We're suddenly weighing a new car purchase too. We knew we needed to take it in for brakes (squeaking is driving me crazy!), but as of Wednesday night...the key sometimes won't go into the ignition and even if you can get it in there, 9 times out of 10 it won't turn. We tried two different keys (one of which is never used), same thing. They work in the doors. Wheel wasn't locked, googled everything...looks like we'd need the ignition replaced which could run us, along with the breaks, upwards of $1500. The car is almost 10 years old and we barely fit the car seats in it as it is (we have to have our seats pulled WAAAAAY UP) so a new car was on the horizon anyway. Now we just have to (quickly) figure out if we want to dump money into the old car, or use that money as a downpayment on a new one.
Ugh, cars!
Yeah, at some point you have to weigh the cost of keeping an older car vs. the convenience and safety of a new one. I knew if we kept the Fit another year, it would be worth nothing at that point, and who knows how much money we would have spent on maintenance and fixing things that might break over the next 25-30k miles.
I had already told DH that any repairs/maintenance over $500 on the old car would have us contemplating trading it in. At that point, having "no car payment" doesn't mean a lot if we keep having to shell out $$$$ for repairs. $1500 was a no go for me. That was 50% of the car's value!