Post by theryno665 on Jan 10, 2010 12:57:22 GMT -5
Alright, here's my situation: my car's a piece of crap and I don't make a lot of money. I make $9 an hour and money is really tight right now as our business is slow during the winter months. I make a decent amount of money during the Spring and Summer but I'm not sure if it's enough to keep up with car payments and insurance. But my car is on it's last legs. To give you an idea, here's everything I can think of that's wrong with my car, starting with the most important:
-Broken spring on front driver's side. (Needs to be fixed ASAP but it'll be at least $400-$500)
-Temperature issues during summer. Doesn't go in the red but it heats up moreso than normal, which causes problems. I had to replace a sensor last summer that somehow caused my car to just shut off once it hit 200 degrees (which is the average temp of my engine anyway).
-Rear power windows are off track. Have been held up with duct tape for the past couple years.
-Needs new tires.
-No AC (Definitely a freon leak as a refill lasts about a week).
-No rear defrost.
-Sunroof doesn't work.
-One of the airflow knobs broke off and I can't put it back on.
-Stereo could use replacement. The CD player skips like crazy during cold temperature and some of the buttons don't work occasionally...like the volume knob.
-Radio antenna broken in half.
-A hole has been gouged out next to the trunk lock, due to a possible break-in. (I had nothing worth stealing in there.)
There's a few more cosmetic things but those are the more important ones. And I'm really only concerned about fixing the first couple as those are the ones that affect my actual driving. I've lived with the other things for the past few years.
If I get a new car, I'll probably get a Kia Rio as that's about the only one in my price range. I'll look into used cars too but all the cars I've had are used and though they run fine at first, it only takes a couple years for them to screw up. Plus I'm worried about insurance too as I'm currently paying about $300 per six months on a liability plan in my old hometown, despite having moved to a bigger city a couple years ago. Getting a new car would mean getting a new policy here, which is sure to be more expensive.
I've recently applied to a couple jobs but the job market sucks here, so I don't know how long I'll be at this job. Like I said, the money is good during Spring and Summer but it tapers off during Fall and Winter gets pretty tight for me. I'm going to talk about my dad about this and see if he can help me out but he's a penny-pincher, plus he's getting some work done on his house now. I'm sure if I ask for a favor, he'll be reluctant and give me some lecture about it, which is what I want to avoid and why I only talk to him about a few times a year.
Anyways, to sum up: Should I go for a new car or try to keep the old one running?
-Broken spring on front driver's side. (Needs to be fixed ASAP but it'll be at least $400-$500)
-Temperature issues during summer. Doesn't go in the red but it heats up moreso than normal, which causes problems. I had to replace a sensor last summer that somehow caused my car to just shut off once it hit 200 degrees (which is the average temp of my engine anyway).
-Rear power windows are off track. Have been held up with duct tape for the past couple years.
-Needs new tires.
-No AC (Definitely a freon leak as a refill lasts about a week).
-No rear defrost.
-Sunroof doesn't work.
-One of the airflow knobs broke off and I can't put it back on.
-Stereo could use replacement. The CD player skips like crazy during cold temperature and some of the buttons don't work occasionally...like the volume knob.
-Radio antenna broken in half.
-A hole has been gouged out next to the trunk lock, due to a possible break-in. (I had nothing worth stealing in there.)
There's a few more cosmetic things but those are the more important ones. And I'm really only concerned about fixing the first couple as those are the ones that affect my actual driving. I've lived with the other things for the past few years.
If I get a new car, I'll probably get a Kia Rio as that's about the only one in my price range. I'll look into used cars too but all the cars I've had are used and though they run fine at first, it only takes a couple years for them to screw up. Plus I'm worried about insurance too as I'm currently paying about $300 per six months on a liability plan in my old hometown, despite having moved to a bigger city a couple years ago. Getting a new car would mean getting a new policy here, which is sure to be more expensive.
I've recently applied to a couple jobs but the job market sucks here, so I don't know how long I'll be at this job. Like I said, the money is good during Spring and Summer but it tapers off during Fall and Winter gets pretty tight for me. I'm going to talk about my dad about this and see if he can help me out but he's a penny-pincher, plus he's getting some work done on his house now. I'm sure if I ask for a favor, he'll be reluctant and give me some lecture about it, which is what I want to avoid and why I only talk to him about a few times a year.
Anyways, to sum up: Should I go for a new car or try to keep the old one running?