All cars, even the ones we love, get old and break down eventually. The question then becomes “do I spend the money to fix it up, or do I buy a new one?” It’s a very important question to ask and the answer, as you might expect, is complicated. In this article we’re going to break down all the information you need to make the right decision. 

Step 1: Car’s Value

The first thing you’ll want to do is to figure out the exact value of the car both if it was in prime condition and in its current state. There’s no exact way to do either but the easiest would be to find online listings of similar cars and see what they’re asking for. 

There’s always plenty of cars on the market so this should give you a pool of numbers that you can figure out the average of. It’s not an exact science but it should be helpful enough for our purposes. As an example we’ll assume the car is worth $3000 in good condition. 

Step 2: Cost to Fix

The next thing you need to figure out is how much it’s going to cost you to get the car fixed. This might take some inquiries but talking to a mechanic should help you figure it out. Depending on the type of car this cost is going to fluctuate massively, popular cars manufactured in North America are going to be much cheaper than rare cars from overseas as an example.

It also depends on whether it’s possible to repair yourself or if you’ll need a professional to do it for you which will add another expense to consider. 

Let’s say the total repair costs work out to $3500, in this instance repairing the car would make little financial sense because at the end of the day you’re paying more for the car than it’s actually worth. 

Step 3: Other Factors

“Financial sense” is an important factor but it’s not the only factor. There are two other scenarios you may want to consider, one is if you just really love the car. If that’s the case and you can spare the money then that’s a perfectly valid reason to spend it, happiness is important. 

The other potential scenario is that the car is actually broken beyond repair, there does come a time when the actual framework of the car has been compromised by damage or rust and no matter how hard you try the car can’t be saved, in this scenario you may end up sinking money into a car that has no future.