Buy a new car or keep driving an old car?

Is the car paid off?

If what you're driving isn't paid off, the bank owns your car and not you. The first step here is to get some financial relief. Find out exactly how much left you owe on your car loan, then start calling other banks and credit unions. One of them should be able to refinance your loan even if your credit is total garbage since what you're doing is bringing an asset to the table, that being the car itself.

When you do get some fiscal relief and can afford some repairs, tackle some of the biggies listed below.

Does the car have fixable problems?

An example of an unfixable problem is a leaking sunroof. All car sunroofs leak. Every single one of them. If the roof leaks, get rid of the car. Most auto glass shops won't touch a leaking roof because it will just start leaking again, so it's not even worth attempting to fix.

Another example of an unfixable problem is any frame damage. Once a car frame gets bent (such as from hitting a curb way too hard,) that can't be fixed.

And yet another example of an unfixable problem is door damage. If a door on the car gets slammed into something (such as those posts next to gas pumps at the gas station) and something is bent so it never shuts right after that, that's unfixable. Even if you replace the door, it will never latch correctly. Again, unfixable.

Published 2020 Sep 22

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