exhaust manifold was rusted and snapped in such a way that I had to get a whole new catalytic converter and resonator, which was like $1000.
Plus, my tires are getting low and will probably need to be replaced soon to pass inspection.
All of this begs the question, is it even worth pouring all this money and stress into this car? Everyone seems to say "Oh that's a Honda, it will run forever", but I find myself constantly stressing over the repair costs for this 15 year old car. I only drive like 6 miles a day total to get to work, plus maybe 15 on the weekend to go to the shooting range, I feel like I'd be better off getting some kind cheap low mileage lease and not having to worry about all of this maintenance stuff anymore. Sure, maybe the engine will last forever, but it seems like everything else on the car is falling apart.
Posted Jul 31, 2017, 3:32 PM UTC