invest $6K in a 2011 Odyssey for maintenance or buy a new one?

[Anonymous]

Our Honda Odyssey is a 2011 and has about $100K miles and needs about $6500 in work (not an accident, just maintenance or replacement of parts--leaking axle, etc).
At this point in a car's life do you invest the money or buy again? A new car Odyssey (or similar) would be around $37K minus the value of the current one (TBD).
What do you personally do with cars when they reach this point? (7+ years in, 100K miles) Or what would you do here?

[Anonymous]

What's the kbb value of the car?

[Anonymous]

What would your financing payment be with the new car? I would have a hard time paying in repairs the equivalent of more than 1 year of car payments, unless you were fairly sure that those repairs were a one-time thing and you were going to get many more good years out of it. $6500 is a LOT on repairs.

[Anonymous]

New one if you can afford it. The problem is you put that in and it doesn't fix anything, then what? We just put a few thousand in my car and still having issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our Honda Odyssey is a 2011 and has about $100K miles and needs about $6500 in work (not an accident, just maintenance or replacement of parts--leaking axle, etc).
At this point in a car's life do you invest the money or buy again? A new car Odyssey (or similar) would be around $37K minus the value of the current one (TBD).
What do you personally do with cars when they reach this point? (7+ years in, 100K miles) Or what would you do here?

That's really unusual for a low-mileage Honda.

[Anonymous]

You should buy a new car.

[Anonymous]

I would not invest that much money in a used car. I would buy a three year old used car coming off lease from a reputable dealer ideally certified pre-owned with 25,000 miles or less. You will pay about 60% of a new car price.

[Anonymous]

You should find a new mechanic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should find a new mechanic.

X2. A 6 year old Honda shouldn't need anywhere near that amount of work.

[Anonymous]

Get a second opinion on your car without telling them about the problems. If the second opinion is the same as the first, I would get a new car. Honda is known for reliability. This van is not reliable and is a money pit.
Save the $6500 for a down payment or 1 year of payments.

[Anonymous]

Use Checkbook to find a decent mechanic near you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get a second opinion on your car without telling them about the problems. If the second opinion is the same as the first, I would get a new car. Honda is known for reliability. This van is not reliable and is a money pit.
Save the $6500 for a down payment or 1 year of payments.

+1

We have a 15 year old Toyota and the worst repair bill we had was $1200, once, when the car was about 12 years old. We are looking at another $1500-2000 repair this year and thinking about skipping it and going for the new car. For $6000 it wouldn't be a question. New car for sure.

[Anonymous]

$6k is only like a years worth of car payments. A few years back we spent $6k on a new engine for our minivan and it was money well spent. We didn’t regret it. Honda’s are good vehicles.

[Anonymous]

I would buy new...but Toyota. Sorry to see you faced with this decisin. Currently have 2004 Sienna with approx 110k miles and ZERO unscheduled maintenance to date....still runs like new. Used to be a Honda man, but Toyota still the best imho. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

I would not put $6K in a car with 100K worth of repairs.