Reply to When do you stop putting money into a car?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I should really know things like this, but this is only the 2nd car I've ever owned and I only had the last one for 3 years before I got married and my H was too tall to fit in it without putting the seat all the way back so I sold it.

In any event, it's a 12 year old car. It has 81k miles on it. At present we drive it roughly 4000 miles a year.

I just took it in today because the check engine light came in. The repair is necessary and ran around $650 with part and labor.  It won't pass inspection with the current issue since the engine light is on, so I had to do this repair regardless.

We've lucked out and the car has needed minimal maintenance over its life - just standard filters, oil/fluid changes, tires when they wore down, a couple new batteries, etc.

I could likely sell it for around $3000-3500 based on the mileage and condition, trade in would obviously be lower.

Today's check up showed that [b]the front tires will need to be replaced within a year and the spark plugs are wearing down and will also need to be replaced within a year. [/b]

We are clearly not car people, but I'm wondering at what point it becomes silly to put in money. The tires and spark plugs would likely run us another $700-$800. And I'm a little nervous at this point that now that the car is so old and such things are going to keep creeping up and it's just going to be throwing good money after bad.  At the same time, the idea of getting a new car when we drive it so little also seems silly. We have 2 young children and one side of the family is out of state so we drive to them a couple times a year. Not having a car at all makes me nervous with the small children.

Thoughts?[/quote]

Do you trust your mechanic? When was your tire replaced? How does he know your plugs need to be replaced?? at only 4k per year, i highly doubt "need to replace within a year". [/quote]

We've been going to the same place for years, as I said, up to this point we've only had very routine maintenance.  Our tires were last replaced 6 years ago. They are only recommending the front tires, they have 3/32 left on the tread depth. I know nothing about spark plugs, they said they were worn and they've never said that before. [/quote]

Spark plugs need to be replaced every 80K miles. It's literally a $150 job, so simple and cheap.

If you want a new car, then just go buy one. But rationalizing a car purchase based on worn out spark plugs is just dumb.[/quote]

The mechanic quoted me $586 to replace spark plugs and wires. Should I seek a second opinion on that? I'm not trying to justify buying a new car. I'm hesitant to spend $586 on spark plugs and wires. [/quote]
Think of it as a running car for less than $600, if that helps. [/quote]

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