[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by ApK

This has long been my approach.

I can't see starting with something inherently unreliable, or too much of an unknown quantity. Heck, my LIFE may be riding on this thing, never mind getting to work on time.

One nice thing is that cars have gotten better built and more reliable. I credit the Japanese automakers for a lot of that. They recognized that quality was critical, and built quality cars. Detroit found out the hard way they were right as US buyers began selecting Japanese cars because they were better built and more reliable.

And current vehicles are far smarter. If the car has an issue, the mechanic can plug in to a diagnostic port and the car states what its problem is.

(I know folks who do things like hook logic analyzers to the car's internal bus and capture and decode messages being sent on the car's internal network.)

It's not all sweetness and light. A friend was given a used car by a relative, and spent several grand getting it fixed and usable. It worked fairly well, but had quirks, like a part that failed and needed replacement, but the part was specific to that model and year, and no longer made. Her mechanic had to go online and search for a part from a same model junker that could be used.

Her current car developed a quirk on a trip upstate, where a panel on the front undercarriage came lose and was dragging on the ground. It was essentially a plastic shield extending from the front bumper under the engine. She took it to a nearby Monroe shock absorber outlet. The mechanics jacked it up, removed the pieces, and said "You'd have to go back to the dealer, order the new part, wait for it to come in, and likely pay a lot to get it installed. The car will run just fine without it. We wouldn't bother getting it fixed." "Sounds got to me. What do I owe you?" "No charge for 5 minutes work. Have a nice day."

It's only now, at 14 years and nearly 200,000 miles that "the ground" is in view, and I have to start questioning the value of repairs.
(I'm opting for the used tranny, by the way, should hopefully be done by Friday...it's what my mechanic said he would do, and I have been given no reason to doubt him over the years.)

And 14 years and 200K miles is what I mean by reliable and run into the ground. The used tranny your mechanic recommends sounds like a better option than replacing the car.

For household appliances, I'm all for not letting things go to waste, and I'm generally pretty good with mechanical and electrical stuff (other than engines), as long as the repairs don't have to look pretty when I'm done, and I really WANT to fix stuff and not live such a disposable lifestyle, but as I get older, I'm starting to follow the path of least resistance. Plus I'm getting tired of clutter, and if something is sitting in my garage, waiting to be fixed for a year, it probably needs to get out of my life.

I'll pay to have appliances fixed professionally when appropriate, but with the poor quality of repair services I've been seeing, plus the cost, considering the general low quality of consumer stuff, out-of-warranty repair is seeming appropriate less and less often.

We have an air conditioner in a front window that gets replaced about every two years. It's on 24/7, as the air cleaning function may be the most critical use. (My SO is asthmatic, and needs it.) When we buy a replacement, we get offered a replacement warranty, where the retailer's service folks will come and repair or replace it, and we decline. The retailer is in walking distance, and it's faster to just buy a new one, bring it home, and I install it.
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Dennis