Scrap it or repair it in today's market?

Maestroc

My wife and I are arguing over this and need honest impartial opinions from people that know more about car repair than us… My son’s very used 2007 Malibu got ran over a curb and the repair shops are quoting me between $1600-2600 to repair it. Obviously with 190k miles on it it isn’t worth it. However, in today’s used car market I feel like I am screwed either way. We can only afford to spend around $4K max if we buy something else and with the market so inflated I doubt we will be able to find anything that I would consider reliable for $3k in the used market.

My thought is that at least if we put $2k into the repair we know what we have. Maybe we will have to put another 1K into it over the next year for other stuff but we can probably work with that. The unknown is if we buy something used that we know nothing about and might have other issues that are going to cost even more over the rest of the car’s life.

My wife wants to sell and buy used. I am leaning towards keeping it and repairing it…

What would you do if you were in this position and with used cars selling for so god awful high? Would you repair it or scrap it for $300 (that was the best offer we got for it) and try to find something used?

My sincere thanks for any input you might have…

au1994

Thats quite a delta on the repair estimates but if you can keep it close to that bottom end, fix it. In any other market it would not make sense but I shudder the think what you would get at $3-4k in this market.

xwesx

Agreed. If you know the current vehicle, and it is in generally good condition aside from the collision damage, you are going to be better off than buying something at 3-4K. Worst case, you'll be in the same place, but you're still spending half of what the other car would cost you (not including titling fees, etc.).

The fix is the way to go on this one.

oldfarmer50

I think the most important thing to consider is how well taken care of was this car before the damage. 190k miles is a lot if the car wasn’t well cared for. Assuming good maintenance for it’s entire life I’d say go ahead with the repairs. As you noted yourself, you’ll never get anything else decent for $3,000.

I recently spent $2500 repairing my kid’s 2010 Fusion for that very reason. My rule of thumb would be can you expect to get 10k more miles out of the car for every $1,000 you spend.

jipster

Ran over a curb? What kind of damage was done? $1,600-$2,600 would seem like minor damage if just body work needed. So, I would repair only what was absolutely needed, and tell son a few dents never hurt anybody.