What percent of a car's value do you put into repairs before you band-aid it and dump it off to someone else?

Say for a highschooler or college student who just needs to get around?

I always do the
Cost of repair + What the car is worth. Adding in, how much of a pain it'd be to (A.) Get it fixed. (B.) Fix it Myself.

-vs-

Cost of replacing the car + what I can get for it.
Adding in, how much of a pain it'd be to (A.) Find a new(er) car. (B.) How much $$$ it's going to cost me in insurance for the new(er) car.

Tall Shadow

I'd say 33% of the car's value or less for the repair. Engine, tranny, rear axle, etc. replacement should never exceed 1/3 of the value, IMO.

Its always cheaper to repair than it is to buy new. Well almost always because I know someone on here will call me on that. Take into consideration on what you will pay for payments and full coverage ins on a new vehicle yearly and divide that by 12. Now take the amount of the repairs and divide that by 12 (assuming that you can get by 12 months without another major repair). Tell me which is cheaper for you.

Edit: Case in point - I bought an old truck to use for plowing, yardwork, and hauling stuff for my rental properties. Paid 2700 for it, currently it is in the shop getting 3 grand worth of work done to it, engine tune up, gas tanks replaced etc. ( so I am paying more to fix it than I bought it for).  I pay 300 yearly for insurance on it. So for just over 6 grand, I got myself a great truck for about 100 per month (not including maintenence) spread over 5 years. Contrast that with if I bought a new F150 and had to pay over 500 a month for it with insurance.

For me, I either repair it(first choice) or salvage parts from it and look for something else to repair. It's the ONLY affordable way of doing things.

My father just bought a car for $650, has already sunk at least $500 into it.. and has another $350 worth of repairs to go.  I still can't believe he bought that damn clunker.  For the money he could've gotten something much better!!!

What happened to your car clean_cut?

Quoted: My father just bought a car for $650, has already sunk at least $500 into it.. and has another $350 worth of repairs to go.  I still can't believe he bought that damn clunker.  For the money he could've gotten something much better!!!

Depends on what he got. Sometimes the resale value is high and quite profitable on restored "junkers".

Quoted: Quoted: My father just bought a car for $650, has already sunk at least $500 into it.. and has another $350 worth of repairs to go.  I still can't believe he bought that damn clunker.  For the money he could've gotten something much better!!! Depends on what he got. Sometimes the resale value is high and quite profitable on restored "junkers".

Mazda Protege!!

very few repairs cost more than 36 months of payments


Sgatr15

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: My father just bought a car for $650, has already sunk at least $500 into it.. and has another $350 worth of repairs to go.  I still can't believe he bought that damn clunker.  For the money he could've gotten something much better!!! Depends on what he got. Sometimes the resale value is high and quite profitable on restored "junkers". Mazda Protege!!

Ok, you're right!

Whats the deal, Clean_cut? What happened to your car/what was it? Deatails, deatails!!!!

It needs a new engine.  I am gonna go grab a Salvage yard engine for a few hundred bucks and do the Remove/replace myself.  I was thinking of putting in a new tranny while I am at it.


My dad is telling me to do a quick fix and trade it in on a new truck. But this car only has 106 on it so I think I am gonna repair.  Hell i can get a 2-3 year old engine complete with 35k on it for 300 bucks. Why not?