Good point about the Craigslist strategy,
@rothwem.
Yeah, the Matrix broke my heart and I'm still not over it. It was a manual transmission and it had been making a lot of sad noises for quite a while. Finally it stopped being capable of shifting gears. It coasted to a stop on the side of the road, where we parked it. Our mechanic friend came by to take a look, and he said the only thing to do was replace the transmission, which would be ~$2500. Then we had it towed home. THEN it magically revived, so my husband took it to a transmission shop, who said nothing was wrong with it that they could see. THEN my husband drove it over the Pali (a very steep mountain pass) and it was making all kinds of weird noises and not wanting to shift gears. He drove it home without incident and said we might as well sell it while it's still drive-able because we'd get a little more money that way. Sold it to a mechanic who flips cars for $550.
I kind of wanted to just try to repair it even if the repair would cost $2500, since the engine was just fine, but husband vetoed because he's in the camp that says it doesn't make economic sense to spend more on a repair than a car is worth.
I am heartbroken because that Matrix was supposed to last at least another five years.
Anyway, it's gone so there's nothing to do but find a new car. We have about $14000 cash in our slush fund, which exists to replace cars and large appliances, so we're not too concerned about having to put ~$6k into a car. We're also planning on paying ~$2500 for a living trust this month, and we like to keep enough on hand to replace two big things at once if necessary, so $6k is about our limit on this.
Again, we only drive our cars about 5k-8k miles/year, but we do need two cars right now because of the logistics of our commutes with two little kids.
