Comments on: WWYD: Repair, Upgrade, or Buy New?

By: Queercents » Blog Archive » Upgrading to Vista? Make Sure it’s Worth It

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:42:27 +0000

[...] configuration. I built my system to some very high specifications (64 bit dual core processor and 3 gigs of RAM) which weren’t supported by my 32 bit version of XP Pro. Vista eats up some of those performance [...]

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By: Queercents » Blog Archive » Sleeping with Money: Buying New Cars

Queercents » Blog Archive » Sleeping with Money: Buying New Cars — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:56:20 +0000

[...] decision making process of whether to invest money in more maintenance or just take the dive and buy a new car. Needless to say, Kim decided it was time to buy something new especially since she didn’t [...]

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By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:51:54 +0000

I had a Toyota Echo that I bought in 2000 - it had about $140K miles on it, and I had paid it off in 2005. I did routine maintenance on it: oil changes every 3-4K miles, paid attention to tires, etc. I had a couple of minor things to fix/replace over the years, but certainly I spent no more than $600 or so total on non-maintenance activities. Then in April I had an accident and had to get a new car. I ended up getting the new Honda Civic (which is OK) - but I loved my Echo. The head and leg room was amazing, it got 35 mpg if you drove 70-80 mph, and you could stretch it to 40 mpg if you drove 65 mph or so. They stopped making the car in 2004, and replaced it with the Yaris. I would say look into a 2003 or 2004 Echo if you end up going with a used car. As long as they've been well-maintained, there's no reason they shouldn't be in great shape. I intended to keep mine at least another 5-10 years (or as long as it ran).

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By: Debbie

Debbie — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:54:04 +0000

Actually it's not just a choice between repairing and replacing. There's also doing without, finding a replacement, borrowing or renting when needed, and probably more I'm not thinking about. Interestingly, I also have an old Civic I'm not fond of (1991: automatic seat belts, you need two hands to lock the driver's side door when you leave, and other annoyances). Normally I would just suck it up and hang onto it until it's dead (many, many more years, I'm afraid), but the AC cannot be fixed to work in 99-degree weather, which we have for two months every year. This means my boyfriend won't ride in it, which means we ride in his gas-guzzling truck instead; that's no good. Replacing the AC with a modern one is very complicated and thus expensive and thus financially stupid. So I'm looking into getting another car, though I really hate car shopping. (A 2000 Civic with less than 100,000 miles on it sound good to me, even if it is maintenance time!) Normally when something is no longer working the way I like, first I spend way too long dealing with it in its annoying state. Then I often re-evaluate whether I even need such a thing at all. (With the car, I've gone without a car for years, but I much, much, much prefer having one if I can do it affordably.) I try to think what the item helps me achieve and try to think of whether I still want to do those things. I try to brainstorm all the ways I can achieve those goals and then evaluate the pros and cons of each choice. I kind of do this with little things, too. Like I keep wearing holes in my socks. I do still want to have socks, but do I keep buying them from the same place? Is it because I like my shoes loose? Because my favorite store is getting worse socks and I should buy more expensive ones? Finally I think it's because I started getting all cotton or mostly cotton--now I'm going to make sure there's something stronger in there, too.

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By: plonkee

plonkee — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:49:21 +0000

A Honda Civic is a compact car! I'd have put that at mid-sized myself. Things are different on the other side of the Atlantic.

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By: Larry Lennhoff

Larry Lennhoff — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:00:33 +0000

Have you considered buying a keyboard and monitor for your laptop? A docking station is nice but not strictly necessary. I have this problem with a $400 TV that stopped working shortly after it went out of warranty. The repair shop wanted $100 to look at it, plus the cost of parts and labor if there was anything they could do about it. I dithered for a long time and wound up buying a used TV for $25 off of a local community mailing list. In general, IMHO new cars only make financial sense if you are going to keep them for their full usable lifetime (as I have done with my 1997 Outback). Some people say there is a sweet spot at the 2 year old mark, as many leased cars become available at that time. I've only purchased one factory fresh car (which I still have) - the others were all used models and were perfectly acceptable. I didn't have any of them for 10 years though until the Outback.

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