Right now we have a 2002 Ford Focus (Which if you look at the lemonaid book says not to buy used. MMM also mentioned not a good used buy) Right now for everyday driving this car is fine for our needs. In October we are expecting our second child. This is where my problem comes in. When we had our first child we had to put the baby car seat behind the passenger side seat as we could not put it behind the drivers seat and be able to drive the car. To put the baby car seat behind the passenger seat the passenger seat had to be put all the way forward. My knees would then be hitting the front console (I am only 5' 3"). If my husband was in the passenger seat his knees would be around his chest. At the time of our first child we put up with this arrangement because we didn't want to buy a new car and had no money to buy another one even if we had wanted to.
But now that we are expecting a 2nd child and I really don't want to spend another year cramped into our car. We currently have saved up $22k especially for a new car(We live in Ontario, Canada - this is what a new Hyundai Elantra would cost with tax etc.). I was thinking a Hyundai Elantra. I haven't acutally sat in this car yet and tried it out, but it seems to get good reviews and seems like a slightly bigger car then what we have and a new car has a 5 year warranty.
Our current car is getting very rusty around the bottom, the heat needs to be fixed and the struts need to be replaced. Otherwise this car has not needed too many repairs and is reliable. Other than power locks our car has no features. No air conditioning, no ABS, crank windows.
Question:
Should we keep our car and get it fixed?
Should we go ahead and buy a new car? Brand new with 5 years warranty or get 2/3 year old car with less warranty?