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Help me let go!


Ralphie

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My college senior daughter was driving an old car, a cheapo late 90s Plymouth Breeze that had a great body and was reliable.  If it had one fault other than being a Chrysler it was that the engine idled pretty roughly and sounded like hell!  But it was perfect for getting her back and forth to college.  Didn't burn a drop of oil.

 

She got hit and thankfully the other insurance company owned up to their driver being at fault, so we are getting a nice total value for the car, just aboot dealer retail.  To buy it back would be $500, and it would cost aboot $1100 to fix the rear suspension with used parts and skimping slightly on cosmetics by retaining the old barely damaged rear bumper cover.

 

So the sensible thing to do is take the money and run.  My problem is a replacement would be big bucks!  She has no job lined up, so she can;t really take on a car payment, and I certainly don't want one, specially since both mine and my wife's car will need replacement soon.

 

So the desire to keep the cheap wheels is there, but I realize it is slightly silly to sink $1600 into an old car that could die at any moment.  So it seems easy on paper, yet the thought of another payment freaks me out!

 

Signed, Cheap Bastard.

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Often you'll find a lot more wrong with a car in a project like that. You'll get it back on the road only to find it dog tracks down the road. That's when you find that the unibody is bent. Not cheap.

 

I say dump it.

Plus, if that happened, I would have a whole family of people to say "I told you so!"

 

Thanks, Jerry. 

 

Funny, I didn't really want to buy this car, but I got attached to it since it was always reliable, and looked and ran well.  I was surprised for a Chrysler!  :D 

 

But the sweet spot does seem to be to buy a car with a little more life left in it as opposed to old cars/junkers.  Buying a 2 YO Accord worked out pretty well.

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