To Repair or Not to Repair; That is the Question…

It’s not always easy to decide what to do about auto repair. As cars get older, sometimes repair costs can increase.  If one is staring at a possible repair bill of several thousand dollars, it’s unavoidable to consider your options and think about buying new, or possibly a newer used car.  If you put aside for a moment what a car salesman would say about “pride of ownership,” etc – there are a few other key considerations which really matter more when it comes to the cost of owning and maintaining a car.

Stop for a moment and think – is a new car an investment?  Is it an asset, or a liability.  If you have to go into further debt, that means it’s a liability.  If your insurance rates go up, it’s a liability.  New cars decline in value by up to 15% the moment you drive it off the lot.  It does not stop there. They further decline in value by 15-20% each year during the first half of its useful life.  If you do the math, it just doesn’t make financial sense.

Knowing that we lose money when we purchase a vehicle, the objective now becomes, how do we minimize our losses? It’s simple.  Buy a car with the intention of driving it for many, many years. Hold on to your car longer, and maximize the life of your vehicles by repairing it as needed. Take care of your car, and it will take care of you.

It has been proven over and over again that this approach will save you many hundreds of thousands of dollars over your car buying lifetime – even if you include an ample budget for automotive repairs.