...And now for something completely different

It's amazing how you take a break or get caught up in life then realize that your goal of writing on a blog each day hasn't happened in quite a while. I thought it had been a few days since I was here last and just noticed its been close to a week.
 In a deviation from my normal course of comics and groovy old ads, I decided to talk about my experience buying a new(er) car this week. I was fortunate to find a pretty honest (shocking I know) and pleasant to deal with car salesman. We decided it is time to upgrade the family truckster to something with more room but didn't want to break the bank. After searching for a reasonable vehicle with miles that don't look like the space shuttle's altimeter we finally found one close to home at a local dealership. At the initial test drive, the wiper motor went out and of course it was raining like it was about to flood that day. The wife decided that she kind of liked the car but wasn't comfortable with the wiper problem. We decided to look around and then went back to test drive it after the wipers were fixed. To make a long story short we ended up buying the vehicle that we first looked at.
 Well this brings me to the subject of today's post. We currently find ourselves with 3 vehicles, 2 drivers and no car payments. Both of our older cars have had the engines replaced about 4 and 5 years ago and have been running great. Buying a newer car has really made me question the "value" of buying a new or newer car unless you really need to. My car had 212k miles on it when I got it 4 years ago, at 214k the head gasket blew out and the option was repair it or for a couple of hundred more replace the engine with a remanufactured engine. That was a pretty no brainer option to deal with. The total investment in repairs for my car was a whopping $1900, add to that the purchase price (I did get a great deal from a friend who practically gave me the car) and I'm sitting at close to $2000. I've put about 20k miles on my car in the past 4 years and even though the odometer reads 236k it still runs and handles great.
 My point is when it comes time for a major repair take a long hard look at the cost of a new(er) vehicle versus the repair costs of the existing one. Back several years I traded my car in because the repair bill was about $1500 and it was only worth about $500, resulting in a fat payday for the car salesman and a car loan of $15,000 for me. Not to mention the increased cost of insuring my car on top of the montly car payment. Just because your car may not look as nice as some of those out there, keep in mind how much you can save on car payments, interest and insurance costs over the life of the loan for a new vehicle rather than repairing a reliable trusty car.
 In the case of having vehicles you no longer need, consider someone you know who may need the help that a reliable vehicle can make for them. It may make the difference between getting to work or taking care of their family and not being able. I would love to sell my car and recoup the investment I have in the engine repairs, but hanging onto it for a bit longer may be more sensible. After all it won't be that much longer that my 2 year old will be asking to borrow my keys and 20 bucks to go out.