Is the car worth fixing?

[Jazzy]

Is it ever worth it fixing a car when the repair costs are more than what the car is worth? (Why/Why Not)

 

[Lamb]

Normally I'd say No, but because of the pandemic, new cars were having problems with production because people weren't going in to work. So the used cars were being bought quickly and there weren't many available to purchase. If I had a car that needed more work than the value and there weren't many used cars to replace it or if I couldn't even buy a new one because there weren't enough available, I'd definitely repair the vehicle I knew was at least reliable to some degree.

 

[tango]

Is it ever worth it fixing a car when the repair costs are more than what the car is worth? (Why/Why Not)

It depends on the car and the nature of the repair.

In general I'd lean towards probably not, but if you've got a car worth next to nothing it's still cheaper to fix it than to buy another car. Throw in the rising price of new and used cars and it's easier to justify spending to keep an existing car going. When I lived in the city I hardly used my car at all - I did maybe 2000 miles in a year in it - so it wasn't worth buying a newer car. The car was worth more as a collection of spare parts than as a car, and I accepted that most years I'd have to put a few hundred into it to keep it running properly. At the time it was only worth a few hundred, but I just paid the repair bills because I didn't want to drop a few thousand on another car that wouldn't get used any more.

Of course if you don't have the means to buy a new car it's not really much of a decision - you pay the repair bill or you need to find some other way to get around.