You mentioned that during the week you use the car for the occasional grocery store trip. When I went to the grocery store while my car was still acting up, I brought along an ice chest (and my AAA card and fully charged cell phone) and got a bag of ice with my perishibles. That way if the car died on the way home at least I wouldn’t be out $40 for groceries. The extra buck or two for the ice was worthwile insurance for the $40 of groceries, and once I got home I put the cubes in my potted plants so they’d get watered.

Some people mentioned keeping drinks and snacks and a book or toy in the car for the kids, and I would do this regardless of how reliable the car was. No matter how reliable the car itself, you never know when you’re going to get stuck in traffic, or stuck waiting for a 100-car freight train to pass at 5 mph and stop a few times along the way, or stuck waiting for a drawbridge with a yacht parade going under it. I keep a bottle of water and a granola bar in the car for myself for just these situations.

Perhaps it’s a dual income situation with small kids but I have been going through the gamu of extreme frugality to complete loss of control and finding somewhere in the middle makes most sense. To be EXTREMELY frugal requires quite a bit of TIME… and if you work 10 hours/day and spend 6-7 caring for children, what’s left? It comes out of your sleep.

Since hiring help around the house and allowing budget for some convenience items, our stress levels have STEEPLY declined. And one hour of my working pays for a housekeeper, and one hour of my time pays for 2 non-stressful nights eating out with no dishes.> Time we spend WITH OUR KIDS READING or playing a game, isntead of leaving them to themselves and cleaning up the kitchen.

Convenience can buy you some real quality of life. It’s the same argument for people who can afford to have an At Home Parent – the loss of income is WORTH the price you pay.. (and I know all about this one since I am partly supporting my Mom now who didn’t work – she now has $800/month to live on – $500 which goes to medical needs….)

I think you should treat yourself and your family to a new minivan. Then, maybe you could challenge yourselves to paying for the cost (or most of it) by cutting back on other things in creative ways and writing about it on the blog. I’d love to hear “How to pay for a new car within your existing monthly budget.”

I carpool 3 kids now – on the freeway – daily – as we go to a special charter school. My husband takes the 3 year old to preschool every morning. Safety is a huge issue and I will NOT take the kids on the freeway in my little Celica. It’s a flying tin can!

Safety IS an issue with kids. That being said, I’ve broken down several times, once in the MIDDLE of a huge intersection, and the stupid emergency light wouldn’t work. It’s not fun, but I just called AAA and we dealt with it.

If a car becomes completely unreliable, get another one, but not a new one. You can find a good, reliable car for around 5K (i.e. a 5 year old Camry) if you’re not picky.

Unfortunately, I’m picky. :( so we just make do till we have more money saved…..

The weather is usually OK for cycling about 20% of the time, I’d guess. But even those times, a quick storm or wind gusts can crop up without warning after you’re already on the bike. In the plains areas, the wind can limit all but the strongest to walking their bikes.

The worst thing about biking, though, is the roads. It’s very common for there to be no place at all for cyclists. Rural roads and suburban arteries are often two lanes with no shoulders. Drivers here are NOT paying attention, they are NOT expecting to see cyclists and a few of them will run you off the road.

Public transportation is weak. Only inner urban areas have public transportation that can be used conveniently. Suburban areas have spotty coverage that may result in a 30-minute car ride taking 2 hours by bus. That’s not an exaggeration, that’s my actual commute time from the suburbs by car or by bus.

Taxis are rare and very expensive. A trip to the airport that takes me 10 minutes by car is $25 by taxi. Since it saves me parking fees in that case, it can be worth it. Actually getting a taxi to show up when you call them, outside of airport transportation and urban areas, is a fun game.

Add to that that most midwesterners in suburban and rural areas have not a single business within a 1 mile walk! And, when they do, we’re back to roads without shoulders or sidwalks, vast parking lots with no sidewalks, and drivers who don’t expect to see pedestrians or cyclists.

As a consequence, every person of driving age who doesn’t live in an urban area NEEDS a car. Going without a car is a huge hardship here, often resulting in inability to get/keep a job.

I realize that it’s different in other parts of the world, even other parts of the US.

So, those of you who live in these areas and make do with just one car: hats off–you are truly frugal and have made quite a sacrifice. I just can’t picture it.

Especially since the truck is paid for and not really “required” for day-to-day stuff like commuting, your job, etc.

It’s my belief that ANYONE can do work to their car simply with the shop manual and a few tools. My husband hadn’t ever done work on his car till two years ago; he redid the timing chain in his car and has since done the brakes in both of our vehicles. I rebuilt the carburetor on our motorcycle last month, and I’ve never worked on a motorcycle in my life before. If a diagnosis is the issue, the shop manual has a troubleshooting section, a list of regular maintenance, or you could go to a dealer or shop that will diagnosis for free (good idea if you want to gauge whether or not it’s worth your time).

There are so many times shops cut corners and do the work improperly, it’s worth the piece of mind alone to do the work yourself (not to mention the money). The only situation I can think of where it’s really impossible is if it’s the dead of winter, you don’t have a garage, and can’t get the car to a friend’s garage to work on.

If you are in the market for a car, consider a Toyota Echo, mine regularly gets 40 mpg. My husband has a Saturn SL2 ’93, still going and there are several people we know with the same model that took it over 200K, and even to 350K. Dont forget, stick shifts are better for mpg and have lower maintenance costs.

The yard sale article had some great ideas – especially since I’ve been going over my household inventory and marking stuff to get rid of very soon. I think that going over an inventory is an easier way to determine what to get rid of. There’s very little emotions overtones attached to an inventory and the cute little object isn’t sitting in your hands going “love me, keep me”. Also, something you’ve forgotten you had is automatically marked for sell.

I would like to say that I fully support Trent or anyone else getting a new or newer car if he decides he wants to. It’s really none of my business, and he is best equipped to know what is best for him and his family.

But I I would be surprised if another $1000 in the truck didn’t fix it up to the point where it stopped being unreliable and started feeling reliable and safe.

One of the above posters disagreed with the idea that “If a new car payment would be $350/mo and you spend $1500 every 6 months on repairs for your old one, you are still coming out ahead”, giving the reason that “All that money spent on car repairs would add up to a really large down payment on a new car. Spending $1500 every six months on car repairs for a piece of junk car, would be like remodeling your home, even though the foundation was falling apart.”

I will address this in two parts. In the first place, no one spends $1500 every six months on repairs on into the indefinite future. What happens is that you spend 1500, then another 1500, then if you’re unlucky another, then you don’t have to spend much of anything for 5 more years, at which point the car is pushing 20 and it makes absolute sense to get a different one. In other words, the repairs themselves are nonrepeating events for all intents and purposes. When you fix the tranny, the tranny is fixed. When you update the brakes, the brakes are fixed. After that, you just have suspension and engine stuff. Even if it adds up to a large down payment on a new car, the fact is that with the new car you are gonna still have pay the rest of the cost., whereas with the vehicle you already own, you will have to pay nothing but the future repairs.

In Trent’s case, he has already spent $3000 in repairs and I would be surprised if he had to spend $1500 more. So the question really is, what kind of a car can Trent buy for $1500? I’d say, not much of one. It makes sense to me to keep the vehicle and have maintenace and replacements done on it. Don’t wait only until things fail, do an head to tail assessment and make a list, then do the important things. Then you’re done.

The only other question is, will the $x of repairs now? be so costly as to not be worth it? I would say, estimate how long the frame of the vehicle will last, because that’s how long you can realistically maintain the vehicle. Then see if the repairs in that time frame would be more or less than putting out for a newer vehicle.

I would also say that for safety, pay attention first to Brakes& suspension, and secondly to the condition of the engine and transmission.

I do think that anyone who owns a vehicle more than 5 years old and doesn’t own at least an aftermarket service manual, such as that published by Haynes, and read through it, is just setting them up for surprises.

I will also admit that I am biased, as I do a lot of my own mechanical work, including the “big stuff”, and learning how to do it has made me a lot less scared of my own vehicle. I know exactly what is up with it, what to expect, and have a list of procedures that I plan to do (usually) or have done (more rarely) and when to do them. It is very rare that something surprises me when it goes bad. Either I knew to expect it, or I pretty quickly can see what it is. In most cases, the car never breaks down anyway, because i saw that problem a year before it was gonna create a “situation” and dealt with it. If the car does break down (92 Honda Accord), I am not panicked, I am more, like, curious and intrigued.

Best luck to all and also to Trent with his truck/vehicle decision!

It’s only a mile… if the road is safe enough for pedestrians, I’d get a double stroller and walk there until the snow banks get too tall.

It may not be anything you can fix yourself, but it might give you an idea of what the repairs could cost before you take it to a mechanic. You can also clear the code and see if it comes back or if it was an intermittent problem.

1. You can afford it.
2. You need a reliable car for your kids sake (you never know when an emergency will happen)
3. you have done the research on which cars are reliable…. Toyotas, Hondas, ect. Also, chevys are very reliable cars. My dad was a used car dealer for many years. Most people in the business know that chevys are a lot better than fords.
4. its true that new cars depreciate quickly, but toyotas and hondas hold their value a lot longer. (which you indicated that you would probably get several times)
5. I disagree with this line in comment #2:
If a new car payment would be $350/mo and you spend $1500 every 6 months on repairs for your old one, you are still coming out ahead.

That is not really true if you think about it. All that money spent on car repairs would add up to a really large down payment on a new car. Spending $1500 every six months on car repairs for a piece of junk car, would be like remodeling your home, even though the foundation was falling apart.

you will find help there.

heck, email the list to me too and I’ll give you an opinion.

without knowing all the background repair work, it’s hard to say what’s a good idea or not.

I have a friend who is a retired car repair shop owner
his advise is to buy a car for 90% of your needs and
rent or borrow a vehicle for the other 10%